Letter from Dora Giffen to her brother Williamson Martin Giffen, December 5, 1921

1)
“The Witness,”
Near Mahameed, Upper Egypt.
Monday, Dec. 5, 1921

Dear Martin:
I will have to ask your pardon for being so late in writing your birthday letter. The past two or three weeks have been rather strenuous, so as a result I have allowed some things to drop. Here is wishing you many happy returns of the day.

Here I am on “The Witness.” Last Friday evening at eight o’clock I left Cairo and came straight thru to Luxor, getting there at nine fifteen the next morning. Mrs. Coventry, Clarice, and Betty Speer saw me off at the station at Cairo. I got into a “sittat” compartment with six others and some babies, and I had a fairly comfortable journey. Three of the ladies were very well-behaved but the well-behaved ones got out at or before Minia, leaving two fellahin women and myself to share the same compartment. Because I had plenty of room I could sleep a good deal of the night and so did not have to be conscious of what was going on.

Mr. and Mrs. Jamison and Edna Sherriff were at the station in Luxor to meet me. Then Edna and I left Luxor at ten in the morning and reached Mahameed at a little after twelve, where Mr. hart and some of the principal men of the village near which the Witness was anchored, came to meet us. We rested a few minutes, eating apples and biscuits in an ancient temple near the station, then we started out on a forty minutes’ walk thru the sand to the Nile. Reaching the east bank of the Nile we took the Witness’es little sail boat to the west bank where was the Witness. Where we are is between Edfu and Esna, - maybe Father knows where they are. One of the men who met us at the station as the native evangelist who has charge of the work in this immediate section and who lives in Edfu. His name is Moosa Tanyoos and his old home is in Mishta about two stations above Assiut. He knew you, Father. He says he met you in 1904. He seems a very earnest man and is doing a good work. On reaching the boat we found Mrs. Hart looking a little better than we had expected, altho she seems tired and not able to do much. She is taking good care of herself, however, and does not go out into the villages, only meeting the natives when they come to the dahabiyeh. After a little rest Saturday afternoon, Edna Sherriff and I went with Mrs. Hart to the nearby village to an evening service. I was interested in meeting the people but my heart almost stood still when I was asked to sing a verse of a psalm in Arabic by myself. Edna S. could not help because she does not sing. I went ahead and got thru with it in some shape by I warrant you the Egyptians did not understand their language. As yet I have studied the classical practically not at all. We begin 2) the classical this coming semester. However I know enough to read the first four chapters of John but not very fluently.

On Sabbath morning Edna and I had charge of the women’s meeting for two hours while Mr. Hart preached to the mend. Because of the Arabic that she had had to miss when she was in the hospital Edna did not feel free to do much talking so left most of that for me to do, and I tell you I was thankful for all that I had ever done at Khroonfish. But it was not as hard as it could easily have been. The sitting-room of the house in which the meeting was held was filled to overflowing with women and girls. I had taken my violin along and so, singing and playing at the same time, I tried to teach them some words of a psalm. But as one woman said, “We don’t know anything. We want to go to school. Sometimes I cry about it.” After the singing I started in to tell them of the Raising of Jairus’ Daughter. I used the simplest words that I knew and tried to bring home to them an easy lesson but I don’t think that they understood my Arabic. (My only consolation in not being understood was that down-country Arabic and up-country Arabic are not the same.) Before I had finished my story four clean, nice looking women came in and when shaking hands to use one of them said “Good morning.” We found that she had been in Luxor Girls’ School for seven years and that the other three women were her mother and two sisters. When I got thru with my story we asked this Sitt Faheema if she would not tell a story and she did not have to be asked a second time to do it. She did it willingly and told it very well and simply. Then after we had sung some more I asked her to lead in a closing prayer and she did that without any hesitation. The Harts were very glad to find a woman like her in this village. She is married. Her family have just recently moved to the village, and she will probably be able to do some good work.

