Glad to report that it appears the original peaceful group of protesters has taken back Tahrir. Tweets from 2am stated that everything was calm and people were going to sleep. So far today it appears that the atmosphere is mirroring that of Tuesday's: calm, excitement, focus, and determination. I can't begin to imagine how brave those people are for holding down the square in the face of the government onslaught. They are truly patriots.
We've heard several rumors about what today will bring: either a march on Mubarak's palace or an en mas demonstration in Tahrir. It seems that marching on the palace would be the option with the most violence, as police have already been seen surrounding it. Latest tweets say march is canceled. I think that's prudent.
Now the US is saying Mubarak should leave now...not sure how I feel about us getting involved. It's not our country, I think maybe Obama should be supportive but back off a little.
Right now I can hear the neighborhood kids playing in the street. Curfew has been lifted. Things may indeed return to "normal." Hopefully after today Egypt will begin a new term as a democratic nation and things won't be the same as they were before. Time will tell.
Things still going well, hamdoulillah. I wanted to take this time to give some short stories to demonstrate the kindness and presence of mind of many Egyptians even during their fight for democracy:
The day of the March of Millions people were sitting on the fences and taking pictures of the small crowd there (still thousands of people) that was rapidly growing. One woman started to fall off the fence, and literally 7 people rushed forward to stop her, stood up from under her, and ran forward from behind to make sure she wouldn't fall. She stayed on the fence.
After the March of Millions, after my roommates and I had spent upwards of 7 hours walking around downtown, we found out the metro was closed and there wasn't a taxi to be had. We were sore, tired, hungry, dehydrated (my roommate wisely suggested [demanded] we not drink or eat so we didn't have to worry about finding a bathroom...after a while I felt like it was punishment). We started hailing taxis that had people in them, hoping we could all pile in anyway and share a ride. Two men told their taxi to pull over and got out, paid the driver, and told us it was too far to walk to our house from there (about an hour and a half- he was right!). It was so kind of him to give up his ride so three foreign girls who stayed out past curfew wouldn't have to walk home.
As a friend and I were walking downtown on Wednesday, the day the "pro-Mubarak" groups were dispatched, I mean assembled, a kind man stopped us from heading up an alley. We told him we were trying to go to a restaurant and he said we shouldn't go because thugs are coming and we should go home and be safe. On the way home we were mobbed by a really rabid government group. One man helped us out of the crowd while another pulled his car over and told us he would drive us away because it was unsafe. We declined but it was nice to know we had options.
Day after day the true Egyptian people prove themselves to be hospitable, generous, and wonderful. Go Egypt! You've earned real democracy!
I scoured my pictures for faces in order to make some of the revolution more personal. These patriots are willing to give their all to win their chance at democracy.
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