A 4PM curfew has been instituted and school has been canceled for a week. I know its selfish and possibly stupid, but I am going crazy with inaction.
Earlier today I walked all over Zamalek with friends Cody, Meg, Sa’id, Hunter, and Aaron. We circled the island from the dorms all the way around. Near Cilantro (a local coffee shop/sandwich place on the Nile,) we watched as the Arcadia mall burned on the other side. I was told later that one of the government buildings was behind it.
Near the other bridge, the Democratic building was still smoldering from the fire lit yesterday. I was so relieved when I woke up today and the curfew had been lifted and people’s phones were working again. I think we were all hopeful.
Around 2PM we were given notice that rumors had spread that the riots were coming to Zamalek tonight. We were told that an enforced curfew had been implemented from 4PM-8Am tomorrow. I quickly walked to the market to get a few things that I needed (a water boiler, juice, a new alarm clock, coffee, peanut butter, water, and laundry detergent. When I got back to the dorms they were serving us lunch. No one was delivering so they opened the kitchen in the cafeteria with no charge and they fed us koshary, babaganoush, salad, kebab, and om ali. It was a very nice lunch, but I couldn’t really eat.
Nothing was happening after lunch. The streets were still calm. People were rushing home and stores were painting or covering their windows, but no rioters were on the island. The only true indication that anything was wrong was that the police were strangely absent from their positions on every corner. They have always consistently been on their corners. Also, they were emergency evacuating the students who had flights home because they had only been in Cairo for the winter session.
I was physically exhausted from my walk and then my trek home from the market with fairly heavy bags so I decided to lie down. I woke up just before four. When I got down to the lobby and enquired as to what was happening, I was informed that there were fires and that the rioters were now on the island. The dorm security guards had a fire hose strung across the lobby and up to the doors and everyone was watching the news.
I went into the cafeteria/game room and was sitting talking to a few friends when one of the RAs came into the room and announced that due to security issues, they wanted us to get out of the lobby and go either to the rooftop terrace or our rooms and that if we had rooms facing the street to go into a friend’s room and away from the street. I chose to go to the terrace. Being in my room was too confining.
Up on the roof I saw all the fires. It was an exaggeration that we were surrounded. There were two that hadn’t already been there from yesterday. I was told by one of the RAs that the rioters were trying to get into Cairo’s military armory and that it was pretty heavily guarded. No one wanted this to go to the level of the rioters being armed like they would be if they broke through. Several tomes through out the afternoon and into the evening we heard the low pop of tear gas canisters being projected, gun shots (we believe they were shot into the air,) and the pop-thud of rubber bullets being shot.
On a separate bent, I was told the news had reported that protesters had broken through the line into the Cairo museum and were destroying artifacts. Most of the people here decided that they probably weren’t destroying them, rather they were stealing them in order to sell them to black market purchasers. The people here are poor enough for that to be true. Many people have speculated that the destruction isn’t actually protesters, but government groups hired to discredit the true intent of the uprising. Several reports have been made of looting in cities other than Cairo. We were told that Alexandria had twenty fires, but of course, none of us really know what’s going on.
Several times we have been told that “nothing is happening,” but mostly it is to reassure us. Thus far it has had the opposite effect. We are all able to tell when we are being bullshitted. It just makes us edgier knowing they are keeping the truth from us.
After dark, around 9PM, we were given a short but informative briefing from the head of security and he was honest with us. They had wanted us to evacuate the lobby because they didn’t want us to be damaged by glass should anything happen. The whole first floor is glass in the dorms. We were then told the answers to several questions and the truth, debunking several of the rumors. School had been cancelled for one week not two, the UN hadn’t threatened to declare Egypt a war zone, the altercation on the steps of the dorm was merely an argument between two men but broken up by our guards, no one in any government position had commanded us to be evacuated. It relieved a lot of stress because we all knew he was being honest. He didn’t down play the severity, but he delivered the news in a way that made it seem manageable.
I will say that aside from the trio of men who pulled a homemade road spike strip, two army members in uniform, the heightened security, and all the smoke and gunshots; we saw nothing indicative of the troubles going on around us.
On a personal level, today was harder for me. I wasn’t prepared for it. I was out on a beautiful morning. I had a latte in nice café and I really enjoyed the company. The burning mall was a remnant of the day prior and I really felt it would be better today. I wasn’t mentally prepared to have to deal with the stress of riots on Zamalek. At one point I had a moment of weakness and I started crying. Just a few tears, but it helped to let myself have that moment.
People keep telling me I need to go home. No one important, but all I can think is that this is a piece of world history and so long as I don’t do something foolish and put myself at risk, I am a part of it. I am really glad that I got to Skype with my kids and my best friend the day before we lost our internet capabilities. I have no desire to leave. I am not afraid. To the contrary, I feel remarkably safe here. These people have no desire to harm us. They just want to be heard and this is the only way to do it.
Mubarak has fired all his head people, but after doing that, he appointed a jerk as his VP who according to what I have gleaned from talking to several people is a dangerous man. What the people here want is for Mubarak to step down and let fresh blood into the office. They say that his “presidency” has turned into a dictatorship; as it has gone on for 29 years.
Some people in the dorms have speculated that he knows that if he steps down and loses all the personal security, a price would be put on his head. Many people here think that is part of the reason he won’t step down.
Being here during all this has given me a lot of time to contemplate my own life. Life is so precious and I have it so good. In the United States, I am considered low class because my annual income is below $12,000. I am on public assistance and I receive full financial aid. In Cairo, I would be considered middle-upper middle class; according to some I would be classified as upper class.
I want to have an impact. I want so badly to help these people and others like them. I can’t conceive of living the way they do. People in the States bitch and complain about immigration and how all the illegals are taking our jobs and causing our economy to fall, but not one of them can conceive what these peoples’ lives are like in their home countries. The unemployment rate in the United States is in the 20% range. In Cairo it is 80%. The situation here is not about laziness or an unwillingness to work, it’s about the absolute inability to find work at all. There are literally no jobs. People here live in squalor. It tears at my heart to know how much we waste in the states when so many here go without.
I know it seems trite to say “eat all your dinner, there are children in Africa starving,” but there really are and even though the scraps left on our plates won’t benefit the people here, it’s the idea that people are starving and we should value and appreciate the things we have. I wish I could make everyone see these people through unclouded eyes. This isn’t about religion or anger or unruliness, this is about survival. These people are dying. Mothers are watching their babies starve and it’s not right.
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