As I draft this, thousands of protesters are marching through the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, and many other Egyptian towns, demanding the resignation of long-time president Hosni Mubarak. Of course, if you didn’t know that before reading this, you must be living under a rock. Crazy that you get Internet under that rock, especially considering we haven’t had it in Egypt for the last 48 hours. At first it was just the social networking sites that were down, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But starting Thursday night, there was no Internet access anywhere in all of Egypt. Around the same time, cell phones stopped working and many of the television channels showed nothing but static and white noise. Cell phones started working again earlier today (Saturday), but it is any one’s guess as to how long that will last. The few tv channels that are working depict the protests as small and insignificant. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is false.
I arrived back in Egypt on the evening of Wednesday the 26th of January. This was the day after what Egyptians are calling the “Day of Anger,” the first day of protests throughout the country. Thursday was quiet, but Friday (which in Egypt is the equivalent of Sunday) saw large protests following midday prayers and lasting long into the night. Today those protests continued and grew. Aside from being cut off from the world wide web and mobile communications, I am also virtually completely alone in Cairo. My program directors left on Thursday for Alexandria and have been unable to return since. None of the new Cairo students have arrived yet and their departure has now been delayed indefinitely. The two other students who were with me in Alexandria and are staying on in Cairo this semester are both safe in the Western world, one in America and one in Ireland.
My parents, the program directors, and the U.S. embassy all urged me to stay inside my apartment and wait it out. However, with no access to email or phones and no reliable information coming from the television, I was going pretty stir crazy. When chanting and yelling came drifting through my windows on Friday afternoon, I could no longer take it. I grabbed my camera and headed towards Tehrir street, a main street just a couple of blocks from my apartment. As I emerged onto the street from my apartment building I was shocked by the silence. My street, usually filled with cars, taxis, trucks, food carts, and people was nearly deserted.
As I began my walk towards Tehrir, I could almost feel electricity in the air. As I got closer to the main street, I started seeing groups of people, some moving in the same direction as me and others clustered around men who were handing out face masks. I knew tear gas had been a popular deterrence method used by the police, but I never expected to be able to feel it in the air as far from downtown as I was. Tear gas has the strangest smell, sort of like vinegar, but more metallic. I could feel it burning my nose and throat as I walked down the main street. People were moving eastward along the street and as I approached the bridge that connects Dokki to Zamalek, the number of people around me grew. Large crowds were gathered at the traffic circle at the end of the street and I stayed as long as my camera battery and respiratory system would allow. Then I headed back to my apartment to recharge my camera and my lungs.
A few hours later I decided to return to the protest area before darkness fully ascended on the city. The number of people had at least doubled, if not tripled, and the air was more toxic than ever. This time I had come prepared with a scarf, which I kept wrapped over my nose and mouth most of the time I was out. As I stood near the end of the street, listening to the chants and cries of a people protesting 30+ years of oppression, I found myself almost brought to tears by the incredible sight in front of me. After half a year in this country I know first hand the apathy and laziness that plagues the people of this nation. I never thought the Egyptian people were capable of such a tremendous showing of righteousness, strength, organization, and unity (and especially not all these things at once!). It’s inspiring. Waves of people kept joining the group, flooding in from somewhere down the street. Every fifteen minutes or so a new mass of people would come marching down the street, chanting and waving flags and signs. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight to see. I went home feeling hopeful about the future of Egypt for one of the first times since I arrived in this country.
Since this post is already so long, I will do a separate post about what I saw today (Saturday). This afternoon I ventured further than my own neighborhood, making my way downtown, armed only with a camera and a semi-useless cell phone. It was an experience I will never forget and I promise to share it all with you, in words, pictures, and video.
Just love every single word and picture.
ReplyDeleteGod bless,
Adel, an Egyptian living in Spain