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Logos photo by Chance Frerichs Martina (left) and Magie Fakous stand next to the display in the NIACC Library which they used to share their culture.

Sisters share their cultural heritage with display

Chance Frerichs
Staff Reporter

Students on the NIACC campus come from all walks of life. Some students on campus even come from foreign countries.

Two of those students, Martina and Magie Fakous, come from Egypt and they have chosen to share their culture with the NIACC students.

They did this during the fall semester by displaying some items they had brought in a display case in the library.

“It’s great people share their collections, not just the International Students, but for everybody,” Cindy Eyberg, head of the International Student program, said. “It’s nice to have the variety to enjoy. We are open to anything being displayed except advertisements or anything ‘R’rated.”

Some of the items the Fakous sisters brought for display included a statue of Nevertetete, a former queen of Egypt, a statue of king Amiena and one of his maids, a model of a sarcophagus, which represents how the Egyptians buried their kings.

In the Egyptian culture they would mummify the dead and then buried them in a case made of gold.

A statue of king Totanhoamon, a tapestry with ancient Egyptian letters and their equivalent letters today, which are Arabic, were in the display.

In all of the pictures, the letters used are kartosh, another form of ancient Egyptian alphabet.

In the past it used to be written up and down, but now the language is written right to left.

Currently the library is the only place on campus that displays items from the international students.

The Fakous sisters are the first international students to lend their items to the library to display.

In the past one traditional student brought items to display in the library after a trip to China.

Magie Fakous said the sisters enjoyed sharing the items with others.

“It is really cool (to have our items displayed). People get to know who you are and where you come from,” Magie Fakous said. “It’s new for the people who look at it and it’s new to me too, because our culture has changed since then.”