When that meeting was over we two went over to the men’s meeting to play for their closing song, as Mr. Hart had asked us to do. Then afterwards we went to one of the native homes, where Mr. Hart gave another little message. Edna and I were asked to sing another song and I was asked to play my violin. I was tired when I reached the boat. Neither one of us went out to an afternoon meeting but took Mrs. Hart’s advice and stayed at home.

This morning after breakfast Mr. Hart took Edna and me across to see a very old city, over seven thousand years old, said to be one of the two oldest cities in Egypt. A good deal of the old wall is still standing and the ruins of the temple within were quite interesting.

When we got back to the boat Mr. Hart decided it would be best to go a little further down-stream, since he had a good deal of work to do in his study today and the people where we were just would not stay away from the boat. I hated to pull away from the place. Now we are at a place, seemingly far away from any habitation, and it is very nice and quiet here.

3) Tuesday morning.
I will finish this up before dinner and get it of this afternoon. Edna S. and I have been spending part of this morning getting ready for an afternoon’s meeting.

I am liking the boat very much. Edna and I expect to leave it about the sixteenth, go up to Assuan for a day, and return to Luxor on the seventeenth, where we will stay over Sabbath and then spend a day or two in sight seeing. Mrs. Jamison has invited me to stay with them. As I came through Assiut the other night I decided that I could not go back down-country without stopping there, so on about the twenty-first, Martin, I will be in Assiut for a day or two. I want to stop off in Beni Suef for a few hours and see Fay Ralph. (All of the girls are leaving for their new stations this week.) It will probably be the twenty fourth before I get back to Cairo. I have decided that there is not time enough for me to visit Fayoum on this trip. I want to go sometime this next Spring, probably after my third exam, since after exams I think one needs a little change. I am glad for this trip just at this time.

Edna and I are very comfortably located in a little room with a single bed apiece, plenty of drawer and ward-robe room, and running water. I think the Mission was very fortunate in being able to secure such a boat. The scenery along the Nile is so beautiful at this time of the year and we drink in all of it and the sunsets that we can.

I am enclosing a snapshot for you, Martin. Also some letters from Mrs. Hart that I thought perhaps Mother would like to see, and a card from Mrs. Finley which will explain itself. I expect to stop with the Finleys when I am in Assiut. Cousin Margaret has her hands too full, with boarders, etc.

When I get back to Cairo I will tell Mrs. Harvey, Mother, about the little visit you had from George Robinson. I was glad to receive a good letter from Frances. Yes, I have become accustomed to keeping things locked, which has to be done when there are three servants around and we occupy such a large house. I do have to go thru some-one-else’s room to get to mine. It is not hard on me but I can’t say as much of the other fellow. It was Evelyn’s room that I always went thru, - I kept the other door locked. Now since Evelyn is leaving, Helen Noordewier is taking that room.

No, I do not play my violin at Khroonfish. The singing there is something fierce, too. However I have my hands full enough as it is, and enough of a crowd comes already. If I were to play my violin it would likely attract some more children and I don’t know where we would put them if they came.

Mother, Miss Buchanan’s sickness in England, that Miss Walker was telling you about, just was a bad cold, that’s all, which was over by the time she reached Egypt.

I am wearing my new blue dress with white dots these days for the first time, and it is a most serviceable dress. I like the way it is made, too.

To go back to last week. Thursday afternoon I helped get the caste picked for the play alright. Then Thurs. evening the new girls gave the old girls a kid party, the invitation of which I am enclosing. Those present were just our family and Miss Cullen. We had a good time and, being kids, we played all sorts of strenuous games. Then the next morning at 8:30 Clarice and I had our oral examinations, clear out at the C.M.S. Hospital in Old Cairo. Our oral exams were in Conversation, Arabic Reading, Recital of a Committed Selection (which Clarice and I acted out to the amusement of the examiners. Clarice is a good mimicker), and the Delivery of a ten minute sermon to some children. In the afternoon, I packed to come here.

Love and kisses to all and an extra bunch for your birthday, Martin.
From, Dora.