Cairo, Egypt
Global Semester

Friday, October 14, 1994

Dear Parents and Friends:

	Two days ago students took my six-page illustrated exam on
ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic Art and they did very well!
Yesterday was reading day for Dr. Swanson's history course and this
a.m. was exam time. It took some serious study because the whole grade
was based on one test. Everyone confesses that much was learned
through a dozen group tours to monuments and museums, plus 31 lectures
of 60 to 90 minutes each. This is an exploring group which got out in
small bunches to the palace walks, mosques, city of the Dead Mausolea,
and Khan el Khali-Li which is truly a bazaar tangle of people, shops
and animals.

	This is a delightful coterie of young people, so Jackie and I
are thrilled! They made friends with two students at the A.U.C. who
invited the group to their private home in the suburb of Hellopolis
where they spread a sumptuous feast. The boys' mother, who is a
doctor, also showed Jackie how to belly-dance.

	Ann Ogdahl, Nancy O'Neal and Beth Truesdale sang the round of
"Amazing Grace" at 9:30 a.m. services on Friday and Sunday at
St. Andrews Church, a few blocks from our hotel. It is a very old
church staffed by two Lutheran seminary graduates whose ministry is
primarily to Ethiopian refugees and African seminary
students. Services are in English so the small congregation is
diversified by expatriots, one of whom has been teaching church music
at the seminary here 60 years. Another is Dr. William Janzen, a
Canadian scholar doing research on the Middle Eastern Christian Church
and its work among Arabs in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and
Egypt. He has his work cut out for him!

	Student scholars have been a great success with their
presentations: Ann Ogdahl led off with her report on the third Great
(but smallest) Pyramid of Giza built by Mycerinos (2530 BCE) after
which we climbed down into the burial chambers. The outside was clad
in dazzling polished granite of which little is still around. Then
Katie Ness took us to the Great Sphinx of Chephren (2550 BCE) which
stands guard over the second largest pyramid. We all got to see this
"apotropaic" sculpture without scaffolding (well, except for the right
haunch) and in the brilliant noon time sun, it is magnificent. The
next day Kevin Hedrick led us out into the desert to the step pyramid
of Zoser (2680 BCE), which was designed by the architect Imhotep to
climb in six steps to a height of 204 feet.

 	In Luxor, Ben Wilkey found King Tut's tomb and told us about
how he did it. It is smaller than Bill Clinton's Oval Office but was
packed with more than 5,000 items-for an 18 year old kid, that was
quite the collection!--most of which is in the Cairo Museum. Ben gave
his report at A.U.C. and we then went to the museum to write an
aesthetic response to one of Tutankhamun's treasures. Ryan Bibro gave
us his scholarly report on relief carvings and wall paintings as we
wound our way through tombs and temples, then concluded with a summary
of what we had seen. Aaron Oberman helped with hieroglyphics as we
went along and also presented his paper in the A.U.C. classroom with
an illustrated lecture. Corky Jakacki had the difficult task of
teaching us about the Mosques of Cairo. They are complex spaces with
symbolic parts, but the biggest challenge was to figure out what a
"squinch" is. We thought it meant four Oles getting on an elevator
with all their luggage, but it is the commonly accepted term for the
triangular transition between a Dome and the Squared Arches and Piers
that support it (in Islamic Architecture). The Byzantine Equivalent is
a "pendentive."

	By the time you receive this, we hope to be tucked in at the
Ecumenical Christian Center near Bangalore in southern India. Everyone
is looking forward to a rural retreat after our warm days in the
teeming city. The massive impact of a second completely different
culture is about to hit, and we are ready! The phones and fax at
E.C.C. work locally but not well at all overseas, so plan to write
lots, instead of calling!

Love to all from Global!

Mac and Jackie Gimse