I landed in Cairo on Thursday, Jan. 26th. My friend Rami picked me up, literally, and said look over there, see that crowd to cameras and TV crews? Mohammed el-Baradi landed when you did and he’s going join the protests. The next morning on the news, he was arrested and put under house arrest. As a Noble Peace Prize winner and former head of the IAEA, he was and still is an outspoken critic of Mubarak and his government and is a leader in the opposition. Cairo is a megacity and it consists of the main downtown area and hundreds of other areas; Rami and I lived in the area called Maadi, which is a nicer part of town and about a fifteen minute (sans traffic) ride from downtown. Rami’s apartment looks out over the Nile, and mine was 5 minutes away in the middle of a little market area. Friday was my day of doing nothing tried to recover from jet lag; it was the last ‘normal’ day. Up until then, there were peaceful protests downtown at Tahrir and other areas, there was some people going about business as usual at night and on the streets. At this point, the US and major news networks at begun to cover events in Egypt, and flights were quietly being canceled. I spent the night hanging out watching the news, which had been dubbed the Day of Rage. As night fell, protesters grew in number and intensity and the culminating event of the night was the torching of the National Democratic Party headquarters. After a few hours it was apparent that no firefighters were going to show up to put this out and a legitimate concern was that it would spread to the Egyptian Museum. That night, protesters formed a human shield to make sure it would stay say and that no looters would get in. As the protests escalated, around day 4 the police, including the hated riot police, fled. They had previously engaged in clashes the past few days, firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The old minister of the Interior (also hated) had told them to ‘take an extended vacation/leave of absence’. This resulted in traffic police, boarder police, hotel police, antiquities police, tourist police and all the others to abandon their posts, leaving a truly unguarded Cairo to the hands of nobody. Later, many of the secret police formed gangs that were behind much of the looting and terror on the streets. The military was called in, and their arrival was met with cheers and handshakes. The people have great faith in the military, who are more autonomous and have greater authority to do what they would like, not be the puppets of the president. With their arrival, the people were hoping that the military would support their movement. What we didn’t know until well after Mubarak stepped down was that on January 30th, he ordered the military to start killing the protests in Tahrir, similar to China’s Tiananmen Square. The military commanders refused and continued to protect the people.
On Saturday, Jan. 29th, I convinced Rami to go visit our friends Andy and Louis who had arrived around the same time I did, but lived downtown and a stone’s throw away from Tahrir Square, where most of the protesters were gathered. This is the area that has been broadcasted live on most networks, but from the other end of the square. We took a cab downtown, and we got closer to their apartment, we could see a black cloud of smoke rising from behind the trees. Once on the bridge, we could see the NDP building still on fire. It was blackened and smoke filled and you could see the fire working its way upward, but structurally it looked stable and in no danger of collapsing. At the top of the bridge we could go no further so we, along with hundreds of others got out and walked or joined the protests. Andy told us that he had heard gunfire the night before, but it had been mostly quite. The five of us went out and up to a bridge overlooking Tahrir so we could see what was going on without being in the middle of it. With the museum on the left, a cloud of black smoke still rising, protesters were gathering by the thousands, chanting “Down with Mubarak” “Mubarak must go” “Yalla ya Misr”. It was such an energetic and positive thing to witness. Despite reports of police beating people with cameras and phones and confiscating them, everybody was taking pictures and videoing this historic event. As the people started moving, we followed them and went down the Nile to the state TV and communications building .
Around 3 Rami and I decided to get out of dodge, because tonight the newly imposed curfew was from 4pm to 8am. We got back and got some food and thought we would spend the night watching the news. Wrong. Tonight, men had gotten reports that there had been some pretty massive prison breaks and now looters and criminals were on the streets. Apartments here have bowabs, or doormen whos job is to make sure the building is safe and things run smoothly. Saturday, every man in each building joined the bowabs in security. As night fell, the buildings went dark, with all non-essential lights being turned off and heavy dark curtains placed in front of all the windows in an attempt to make the building inconspicuous. As I had not been in touch with my roommates, I had been hanging out with Rami in a safer building than my own. He went downstairs with the other men and I went to his neighbors were many of the wives, mothers and sisters were spending the night. Until then, men outside had regular guns, knives, sticks, fire extinguishers and anything they could find and stayed out from dusk to dawn. During this time, one guy was dumb enough to try to break into the building; he was quickly stopped, beaten, and taken down the street to the military, who are currently on each street corner with a few tanks, machine guns and many personnel. Throughout the night, you could hear gunfire echoing across the Nile; mostly it was the military firing warning shots but you could tell when they weren’t. When the sun rose, reports came in from across Cairo; in Mohandaseen, which is not far from Maadi, there was many reports of violence and looting, and men had building brick walls in the stairwells of the buildings that had the greatest risk. Many ATMS, including the one down the street were in shambles in the morning, but the saddest reports were firstly that looters had gotten into the Pediatric Cancer Treatment Centre and were stealing equipment and barricading themselves in. When the military arrived, they were unsure how to handle the situation, not wanting to start randomly firing into a children’s hospital. The other was that they had gotten into the Egyptian museum and had smashed priceless artifacts; things that the people had been desperately trying to protect. When the looters are caught, in most instances it is apparent that it is an organized operation, with former policemen heading the groups. With the military in charge, they have given contact numbers to men on the streets and given general directions to them on how to handle the situation should it arise. Once caught, the men have one military trial, and if found guilty, the penalty for looting is death.
