Not much going on in the "exciting" department.
Had some power outages recently and aside from that, some burnt out lightbulbs. Not sure what the power outages were about but I hope they aren't starting early for the summer!
The light bulbs were a bit of a pain since one was in the kitchen and we didn't have any spares and hubby couldn't get home to get me one til later in the evening. I suppose I could have walked down to the store but it wasn't that urgent. The only thing really waiting was dishes. And I really wasn't in any hurry to do them.
Actually, hubby bought me a new mop last week or so and that really is kind of exciting! :D
Seems goofy but when your mop goes bad and you can't clean your floor well, it's a bit of a pain, especially when sand storm season heats up. So, despite the fact that it's kind of fluorescent pink and yellow, I am happy and it mops well. lol
We might be inheriting some couches from one of the family's other apartments, and then recovering them. I'm kind of excited about that too actually. Well, not sure if they'll get recovered at first or we'll buy the kind of cover you just put over the whole couch. I'd prefer to get them entirely reupholstered and get new cushions but I'm not sure which it will be.
Also, finally got a pie plate, so I can make actual pie now.
I guess I did have some exciting stuff. :D
Today is part 3 of the log. So without further ado...
:::
Monday, January 31st
Sleep by 6:30 a.m. or so and wake by 10:30. Not by choice but hubby woke, I think it was his phone ringing. I thought I'd go back to sleep but after laying in bed for an hour I could see that wasn't going to happen.
Sunny today and a little chilly. Traffic outside but not heavy like before.
Hubby went to the store and got a few things. Crowded at the store but not too bad.
Helicopter passed by a little while ago.
No water in the apartment since I woke up. Not sure if it's just the normal thing of water being out but it doesn't seem like it since it's usually only out for a short while. It's been out for over an hour now, close to two I guess. We did fill up a case of emtpy water bottles on Friday night, so we have water to wash hands and stuff, but I'm really happy I did all the dishes and most of the laundry yesterday.
I feel the need to get outside as I'm starting to feel a little too restless and cooped up. Not sure if I'll get outside before it gets dark or not. Apparently, the curfew has been moved up to 3 p.m. now!! Why so early I don't know and I find it ridiculous! I'll be very interested to see what happens with the police supposedly guarding the streets and if we'll see them tonight.
Still no internet. This is day 4. Most of what I've been doing is reading. I think it's time to watch something and give my reading a break.
2:15 and getting out for a walk before curfew starts!
3:00 and back from our walk. Was really nice out, little bit of a chill but I was too warm with my fleece jacket. The sky is a brilliant blue. Just really beautiful out today.
Many people out walking around going from place to place, I imagine mostly buying groceries. I noticed on the main street that most of the shops were closed and some were closing as we walked by.
We made it over to Pyramid street and right as we came out, on the left, were tanks!! Boy I was excited and I asked hubby if we should ask them if it was okay to take pictures and he said that he thought they would say no, so we should sneak them. Tried to get video but no idea how that came out yet, and he got a few shots of me with the tanks in the background. Yay!
I just felt so happy to be outside with the sun on my face and getting some "fresh" air. It's hard being cooped up all the time. And there's really no way for me to go out at all once it's dark now. Too dangerous. There really aren't any women out on the streets past dark now.
Hubby heard that there were fresh protests in Tahrir square because people felt that though there are some changes being made, they are just surface changes and nothing will really be different. Sounds about right from what I can tell, and I say good for them. Keep at it til you get what you want.
I know it's hard on everyone. I don't know the percentage of people still going to work but it must be pretty small. I'm sure it's hit the taxi drivers very hard and I feel bad for them. This hits so many places that you wouldn't really think of. I think the people probably doing okay are the stores selling food. I think just about everything else is probably suffering.
To be honest, yes I wish this was over and that things could get back to some form of normal. Mainly I think it's just kind of exhausting to not know what's happening or how things will be moving forward, and I think just about everyone is a little on edge. You can feel it in the air. At least I can. Excited, nervous, hopeful.
4:00 and there is news that they might cut the power, so we're making sure laptops and whatever else are charged. The water did come back on earlier, so we're okay there until (and if) the power goes out, at which point the water pump will not work so we would be without power or water. Joy! Just like summer only not. lol
5:15 Been standing out on the balcony for a little while, just watching the neighborhood hum. First gun shots of the night a few streets over. The sun hasn't even quite hit the horizon yet. The traffic has died down considerably and I don't see any more women walking around, just men now. Wondering when and if the police will get here.
