Cairo to Kisumu

by Frank G. Carpenter

At Asyut up the Nile valley about as far south of the Mediterranean as Washington is south of Buffalo, the United Presbyterians of the United States have established a training college for young Egyptians which is doing a wonderful work. I came from Cairo to see it, winding my way in and out along the great river. The valley is narrow above Cairo, being only from three to nine miles in width, so that from the railroad I could see the yellow sand on both sides of the green, watered strip. We were sometimes far out in the desert, and sometimes moving in and out of the irrigated lands. We passed mud villages which border the river and the larger canals. The date trees hanging over them were loaded with honey-coloured fruit. Upper Egypt has vast numbers of dates. There are in the whole country something like eight million of these palms, which, at a rough estimate, bring in one dollar annually for every tree.

Asyut is the largest city in Egypt south of Cairo. It is the capital of this part of the Nile valley and the chief centre of its commerce and trade. Before the railroad was built, caravans from the Sudan brought great quantities of merchandise from Central Africa to Asyut and transferred it to other camel trains bound for Tripoli, Cairo, or Suez. The railroad now carries this trade, and the iron tracks have been extended southward beyond the city of Khartum. The gap in the railroad between Shellal and Wady Halfa is filled by steamers on the river.

Asyut itself has many good buildings. Not far from the railroad station are brick houses of two and three stories which would be considered fine anywhere. They are owned by Copts, who started life poor and have become millionaires. Most of the houses of the city are Egyptian in character, flat-roofed buildings of one, two, and three stories, facing the street. Many of them are new and substantially built. The bazaars are far better than when first I visited Asyut, and the town, which has now over fifty thousand people, is double the size it was then.

The Asyut Training College is a missionary institution, but it gives a good general education. It is run upon broad lines and has among its students Mohammedans, Copts, and other Christians. This is about the only one of our Protestant denominations that is working here, the other sects having apparently given up Egypt to it. This Church has mission stations scattered throughout the Nile valley, and schools not only in Lower and Upper Egypt but also in the Sudan, and even on the borders of Abyssinia. There are more than fifteen thousand boys now being taught in its various institutions. It is surprising that a large part of the money that the mission is spending upon education comes from the natives themselves. In one year over one hundred thousand dollars was spent, of which almost eighty thousand was subscribed by the Egyptians. Of the fifteen thousand in the schools, more than thirteen thousand are paying for tuition, so that the institutions are largely self-supporting. The Egyptians of to-day have learned the value of modern school training and are anxious to have their sons go to college. They want them taught English and are willing to pay something in order that they may get a good education.

I went through the college with its president, John Alexander, D.D., who has been in charge for almost a generation. To him it is largely due that it is the most successful institution of its kind in northern Africa. Dr. Alexander is by birth an Ohioan. He was educated at Wooster University and shortly after he left there he came to Egypt. He has lived here ever since and he knows the people and their wants as well as any man. He says that the natives are thoroughly alive to the advantages of modern education and that they could use more schools and better facilities than either the government or the mission can supply. He tells me that he has to refuse many applications for entrance to the training school for lack of room and that the college stands ready to erect new buildings as soon as it can raise the money. It has already bought twenty acres of land at the junction of the Nile and the great irrigating canal which runs from here to the Faiyum, and it now needs only an appropriation for additional buildings. My examination shows me that the institution is ably and economically managed, and I know of no place where any one of our rich men can better invest his surplus and have it pay big dividends in a charitable way than right here.

This college is conducted on the dormitory plan. The majority of its students live in the buildings and are continually under the eyes of their professors. The training partakes somewhat of a military character. The boys not only go to classrooms, but they have to attend chapel, weekly prayer meeting, and Sunday-school. They are also compelled to take part in college athletics. Twice a week they must engage in football and tennis and every effort is made to develop them as our boys are being developed. They study well and do good work on track and football field.

I should like to show you these Egyptian boys as I saw them to-day. There were seven hundred and thirty of them in the campus when I went through—bright-eyed, dark-faced young fellows, ranging in age from ten to twenty years and coming from every class of Egyptian life. Some were Mohammedans, the fatalistic, sober followers of the Prophet; others were Copts, having the bronze faces, the high cheekbones, and the black eyes which mark them as the descendants of those who oppressed the Israelites when Pharaoh ruled. All the students wear red fezzes that extend about eight inches above their heads and are kept on both in classroom and chapel. They wear long gowns, often belted in at the waist, and look more dignified than the college boy of America.

The students are of all classes and conditions. Many are working their way through school. There are three scales of expense, graduated according to the tables at which the boys eat. One class has a table where all have knives and forks and the food furnished is as good and as varied as can be found anywhere. This is for the rich, who can pay as much as one hundred dollars a year for room and board. The second table is filled by students who can afford to pay only fifty dollars a year, and the third by those who cannot spare more than thirty-five dollars a year. Of the students of the first class only two or three live in one room, and of the second from four to eight, while those of the third are lodged in large rooms accommodating twenty or thirty, each of whom has his own bed, which he furnishes himself.

The boys of the second class have simpler food than those of the first and eat with their fingers in native style. Those of the third class have still cheaper food, but in all cases it is as good as or better than the boys get at home, for here they have wheat bread and meat at least once a week.

A pupil must pay a minimum fee of one dollar a session in money, but as far as is possible he may work out the rest of his expenses. The average tuition is only ten dollars a year.