Sunday we both tried to catch up on sleep, and didn’t start the day until 2pm. Rami’s dad and other extended family were going to try to come back from their beach house on the Red Sea. There had been constant reports of people on the ring road stopping and breaking into people travelling these roads, so after talking to the military, they came back before curfew. We went food shopping, which took forever because some many people were nervous that the store might get looted or they will be stuck somewhere with no food. The stores are running out of food, of course, and nobody knows how, when, or if they will be restocked anytime in the near future. During the evening I had been in touch with Andy and Louis and our other friends, Maja and Nick. Maja and Nick had arrived in Cairo, and nervous and not able to talk to anybody, went back to our campus about an hour away from Cairo to see what was going on. AUC was advising students to get on a plane out. Until then, the State Dept. and Embassy was advising caution, and many had cancelled flights and. At 10pm, Maja called and said that tomorrow (Monday) the State Dept. was going to make a formal announcement stating that all non-essential Americans to leave the country; only embassy and military personnel should stay. She and all the students at AUC were hopping flights to Europe and the US possibly that night. After much deliberation, I decided to ride out the storm, as was Andy, Matt, and Brett. This was not an anti-American movement. This was the Egyptian people speaking out for the first time against their oppressive and corrupt government. With the military appearing to side with people and supporting a regime change, the only people in danger was Mubarak and his government. It is only a matter of time before he is gone, and the hope and thought is that this cannot keep going as it is for much longer.
Of course, as we are bunkering down for the night hoping that this in fact will not going on much longer, we heard gunfire, and this time it was not across the Nile. It was instead down the street. Four criminals with guns had managed to get down the street and were hiding in the tall grass right next to my temporary apartment. The men outside had called the military who arrived in a tank and had blocked off the way in and out and fired warning shots. When they of course refused to get out, they started arbitrarily firing many rounds into where these men were trying to hide. No luck. More MPs were called in and they began a search. They captured two, and found a door locked from the inside and knew that the third man was inside. Solution? Call the guys with machine guns. So for a good 10 seconds, right next door, we listened and watched the military firing rounds into the door and at the guy. Victory
The second week was a turning point and you could see how stressed the regime was as they turned to violence to quell the growing protests. Rami and I went to the store on day four and found incredibly long lines and no bread or milk. We were able to get some other things then headed home for curfew. The guys are getting increasingly competent at nighttime security as they are slowly devising habits. They found real roadblocks and cones and began blocking off two of the three lanes that are closest to the buildings. They began stopping and checking people in some cars and trucks and are taking their information and really checking to make sure it adds up. They stopped one truck that was being driven by a guy who didn’t own it. They took the guys information and got the number of the supposed owner of the truck and called him to confirm that the driver was who he said he was. It turned out to be fine but that is just one example of how serious they are about making sure that they area stays safe. Overnight reports indicated that criminals in Helipolis, where the presidential palace is, that 4 criminals got a hold of assault weapons and a car and drove around gunning people down before they were captured or killed. Men from across the river went up into the minarets of a nearby mosque and would periodically broadcast updates for all to hear about what was going on and what information they received and if any criminals or looters were on the loose in any nearby areas. The next day was much of the same although when we went to the store they were completely out of bread. One place wasn’t getting any in and the other ran out of materials to make their own. We listened to the news all night which was broadcasting information about the Million Man March that was being planned for Tuesday. We talked about going and tried to figure out if it would be safe for me, an unveiled American who knows no Arabic to go but in the end we didn’t. Rami talked to Andy in Tahrir and he said it was loud and that the military started flying what appeared to be F-16s very low overhead, probably to try to get people to leave. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Tuesday’s march of millions was amazing. We could see people going downtown and it was a very jubilant atmosphere, as it was reportedly downtown as well. The military and the people were peaceful and many had their entire families there to support the movement to end Mubarak. There was a rumor that they would march to Heliopolis to the palace, but that never materialized. This night was a little more scary, however, because at around 330am Rami came in and said that criminals in our area had shot and killed men in the military, stolen their uniforms and vehicles, and were now on the loose. It was a disquieting report, and thankfully, nothing materialized, and as far as I know, these men were eventually caught.