I actually saw quite a bit of air traffic while I was out on the balcony. Six planes. I think that they were all leaving as opposed to coming, but I don't know for sure. I can't imagine why anyone would by flying into Egypt now, unless they were Egyptian or had family here. I heard that the embassies were offering to help people who couldn't afford to get out, but I'm not sure if that was just the U.S. embassy or others as well. I imagine a lot of foreigners have left. Not a majority by any means, but quite a few I'm sure.
5:30 and the evening call to prayer. It's starting to get chilly outside. And I'm told the police are on their way! Let's see what tonight brings.
9:42 It's fairly loud out in the streets as it has been the last few nights with small groups of guys walking around and "protecting" the area. Although the police might be on their way, I guess they haven't gotten to our area yet. After I have some dinner I'll go out on the balcony to have a look around.
There was news that the president (or someone) told the internet provider companies to be ready to turn the internet back on when the word was given, so hopefully it will be very soon. Hard to be so cut off from the world. If we had a t.v. at the house or I could easily get a Western paper, maybe we wouldn't feel so cut off. Hubby has been listening to a little radio quite a bit to keep up with the news as best he can.
10:30 before I hear a tank rolling by, though there could have been some earlier that I didn't hear. This was one of the louder ones and much easier to hear, even though I was in the kitchen doing dishes.
11:00 gun shots in the distance.
12:00 Been waiting out on the balcony for a while in hopes of catching a tank passing by, but the schedule doesn't seem to be reliable at all tonight.
Called hubby who is down at the cafe watching the news and chatting. He heard that there would be protests tomorrow but that they were supposed to be peaceful, that the police had orders not to shoot. He also said that he heard that the U.S. government told the Egyptian president that if one more person was killed that the U.S. would stop all aid to Egypt. Wow! That's a pretty big statement. And Egypt certainly can't afford to lose the aid that they are receiving. I don't know that they spend it well but they can't afford to lose it in any case.
Really bored. I feel like I'm missing the excitment down on the street but there's really nothing to be missing. I'm just getting tired of feeling like I'm waiting for something to happen and not knowing what that something is.
Time to read or watch a movie.
1:00 Lots of noise and commotion down on the street for a little while now, but I'm tired and cold and don't feel like getting decent enough to go out on the balcony and see what's going on.
1:01 I can hear a tank going by.
1:17 and still a lot of commotion in the street nearby. Can't imagine what's going on.
1:30 Finally called hubby to see what all the noise is and he says it's from guys playing soccer. lol
1:40 Hubby called to ask me to drop something down from the balcony to him, and while I was out there I could hear there was a tank coming, so I dropped the item down to hubby, and then despite the fact that I am wearing flip flops and our floors are all tile, I ran into the apartment pell mell, grabbed the camera off our bed and turned it on while running back to the balcony, just in time to finally film a tank going by. I couldn't tell where it was when I first heard it coming, I just knew that it was coming, so unfortunately, it's passing by on the far side of the street, behind a fence, but I think the video probably still came out okay. Would be nice to get one while it was passing on the street just below. Hubby got a video of one with his cell phone, but, it's on his cell phone. lol
Also, while I was out there I saw the guys playing soccer. Right in the middle of Faisel street. Which would never have been able to happen in a million years before this whole revolution of sorts started. The street is always busy, and even at the wee hours like 3 and 4 a.m., there are still cars coming by. It quiets of course, but it's never truly empty like it mostly is now at night.
I do still see cars go by on the road on occasion at night, even though there is curfew, but I'm not sure if they have a special permission or they're just risking being out. Not sure what the punishment is for being out driving during curfew.
I heard that the Metro, the light rail here, is being stopped during curfew hours, as well as the choo choo trains. Steam trains? lol
So things are coming to a halt pretty much at night. Except for the groups of guys hanging out.
3:00 Hubby home and the big news is that although there is supposed to be a very large amount of protesters tomorrow in Tahrir square, and that the protest is supposed to be peaceful, now there is word that there is also a very large group who is taking the opposite side of the protesters, supposedly wanting the current president to stay in office. I can hardly believe it, but if this is the case, tomorrow could well turn out to be very violent and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some deaths involved.
Every day brings news but it's not always welcome. Really wish the internet would come back.
4:15 a.m. The quran has started playing on a speaker somewhere nearby.
5:00 tank going by.
5:30 ginormous cat fight in the stairwell. lol The cats are fierce here!
