Jane got in touch with the Buxton Advertiser to see if they were interested in running a story with a local perspective on what is happening here at the moment. They were (!) and so Scotty wrote a piece for them to use in the next issue of the paper.
Buxton Man Praises Egyptian Protesters was on page 11.
Scotty wrote a much long piece for them that covered a lot more, so here is the full thing:
Since moving to Cairo in August 2008, my wife and I have always said that 'every day is an adventure'. Although we live in a suburb of Cairo that contains a large number of fellow ex-pats, simply stepping out of the door reminds us that we live in a country far removed from anything we knew in the UK. Our apartment is near to a large shopping centre, but opposite this is a man who sells woven baskets from the back of a donkey cart. Nearby is a flower shop, behind which the proprietor has built a small structure in which he keeps his chickens away from the stray dogs that roam the streets. On the other corner are two chairs, where policemen armed with rifles usually sit 24-hours a day. The seats are now conspicuously empty.
We moved to Egypt just a month after our wedding. We have always wanted to experience the excitement of living in another culture, and as I had taught History in the UK for four years and my wife had worked in disability policy and education, we were able to secure jobs at an international school in Cairo. The country and our jobs are both fantastic, and just a month ago we signed new contracts to extend our stay.
I don't think that anyone could have forseen the extent of the protests that have spread across Egypt since the 25th January. The 25th is a national holiday, and a Facebook group had grown to quite extraordinary proportions encouraging Egyptians to go onto the streets to demonstrate in favour of a more democratic government. I don't think that anybody ever believed that the protests and marches would become as large as they have. Egypt has had the same ruling party since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952; tensions have been building regarding the 30-year Presidency of Hosni Mubarak and the potential that power would simply pass to his son Gamal, but I honestly don't think anybody predicted the size of opposition that would come onto the streets. For us, watching the development of the protests on the internet, it seemed surreal. We were seeing areas of the city that we visit regularly although it was clear that the protests were all focused in the downtown area of Cairo around Tahrir Square - at least 10 miles from where we live.
Work continued as normal the for the two days after the 25th January protests, although we were encouraged to go home immediately at the end of the day rather than staying to run to offer after-school activities. However, we felt perfectly safe in the area we live, and continued to simply watch the protests online.
We knew that a large protest was planned for Friday 28th January, but as we had not experienced anything of the protests in our part of the city, we went ahead with existing plans. 28th January was my wife's 30th birthday and we had booked to take part in the Ramses Run, a 12.5km road race in the city of Luxor past the Valley of the Kings. We were running to raise money for a charity we support in Cairo, which provides education to Zaballeen children (the lower-class community that exists by collecting and recycling the city's rubbish). I encourage readers to watch the award winning film Garbage Dreams which highlights the plight of the Zaballeen.
We flew to Luxor on Thursday evening and ran the race on the morning of Friday 28th. Afterwards, we sent text messages to friends and family at home to let them know how we'd got on, and felt quite upset that we didn't receive any replies. We returned to the hotel for lunch, and as Friday prayers drew to a close we began watching the satellite news and tried to log on to the internet. This was the point where the communications shutdown became clear. Our family hadn't replied to our texts because mobile phone communication in Egypt had been severed. The internet had been completely suspended. Our only line to the outside world was satellite news and the expensive hotel telephone. Having reassured our parents of our safety at the hotel in Luxor, we watched events unfold with shock and disgust at the levels of violence being meted out by the riot police on the protesters. Later that evening a curfew was announced amid news of looting and rioting filtering out into the suburbs of Cairo.
That evening we formulated our plan: get back to Cairo. We could have stayed safe and comfortable in our hotel in Luxor but Cairo was our home and it was where our friends and colleagues were. Early on Saturday morning the mobile phones sprang back to life, and we began discussions with our school about our situation. We said we would try to fly back to Cairo before the 4pm curfew, but knew that we would be stuck in the airport overnight if we arrived late. We took a taxi to the airport in Luxor, and saw for the first time the real effect of the protests. Although the streets of Luxor were quiet, there were tanks parked at key intersections and a distinct lack of police.
At the airport we somehow managed to pay a change-of-booking fee and get onto the next available flight from Luxor to Cairo rather than need to wait for our later flight. As we made our way through security to the gate, we met a couple who had run the race with us the previous day. They told us how the headquarters of the ruling NDP Party in Luxor had been set on fire 10 minutes previously: we had driven past it just a few minutes beforehand. This coincided with phone calls from friends saying they'd heard that the shops near our apartment had been looted, and that there were signs of vehicles being set on fire. The first reports of locals arming themselves with sticks and knives were also filtering through. It was a scary realisation of the extent of the uprising and how close it was to our lives in Egypt. We feared for our friends, our neighbours, and our home, but without getting back to Cairo we would never know how true the rumours were.
On landing in Cairo we realised we had arrived after curfew - there was no way we could get back to our apartment that evening. However, our school's organisation went into overdrive: they secured security passes through the curfew, provided a school bus to drive us from the airport, and our headteacher offered her spare room for us to stay in that night. While driving into her suburb of Cairo the usually packed roads were eerily quiet. We were stopped and had our passports checked by the army who had created a roadblock with two tanks and an APC. It was like an alternative reality. Later that evening a series of further roadblocks were set up by the locals keen to protect their community from potential looters.
The next morning we went to school, from where we met with a group of colleagues who had just brought back a group of 40 students from a ski trip in Switzerland. School provided transport for us to go home, and although keen to get back we were all very nervous at what we would find. In the end we had nothing to worry about: the shops near our apartment had their windows covered and it emerged that the 'looters' were actually shopkeepers removing their stock for safety. Our apartment was untouched and our relief was immeasurable. Our Egyptian neighbours welcomed us back and said we had nothing to worry about. Nonetheless we chose to move in with some friends a short walk away, in order to remove ourselves from the potential flashpoint around the shops. We were probably over-reacting, to be honest. The local community have come out in force to create roadblocks and secure their homes against any potential rogue elements. Reports of 'vigilante' groups in the Western media bring the wrong image to mind - these are not violent gangs but instead are honest local people protecting their community. We are part of that community, and feel incredibly safe. Clearly the escalation of events in Tahrir Square causes concern for everyone, but they are taking place at least 10 miles away from our home.
Some friends have left the country, but others have chosen to stay. Although our school plans to remain closed until 20th February, my role as Online Learning Coordinator means that we have been able to offer education over the internet to our students no matter where they or their teachers are. We have a routine now: wake up at the end of the curfew and head to our apartment for a few hours. The British Cairo Association clubhouse remains open during the day and acts as a meeting point for ex-pats from the area around lunchtime. We ensure that we are home before the evening curfew and turn on the news to follow events throughout the evening.
The political situation remains unclear. The extent of change that has already taken place over the past 10 days would have been unbelievable before 25th January. However, the large protests continue to demand an immediate change to government. As an historian I clearly have my own interpretation of events based on historical revolts and uprisings. However, at this point in time it is frankly impossible to know how events are going to unfold. The peaceful protests of the pro-democracy demonstrators are incredibly moving: these are the Egyptian people we have known over our time here. We hope that they achieve their aims.
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