Wednesday and Thursday were sad days here as violence broke out downtown and many were killed between these two days. Thugs from the regime were set loose on horseback and camel back and went wild, attacking people and running people off the streets. Pro-Mubarark supporters rallied on the 6th of October bridge and rained stones down on the protesters. From high vantage points and windows, they also lobbed Molotov cocktails at protesters and some buildings were set on fire. It was quite obvious that these so called “pro-government” supporters, who had thus far been silent suddenly, appear on camel and horses. These are not animals you find trotting around downtown; these people, as Jon Stewart said, were trained in the art of violent crowd control. Many were former secret police taking a break from their nighttime looting but most were regular people paid off to support the government. Depending on where you lived and how far you lived from Tahrir determined how much the government was willing to pay. When some of these men were captured, the military found sometimes large sums of cash on them. The first thing they said was that they weren’t paid off, but when asked why they had that much money on them during this or where it came from, they could not answer.
With things stabilizing and people going back to work, Rami and I went downtown to meet our long lost friends Andy and Matt. We went for lunch and headed over to Tahrir. “Someone” told me that I didn’t need any ID, so we were unsure if the military would let me in, since they were IDing everybody going into Tahrir. Thankfully it was fine, and after about 5 checkpoitns and patdowns we were in. There was barbed wire blocking off some streets and others were blocked by tanks. When you finally got into Tahrir, you walked in between lines of people, chanting and clapping for you, welcoming you the protest for democracy. It was incredible. Inside, tent cities had sprung up; hardcore protesters vowed not to leave until Mubarak left and they had taken up residence on the streets. There were vendors selling flags and people were giving out food and water; some were selling it as well. Everybody was milling about, and there would be small groups with someone speaking, with others making chants for others to follow. We walked towards the Egyptian Museum and the 6th of October bridge were all the violence had taken place not even a week ago and it was shocking. Once you got there, we went through more checkpoints and we would have to go through more to get back in. you could not walk down the street as there were burned out cars everywhere and tanks and soldiers making sure nobody would throw anything off the bridge. There was makeshift clinic with medical professionals and medicine and band aids. On the street, somebody had taken the stones and written “Go To Hell Mubarak”. We were on ground level but it must have looked great from up high. The area, however was a warzone. There were buildings smashed and looted and burned out. The sidewalks had been ripped up and the stone parts were used as weapons. There was a greater military presence in this area, and you could not turn around and walk back. We looped around and had to go through checkpoints at every street. By now, night had fallen and many more people had shown up. There were kids there with their parents and there were bands and songs. We left to try to get back to Maadi at least before curfew.
This turned out to be the last week of the protest. On February 10th, Mubarak was set to give another speech and there were many rumors that he would step down. Rami and I went to Tahrir with Matt and Andy. It was unlike any other day. There were millions of people there, and most were already singing and dancing. It was like a carnival. There must have been projectors somewhere because every few blocks there were giant white sheets that had the news on. When Mubarak came on, everybody rushed to get as close as possible to witness his speech. People slowly realized that he would not be leaving and you could see the disappointment in people. Chatting started again, louder and louder and while Rami, Andy Matt and I left, so too did some of the people, stating that they were going to march to Heliopolis to the palace and made him leave. As it turned out, it was Mubarak’s last speech as president. As it was late and well past curfew, Rami and I stayed at Andy’s apartment and left the next day. In hindsight, we should have stayed, because at around 5pm, the VP Omar Suliman made his announcement saying that Mubarak had stepped down and the military would take power. The party that had erupted right after that announcement went on all weekend.
Its surreal looking back now on the Revolution. Things are getting back to normal. There is still a curfew at midnight that’s occasionally enforced. There are still tanks on many streets (the ones on my street like to do maneuvers at 1am on Saturday night). But it was one of the most amazing things that I have ever been a part of. While there is still many disagreements between Muslims and Christians, during the Revolution, it was common to see Muslims praying and Christians holding hands protecting them and vice versa. It didn’t matter what you were; everybody was Egyptian fighting for the same rights. Also, in retrospect, Mubarak was a cruel oppressive ruler, but he was not like Gadaffi (or at least was unable to act as Gadaffi is doing now) The military made a responsible choice and this revolution did not turn into a civil war as it has unfortunately done so in Libya.
It’s a great time to be in Egypt right now…come visit if you can. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