5:53 tank going by.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!
Alright, yes, I do remember Mister Rogers fondly. I was just thinking about what a beautiful day it was today and that song popped into my head.
I think it was a little above 75 degrees today, though it's supposed to go back down to mid 60's tomorrow and after.
Still, days are getting longer, weather is getting warmer, and pretty soon it will be too warm for the heavy blanket on the bed, at which point it will go into storage until around December.
I love Spring.
Well, except for the allergies. lol
:::
Alright, after I posted today's post, I got a bug to redo the page, so yes, same blog but different colors and design to it. Let me know what you think. Like it, hate it, text too small, ugly colors, whatever.
:::
Things seem to be progressing here, though admittedly I am not keeping up with all of the latest news. I do get headlines and an occasional story but after all the constant news watching I did for a couple of weeks I really need a break from all that.
One thing that I have found very interesting, is that the government, well, now the military, send out text messages to everyone on their cell phones.
The way cell phones work here, is that you buy a sim card, which has a phone number on it, and put that in your phone, and then you buy some minutes for your phone and that's it!
Although you can buy a monthly subscription here for your phone, what the majority of people do is to buy minutes for their phone, no monthly plan involved.
So instead of paying a monthly bill, you just go to any corner stand or grocery and you will be able to buy cards (they are like the gift cards you can buy in the States for places like Target, etc.) worth a certain monetary amount, and then you enter the card information into your phone by dialing the phone company and entering the "fill up" number, and it fills up your phone with a corresponding number of minutes you can talk for.
So anyways, I have received probably 7 or so text messages on my cell phone, all in Arabic of course, from the government and military. Mostly just saying that they are here to protect the citizens and everything is fine.
And many other people are getting the messages as well. I even got one on my internet connection, which looks like a memory stick that you put in the USB port on your computer. The connection uses a sim card of course. Though that is on a monthly plan.
Well, the point is, I find this a really great means of communicating with citizens, and I'm wondering why this isn't done in the States? Or if it is done there, why it isn't more widespread, because I've never heard of it being done there. Seems like an effective way to get in touch with people during an emergency.
And of course, no matter how poor the people are here in Egypt, pretty much everyone has a cell phone.
:::
Okay, on with today's log. It's a bit shorter than the last one. And maybe not as interesting. I can't remember now though I read it last night. lol
One thing to note, I'm copy and pasting the text into this window from the file I originally wrote in. I have not made any spelling or other grammatical changes to clean the log up. This was how it was written and that's how it will stay.
Next post to come on Monday insha'Allah.
:::
Sunday, January 30th
Was asleep by 7 a.m. Woke several times and though hubby was out of bed by 11:30 or so, I actually managed to sleep til 2:30.
Just finished doing some cleaning on the balcony and hubby is cleaning the floors.
3:45 p.m. and we can hear some type of jet fighter flying by. Alright, I went outside to check them out. There were 2 jets and they made many many passes in the area. I tried to get some video but, you know, they move pretty fast and it's hard to estimate where they're going to come from exactly. The last couple of passes they made were so low that it was starting to get painful to listen to, even inside.
I was honestly a bit nervous, figuring that it was bad that they were flying around, but hubby thinks it's a good thing, to scare any thugs and report any masses to the army down on the street.
Speaking of which, we will not have army on our street, they will be on Pyramid street, which I mentioned is a 5 to 10 minute walk away. So, our streets will continue to be manned by the residents and I can only assume that tonight and some nights further, will be like last night.
Anyways, the jets stopped about 4:15 or so, so I had a good while to watch them flying overhead. Which, despite the fact that it made me a little nervous because I wasn't sure of their intent at the time, was actually pretty awesome. They are great to watch and I kind of felt like I was getting my own private air show.
5:40 now and the evening call to prayer is sounding. I heard today that the curfew starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m.? Not sure the end time in the morning, but starting it at 4 seems a bit early. That's almost 2 hours before the sun hits the horizon.
Also heard that the president named a vice president for the first time in 30 years, though there is always supposed to have been one, and an elected one, not one who was appointed. Although it's a good step that there is at least a vice president, even if the people didn't get to elect him, the problem is that he's the equivalent of the head of the CIA or something like that. I'm not sure that's a great person to have as a vice president.
And even if the president is replacing ministers, I still don't trust what is happening.
