Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, April 25, 1921
MLA Citation
Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982. “Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, April 25, 1921.” Digital Gallery. BGSU University Libraries, 31 Mar. 2023, digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41478. Accessed 15 Feb. 2025.
Share
Tags
Title | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, April 25, 1921 |
---|---|
Subject | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Women missionaries--Correspondence | |
Missions--Egypt | |
Protestant churches--Missions--Egypt | |
Presbyterians--Egypt--Correspondence | |
Egypt--Church history | |
Christianity--Egypt | |
Missions to Muslims--Egypt | |
Egypt--Description and travel | |
Description | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family in Ohio in which she describes her missionary life in Cairo, as well as the health and activities of her peers. In this letter, she describes her first series of examinations in Arabic and provides some examples of a western notation system for the language. |
Creator | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Source | Dora E. Giffen papers; MS-0309; Center for Archival Collections; University Libraries; Bowling Green State University |
Date | 1921-04-25 |
Rights | |
Format | Correspondence |
application/pdf | |
Language | eng |
Identifier | ms00309_b001_f002_i00022.pdf |
https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41478 | |
Is Referenced By | https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/repositories/4/resources/1425 |
Spatial Coverage | Cairo (Egypt) |
Type | Text |
1) 45 Faggala, Cairo Monday, April 25, 21 Dearest Family: I have an hour and a half in which to write to you before supper and in that time I surely ought to finish this letter to you so that Abdu, our cook, can take it with him to mail when he leaves immediately after supper. I had meant to write last Sat. morning but instead spent the time in practicing over some Pub. Speaking selections. Miss Acheson wants me to go out to the Girl's College sometime in May and give some readings, so I want to keep practicing on several in order that my audience will not be too badly stung. Perhaps sometime, after having given an evening of shorter readings, I may have an opportunity to give “A Message from Mars.” Whenever opportunity affords I want to keep reviewing it. It will be good for me even if it is hard on others, for I find that to put my mind on that for a little time gives a pleasant little relief from work that is not quite so pleasant, at least to me. Our exams went off all right last week. I did not mind them in the least altho I am not expecting to pull off any very excellent grades. Some of the others got excited and thought they did “terribly.” I think probably that none of us performed very brilliantly in the Conversation test. On Wed. A.M. at 8 o'clock those of us who were taking the first term exam arrived at the C.S.C. We were Clarice, Avis, Edna Sherriff, Mr. and Mrs. Petrie, Mr. and Mrs. Norton, Miss Banister (C.M.S.) and myself. The Galts are not taking it. R. G. has been having a good deal of outside work connected with the University. And Mr. McGeoch is not very brilliant in languages, as Willard will remember, for he was in our Latin classes in the Academy for three years while doing regular college works in other subjects. Mr. Elder felt that Mr. Norton was not ready for the exam, either, so suggested that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Norton take the exam, but they went ahead and took it. The first thing that had to be performed before the examiners (who were Mr. Elder, Mr. Adams, and Cannon Gairdner, and one or two sheikhs), was the recitation of the “Prodigal Son” in Darig, paying special attention to correctness of enunciation and intonation. After that was over we were again taken, each one in his or her turn, before the judges and drilled for fifteen minutes in conversation. We were asked anything and everything under the sun and were supposed to give intelligent answers. However the examiners were really very fair. It was about eleven-thirty when we began to stage our little dialogues and we really had quite a good deal of fun in giving them before the small audience that we had. I think I told you before that our dialogues were just conversations selected from different chapters in our “Colloquial Arabic” textbook. We had to learn our parts off. I was the little boy, Ali, and had twenty-eight speeches, none of them long, the longest being only twenty-five words. We