The president shut down the only news agency that was reporting the truth here in Egypt, Al Jazeera. How can you trust a leader who not only limits free press but shuts it down entirely? I don't think you can. If the people let these changes go, and let things move forward with the changes the president has made, I think all of this, all the effort, will have been wasted. I don't think anything will change until and if they can manage to have a fair and un-tampered with election in September. Then, and only then, I think there might be some hope of change. Because you can bet that the people will not be voting to elect people who will keep the present regime in place.
Heard that the multi-national companies and embassies have internet back, but us common folk still have no internet. It's been 3 days now. Another restriction of freedom that tells me that the current government shouldn't be trusted.
I know things will be different now but I'm still not sure how. One of the things I am curious about is law enforcement, and what will happen with the police. It is well known that they are very easily bribed and from what I have read and heard, there are more criminal elements in the police structure than in the general society, if you do it by percentage or something at least. I'm not saying that there are NO honest police, but it is so well known that they are crooked that people really don't trust them.
I forgot, earlier, about the time that the jets were flying over, I noticed that there was a helicopter making circles. I figured it to include the area where my in-laws live and hubby confirmed it, though how large of an area it was circling I'm not sure. And neither sure what it was doing. Just interesting as I've never seen or heard a helicopter in the two years that I've been here. Not that I've ever heard jets here either.
6:45 and the first tank of the evening is rolling by.
7:42 and another tank going by. Whistles along the street as it goes by.
7:44 and the first gun shots of the night. Middle to far distance and rapid fire.
7:52 helicopter flying by somewhere near.
7:59 and I hear the helicopter flying nearby again, so maybe it's making a regular sweep of the area for a while? Really hard to know anything. Though it is much closer this time than when I heard it just a bit ago.
No surprise that the regular air traffic, which we hear a fair amount of since we seem to be close to the landing pattern, has died off quite a bit and I think I've only heard a few planes in the last few days. We really aren't that close to the airport at all, but I know on my return flight here from my visit to the States over the summer, I found it strange that we flew right over the pyramids, which is basically right next to where I live, before making our way over to the airport. I guess it really isn't that far for an airplane, though it takes us 45 minutes to drive there, without traffic.
8:34 and time for another round of helicopter flying around. Very close this time. If it had been daytime, maybe I'd be able to see if they were army helicopters or what, but as it's night and dark out, I don't think I'd be able to tell.
9:00 and time for another tank to pass by, to lots of whistles as usual. At this point, there really is no other traffic to speak of on the roads, so it's very loud and obvious when the tank comes by.
9:07 Just went out onto the balcony to see if I could catch the tank, but of course it had already gone. I waited too long to decide to try to see if I could get some video of it. But, there are lots of guys milling around out on the streets, walking in small groups, talking, carrying sticks and other weapons. I learned, actually, that the people here are very well armed, with many more people than I had imagined carrying guns of some sort, many of them even automatic weapons. I'm not sure if I feel safer with this news or not, seeing as how most of the people using them are probably not trained in how to use them and how to be careful and safe of other people in the area while they are shooting.
Hubby is out now with the others on the street, doing his guard duty. I know he really misses being able to read the news online to find out what is happening, and one way to find out is to be out on the street to hear what is going on, and to see the t.v. in the cafe down on the corner.
9:25 and time for another very close pass by the helicopter.
11:00 tank goes by and I finally catch it, but just the tail end, hardly able to be seen.
12:07 and tank time again. I love that everyone gets so excited when they go by.
12:25 and helicopter time. Further away this time.
Parents call and it's nice to hear from them and we catch up a bit on the news.
12:26 gun shots ack, very close. continual. whistling now and gun shots further away. no idea what is going on. not sure that it's a good idea to go out to check. yelling in the street. more gun shots, further away.
12:31 just went out onto the balcony to see what i could see and call hubby to see what was going on. i guess they caught a couple of guys with guns, and so the gun shots were to warn the guys they caught. i think. there were some more gun shots while i was out on the balcony. i think everyone is kind of trigger happy and i'd be a little nervous if i was hanging around anyone down on the street with a gun right now. lol?
12:33 and i hear a tank but the timing isn't right going by the rest of the night. they're about half hour early. who knows!
1:07 and tank time.
1:25 and hubby home. not sure if he will go back out or not. he says the police will be here tomorrow to guard the streets. not sure if i think that's a good thing or not, but off hand i'd say not. do you trust the people who let everyone out of jail to begin with??!
2:27 single gunshot in the distance.
3:35 multiple gun shots mid distance away.
3:43 hubby just got a text message on his cell phone from the phone company saying that the army was in the streets. i find this beyond strange! hubby says it's for people who don't have t.v. to be able to see the news i guess. weird.
I think it was a little above 75 degrees today, though it's supposed to go back down to mid 60's tomorrow and after.
Still, days are getting longer, weather is getting warmer, and pretty soon it will be too warm for the heavy blanket on the bed, at which point it will go into storage until around December.
I love Spring.
Well, except for the allergies. lol
:::
Alright, after I posted today's post, I got a bug to redo the page, so yes, same blog but different colors and design to it. Let me know what you think. Like it, hate it, text too small, ugly colors, whatever.
:::
Things seem to be progressing here, though admittedly I am not keeping up with all of the latest news. I do get headlines and an occasional story but after all the constant news watching I did for a couple of weeks I really need a break from all that.
One thing that I have found very interesting, is that the government, well, now the military, send out text messages to everyone on their cell phones.
The way cell phones work here, is that you buy a sim card, which has a phone number on it, and put that in your phone, and then you buy some minutes for your phone and that's it!
Although you can buy a monthly subscription here for your phone, what the majority of people do is to buy minutes for their phone, no monthly plan involved.
So instead of paying a monthly bill, you just go to any corner stand or grocery and you will be able to buy cards (they are like the gift cards you can buy in the States for places like Target, etc.) worth a certain monetary amount, and then you enter the card information into your phone by dialing the phone company and entering the "fill up" number, and it fills up your phone with a corresponding number of minutes you can talk for.
So anyways, I have received probably 7 or so text messages on my cell phone, all in Arabic of course, from the government and military. Mostly just saying that they are here to protect the citizens and everything is fine.
And many other people are getting the messages as well. I even got one on my internet connection, which looks like a memory stick that you put in the USB port on your computer. The connection uses a sim card of course. Though that is on a monthly plan.
Well, the point is, I find this a really great means of communicating with citizens, and I'm wondering why this isn't done in the States? Or if it is done there, why it isn't more widespread, because I've never heard of it being done there. Seems like an effective way to get in touch with people during an emergency.
And of course, no matter how poor the people are here in Egypt, pretty much everyone has a cell phone.
:::
Okay, on with today's log. It's a bit shorter than the last one. And maybe not as interesting. I can't remember now though I read it last night. lol
One thing to note, I'm copy and pasting the text into this window from the file I originally wrote in. I have not made any spelling or other grammatical changes to clean the log up. This was how it was written and that's how it will stay.
Next post to come on Monday insha'Allah.
:::
Sunday, January 30th
Was asleep by 7 a.m. Woke several times and though hubby was out of bed by 11:30 or so, I actually managed to sleep til 2:30.
Just finished doing some cleaning on the balcony and hubby is cleaning the floors.
3:45 p.m. and we can hear some type of jet fighter flying by. Alright, I went outside to check them out. There were 2 jets and they made many many passes in the area. I tried to get some video but, you know, they move pretty fast and it's hard to estimate where they're going to come from exactly. The last couple of passes they made were so low that it was starting to get painful to listen to, even inside.
I was honestly a bit nervous, figuring that it was bad that they were flying around, but hubby thinks it's a good thing, to scare any thugs and report any masses to the army down on the street.
Speaking of which, we will not have army on our street, they will be on Pyramid street, which I mentioned is a 5 to 10 minute walk away. So, our streets will continue to be manned by the residents and I can only assume that tonight and some nights further, will be like last night.
Anyways, the jets stopped about 4:15 or so, so I had a good while to watch them flying overhead. Which, despite the fact that it made me a little nervous because I wasn't sure of their intent at the time, was actually pretty awesome. They are great to watch and I kind of felt like I was getting my own private air show.
5:40 now and the evening call to prayer is sounding. I heard today that the curfew starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m.? Not sure the end time in the morning, but starting it at 4 seems a bit early. That's almost 2 hours before the sun hits the horizon.
Also heard that the president named a vice president for the first time in 30 years, though there is always supposed to have been one, and an elected one, not one who was appointed. Although it's a good step that there is at least a vice president, even if the people didn't get to elect him, the problem is that he's the equivalent of the head of the CIA or something like that. I'm not sure that's a great person to have as a vice president.
And even if the president is replacing ministers, I still don't trust what is happening.