all dressed as nearly like the characters we were representing as we could. I hardly know how they would grade a performance of that kind. We had no exams on Wed. P.M. so Clarice and I borrowed Mrs. Quay’s and Esther Wilson's wheels and rode out to Uncle Johns and had a nice visit with them and Uncle Kellys. Mr. Hickman of Assiut was at our house for dinner on Wed. We had no exams on Thurs. A.M but in the afternoon at four o'clock we had our “Translations” - 10 questions from Arabic to English, 10 questions from English to Arabic, and 10 questions of Arabic to English made-up of words that we had not previously had. Then on Fri. morning at eight we had our Grammar test (written works also) and while in the midst of it we stopped long enough to take some Arabic dictation (Gairdner script), which was quite easy. I will give you here one of my speeches in Gairdner script, “ja ‘ammi,’ ‘inta wa’attini ‘innak taxudna tifarraqna ‘ad darawi: fi l mu: lid.” Can you make anything out of it? This (r) is an ein(E) and this (‘) a hemza. A line thur a g makes a gein and one thru and a makes it broad. Two dots after a vowel makes the vowel long. Plain h is “hay” and a line through h is haw. The heavy letters sod, dod, taw, and zaw also have lines thru them this way – This mark -S is made to stand for sh. X is hta. Mr. Elder wanted a picture of the three sets of people that were over at the C.S.C. taking exams on Friday morning. Since mine is a postcard size camera he asked me if I would take some pictures of the crowd. Clarice and I got through before the others and so got my camera and the others stopped long enough to have their picture taken. The pictures came out very well and as soon as I have some more prints made I will send you one. Clarice took one of the pictures and Mrs. Elder took two others for us. The First, Second, and Third term people were all taking their written works (at least part of it) on last Friday. A new schedule has been made for us. The Petries, Clarice, and myself are in one class, and Avis, Edna, and the Nortons are in another. We will miss Avis but of course it will be easier for her to have most, if not all, of her classes over at Esbekiyeh with the others from there. I am to continue having the same teachers. We are counted “Second Termers” now and our next exam will come sometime next October. Tues. 4:15 P.M. Here I was interrupted yesterday eve, and after supper was busy with some other things, so got no writing done then. I imagine though that this will reach you as soon if sent tonight as if sent last night. I have been having classes today but none of the others of our house, except Clarice, have been taking any lessons this week. They don't expect to start lessons until after Shem il Nasim, which comes next Monday. Ramedan comes in about two weeks. I think 3) that neither Clarice nor I will take lessons tomorrow because we are moving tomorrow morning over into the Quay’s flat. Mr. Quay has moved most of their things; - had some shayaleen come this morning. He has been having his hands full. Mrs. Quay took sick on Sabbath and has been running a temperature of 103 degrees most of the time since then with something like grippe. Miss Weed went down to Mansourah last Sat. to spend a week, so we put Mrs. Quay in her room Mon. morning and Lucia Dwight did most of the taking care of Bobby. But in the evening they decided it would be best to take Mrs. Quay over to the Clelands, so last night the Elders occupied Weed’s room and will be here until tomorrow, when they leave for Alexandria. The Elders go to Naples in the same boat with Uncle Kelly on Thurs. of this week. Uncle Kelly and Auntie Grace left today. I did have such a nice time at Uncle Johns from Sat. eve until yesterday morning. Because Clarice’s S. S. Class party lasted for so long I did not reach Uncle Johns until almost seven Sat. night. (We did have a very nice time with her (Clarice’s) class. Edna Henry, Frank's oldest child, and Helen McClenahan were here. They are quite good friends and very interesting girls. Helen was saying that her brother William was very much in the notion of working his way across to Egypt this summer in order to have a little visit with his family.) Mr. Russell from Assiut was at Uncle John’s for supper Sat. and again for dinner on Sabbath. We had no Sabbath School at Darb il Ibrahim on last Sabbath because it was Palm Sunday and the native teachers would not be there; so I stayed out at Uncle Johns all day, coming in for services in the evening. I did enjoy the time spent with Uncle Kelly and Auntie Grace. They are such dear