The president shut down the only news agency that was reporting the truth here in Egypt, Al Jazeera. How can you trust a leader who not only limits free press but shuts it down entirely? I don't think you can. If the people let these changes go, and let things move forward with the changes the president has made, I think all of this, all the effort, will have been wasted. I don't think anything will change until and if they can manage to have a fair and un-tampered with election in September. Then, and only then, I think there might be some hope of change. Because you can bet that the people will not be voting to elect people who will keep the present regime in place.
Heard that the multi-national companies and embassies have internet back, but us common folk still have no internet. It's been 3 days now. Another restriction of freedom that tells me that the current government shouldn't be trusted.
I know things will be different now but I'm still not sure how. One of the things I am curious about is law enforcement, and what will happen with the police. It is well known that they are very easily bribed and from what I have read and heard, there are more criminal elements in the police structure than in the general society, if you do it by percentage or something at least. I'm not saying that there are NO honest police, but it is so well known that they are crooked that people really don't trust them.
I forgot, earlier, about the time that the jets were flying over, I noticed that there was a helicopter making circles. I figured it to include the area where my in-laws live and hubby confirmed it, though how large of an area it was circling I'm not sure. And neither sure what it was doing. Just interesting as I've never seen or heard a helicopter in the two years that I've been here. Not that I've ever heard jets here either.
6:45 and the first tank of the evening is rolling by.
7:42 and another tank going by. Whistles along the street as it goes by.
7:44 and the first gun shots of the night. Middle to far distance and rapid fire.
7:52 helicopter flying by somewhere near.
7:59 and I hear the helicopter flying nearby again, so maybe it's making a regular sweep of the area for a while? Really hard to know anything. Though it is much closer this time than when I heard it just a bit ago.
No surprise that the regular air traffic, which we hear a fair amount of since we seem to be close to the landing pattern, has died off quite a bit and I think I've only heard a few planes in the last few days. We really aren't that close to the airport at all, but I know on my return flight here from my visit to the States over the summer, I found it strange that we flew right over the pyramids, which is basically right next to where I live, before making our way over to the airport. I guess it really isn't that far for an airplane, though it takes us 45 minutes to drive there, without traffic.
8:34 and time for another round of helicopter flying around. Very close this time. If it had been daytime, maybe I'd be able to see if they were army helicopters or what, but as it's night and dark out, I don't think I'd be able to tell.
9:00 and time for another tank to pass by, to lots of whistles as usual. At this point, there really is no other traffic to speak of on the roads, so it's very loud and obvious when the tank comes by.
9:07 Just went out onto the balcony to see if I could catch the tank, but of course it had already gone. I waited too long to decide to try to see if I could get some video of it. But, there are lots of guys milling around out on the streets, walking in small groups, talking, carrying sticks and other weapons. I learned, actually, that the people here are very well armed, with many more people than I had imagined carrying guns of some sort, many of them even automatic weapons. I'm not sure if I feel safer with this news or not, seeing as how most of the people using them are probably not trained in how to use them and how to be careful and safe of other people in the area while they are shooting.
Hubby is out now with the others on the street, doing his guard duty. I know he really misses being able to read the news online to find out what is happening, and one way to find out is to be out on the street to hear what is going on, and to see the t.v. in the cafe down on the corner.
9:25 and time for another very close pass by the helicopter.
11:00 tank goes by and I finally catch it, but just the tail end, hardly able to be seen.
12:07 and tank time again. I love that everyone gets so excited when they go by.
12:25 and helicopter time. Further away this time.
Parents call and it's nice to hear from them and we catch up a bit on the news.
12:26 gun shots ack, very close. continual. whistling now and gun shots further away. no idea what is going on. not sure that it's a good idea to go out to check. yelling in the street. more gun shots, further away.
12:31 just went out onto the balcony to see what i could see and call hubby to see what was going on. i guess they caught a couple of guys with guns, and so the gun shots were to warn the guys they caught. i think. there were some more gun shots while i was out on the balcony. i think everyone is kind of trigger happy and i'd be a little nervous if i was hanging around anyone down on the street with a gun right now. lol?
12:33 and i hear a tank but the timing isn't right going by the rest of the night. they're about half hour early. who knows!
1:07 and tank time.
1:25 and hubby home. not sure if he will go back out or not. he says the police will be here tomorrow to guard the streets. not sure if i think that's a good thing or not, but off hand i'd say not. do you trust the people who let everyone out of jail to begin with??!
2:27 single gunshot in the distance.
3:35 multiple gun shots mid distance away.
3:43 hubby just got a text message on his cell phone from the phone company saying that the army was in the streets. i find this beyond strange! hubby says it's for people who don't have t.v. to be able to see the news i guess. weird.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Mo better Monday
Sand storms off and on for the past week. It seems a little early in the year for it but then again, we're almost to March.
Weather is also starting to warm up a bit and there are a couple of days forecast at low 80's in the coming week.
I love the Fall and Spring here in Cairo, but the short Winter and the ever lasting Summer really just aren't that pleasant.
We recently bought a kind of small sized emergency light. You charge it by plugging it in, but then the light will last for quite some hours, so it will be useful in the Summer when the power goes out all the time. I do also have the hand crank flashflight, but you have to keep winding it every few minutes or so or the light starts getting dimmer and dimmer.
:::
Finally decided it was okay to post the log/journal that I kept while the internet was down during the recent activities here in Cairo. Looking back it seems that I kept a log for about 5 or 6 days, can't remember exactly.
I'll be posting a couple of entries a week. They're kind of long in one sense and there's no way I want to post it all at once and overwhelm anyone.
So, the first one today and then the next one either Wednesday or maybe Thursday.
Would appreciate any feedback on these posts. I had hubby read over the first day and he thought it was accurate and enjoyed reading it.
Unfortunately, most of what I got regarding images were videos, in which you can kind of clearly tell where we live. I'm not so excited about posting those up and I got very few pictures, so I'm not sure what to do about that. I may post up the videos privately for family or something to see. Will think about it.
So, onto the first day. By the way, this first day is fairly long but by the last log, it was much shorter.
:::
Jan 29, 2011
The sun has set some few hours ago. And now, in the dark, we hear gunshots. I am told that they are signals, from sentries on nearby streets. What they are signaling, I'm not certain.
It's disconcerting to hear them from a few streets away, and more so to hear them right on your own street.
I hope they don't keep at it throughout the night.
It is said that police were letting the prisoners out of the police stations. Which explains all the looting of electronics that has been happening in the last 24 or so hours. And not just thieves hubby says, they are "thugs". Apparently this has been done to keep people too busy guarding their houses to be able to go out and demonstrate.
They have looted many many places, some large, some small, all over Cairo.
I would have to say, not so safe to be walking the streets at night now.
Even the very young boys on the back streets are carrying around weapons, perhaps something like bats.
There is supposedly a curfew, from 6 p.m. til 7 a.m., but I don't know how long that is supposed to stay in effect.
Last night (Friday night), after things settled down on our street, was the quietest night I've ever spent here in Cairo. Hardly a car going by and not much to speak of for foot traffic either. It was eerily quiet.
But we did hear unexplained firing. My first thought was that it was tear gas being fired somewhere not too far away, the sound carrying in the quiet night.
Hubby thinks more along the lines of gunfire of some kind, which may be more accurate, since it was more rapid fire than I think the tear gas cannons shoot.
This went on through the wee hours, every 20 minutes or so from 3 a.m. til maybe 5:30 a.m.
They cut the internet by midnight on Thursday night, and when we woke at noon on Friday, all cell lines were dead as well.
The phone lines came back by 11:30 a.m. today, Saturday, but they still have not turned the internet back on.
With cell phones, communication and information is able to spread more easily, once again.
We hear news that there are buildings that have been set afire in Tahrir square, the area that seems to be the main meeting point for the protesters.
We know someone who knows someone living in Tahrir square, with a direct view. I wonder what it has been like the last few days, and although I'm not sure I'd feel safe living there right now, I wish I had been able to capture some of that on film.
The army was out with tanks on Pyramid Street last night (about 5 or 10 minutes walk from us). Not sure if they are still there or what is going on.
I heard that the army is being sent out to guard the streets because the police are just gone. But, I hear that the army is nicer than the police, that the police are justs corrupt and can't be trusted.
So, presumably we will have an army guy, gun and all, guarding somewhere nearby? Probably quite a few since we live just off the main street.
After things died down yesterday, hubby went out to buy some supplies, as we weren't sure what would happen.
He got a case of water and food and even some candles. We had heard that they might cut the power and though I have a flashlight that runs by manual power, it's always good to have a backup.
There is still a smell here and there today of tear gas. It got up onto some of the roofs and I suppose with the wind blowing off and on it hasn't all gone yet. I hope it goes soon. I hate to leave the windows open with drying laundry, if there's a the chance of even little bits of tear gas blowing in.