people. I took both theirs and Uncle Johns pictures, which I hope will come out all right. They came in to our Faggala House for dinner yesterday and brought with them two pretty white ostrich feathers for me, which I appreciate very much. Aunt Elizabeth had a little attack of indigestion on Sat. from something she had eaten at Barbaris’ the night before, but she was better in the morning yesterday. Before I came back to Faggala yesterday morning, she, Uncle John, Edna, and myself took an hour’s walk into the desert. But she was down in bed yesterday afternoon and today went to the Hospital with an attack of dysentery. I don't think she is seriously sick, but she has so very little vitality. Because our new schedule had not been posted I stayed out at Abbassia until after ten o'clock yesterday, only to come in and find that Clarice had been going to classes. However the Petries have not been in from Heliopolis either yesterday or today. Clarice expects to meet miss Helen Ferrier at Fayoum on Friday of this week and then to go with her to Beni Suef next week. She is taking two weeks of her “month’s visiting” with the natives, now. I have fully decided not to take mine until next fall. Both Avis and Edna Sherriff went down to Tanta immediately after exams. They 4) left on Friday afternoon and are spending a week or more in Tanta Hospital. Avis was completely worn out, so Doctor Whitcomb told her that she must go down to the Hospital for a complete rest. And Edna is having a slight return of some trouble she had two years ago. Now is a good time for them both to get on their feet again. Miss Hamilton, from the Ezbekiyeh Boys’ School, went down to Tanta last week and on Thursday was operated on. The doctors found a growth on her breast to be cancerous and the operation proved to be quite a serious one. At present writing she seems to be doing well, but if she gets well enough to travel the doctors say she must go home to America immediately. Poor woman! When such a thing gets started it is hard to stop. Her sister, Florence White's mother, died within two weeks after an operation for cancer. Mrs. Whiteside, who came out with us last fall to visit her daughter in Luxor, stopped in Cairo last week with Miss Walker. Both were on the way to Alexandria, where they took a steamer for America, on last Sat. They went with the Works. Clarice and I went over to Mrs. Harvey’s and made a short call on them last Thurs. morning. I don't think Mrs. Whiteside likes Egypt. I would not either if I had nothing to do. Miss Rena also passed through here last week on her way home to Scotland. I did not get to see her but I hear that she is not at all strong yet. I hope Scotland does her lots of good. Sara Adair’s birthday was last Thurs., so on Friday evening we invited her and Miss Acheson over and had a nice birthday party. I am going home with Sara from prayer meeting, day after tomorrow, to spend the night with her. I had an invitation to go to a Piano Recital out at the College on last Thurs. but had to decline it on account of exams. I would have liked to have gone. Annie Kyle came to Cairo again last week to stay until sometime next week when she is sailing for Italy. She is expecting to spend the summer in Europe. I hear that she may come back to Egypt again next winter, - all this before going back to the U.S. She and Miss Rummage, her companion, are to be at our house all night on Friday. Mother, thank you so much for sending my Church Letter. Since it is dated March, 1921, I think that I will not put it in to the Faggala Congregation until next fall. I expect to write and tell you in my next letter what I would like to have sent out. I am quite tickled about Martin's part in the Play. Only wish I could see him perform. I wish I could get a copy of the “Gold Bug” someplace in order to read it. It is too bad that so many Peaches were killed. I rather think it's strange that the Askren boys had not previously joined the church. But still I suppose they are younger than I had thought of them (as) being. Willard's suggesting getting me some music leads me to say that nothing would please me more. It was very thoughtful of him to think of it. I received a letter from Frances last week, which I enjoyed. She was saying she appreciated so much Mother’s donations to her. I have not heard from Gladys for an age. I suppose she is tired of carrying on a one-sided correspondence. I certainly am not blessed with a love for writing letters. Now lots and lots of love to you all from Dora. P.S. I am sending some pictures which I thot perhaps you might like to see. Dora. |