It actually sprinkled about 3 times in the night, but only for about a minute each time. We could hear the splatters on the air conditioner outside our bedroom. And it was very windy as well. There was even dust in the air but thankfully that didn't turn into a dust storm today.
The army has asked everyone to guard their selves and their possessions until they can get to each area to protect us.
well, 10:00 p.m. and it seems they are attacking on our street? I just got out of the shower and hubby got a call while I was showering that the building his business partner lives in was attacked. I believe they were able to take care of the situation, but it seems that things are getting out of hand.
It can't be just prisoners that were let out who are attacking, so I don't really understand this.
The people wanted freedom and a fair government, and how does that jibe with stealing and looting? Are the two factions completely separate, one only taking advantage of the groundwork the other laid? (I figured out the answer to this later on, with the additional information that the police let out the prisoners on purpose, to keep people busy and from demonstrating)
So, things are a bit beyond not safe on the streets right now, and I think I'd even be reluctant to go out in the daytime.
Hubby was telling me about the gun shots in the neighborhood and what they mean. It seems that this is well known, and he knew about it because he was living in Kuwait when the takeover happened there.
So what happens is this, the block or parts of the block get together, and they separate out all those people that have guns. Those people take turns, up on the roofs, guarding the buildings. They fire shots at intervals to let the others know that everything is okay. The first guy starts and it goes down the line. If anyone misses firing a shot, then they know something is wrong.
There are also guys down at the beginning of every street, and you need to get a password before leaving the street, and then when you come back, you need to repeat the password to pass by.
Sounds like a lot of work but perhaps it's effective.
Okay, just heard from hubby, apparently the gun that was going off on our street was just the owner of the building "saying hello". *sigh*
I don't know what will happen in the coming days. I'm excited and nervous and happy and scared.
The banks are still closed and not sure when they will open. I know the stock market has taken a tumble as well.
And I hear that things have erupted in Jordan as well, and other countries. It seems the middle east is having some kind of general revolution!
I have to say, they way the government has handled this whole situation is just disgusting. They obviously care nothing for the people, for rights, for freedoms. For peoples well being and happiness. The things I have seen the government doing in the past few days give me just the tiniest hint of why the people here are so fed up. I don't blame them.
I'm not about to take to the streets and protest. And I feel bad for those who do, getting tear gassed and water cannoned, and even being shot at. Even a rubber bullet can kill you when they shoot in the right place.
But the people have rights, everyone has rights, and after 30 years of being denied the rights, people are simply fed up. They've had enough.
I'm tempted to play some music and chill out a bit, but I don't want anything to interfere with the sounds outside, as it's a very good clue as to what is going on around us. We need to be at least somewhat alert.
I've put a chicken in the oven to roast, so at least we'll have something nice to eat for dinner. Wouldn't mind some home made macaroni and cheese with that, and a nice crisp salad, but no such luck, don't have the right ingredients for either. Maybe just some pasta.
Not sure when it will be "safe" to upload videos of the protesting and attacks that happened here yesterday, Friday, but when I feel it is safe I will. Or I'll send them to someone else to upload and link to them.
I'm not sure how far the government will go in that department. I know that they don't have the same freedoms here in that way that we do in the States, the freedom to post what you want, to state your opinions and thoughts. So I worry about stepping over any lines.
I'm sure the government has bigger fish to fry than an American housewife who mostly talks about how dusty it is, but still.... doesn't hurt to at least be somewhat cautious? People have gone to jail here for posting online. I don't want to be one of those people.
Hubby just said he wants to help guard the building. This raised immediate alarms for me. "What if.., what if... what if...", but he feels that he needs to help, and that more people make a better show at scaring off thugs. Not sure when he will go down. He will sleep for a few hours and then see how things are.
I have a feeling this will be a long night, and like many nights recently, I may not sleep til the sky is light.
10:45 p.m. Just heard from my folks. They used my calling card I left them to call my cell phone. Nice to hear from family and back home and feel connected to something outside the mess here.
Midnight and eating dinner when a gun goes off four times in rapid succession. I'm not sure gunfire makes for good digestion.
12:41 and shooting and a scuffle on the street. Not sure what's going on. Hubby is down at the cafe on the corner......and now the scuffle seems to have moved a street over or a little further up but it's still going on. Some yelling and shouting and now it sounds like a big fight. Time to go look out the window and see if I can see anything. Hmmmm, couldn't see out the window so went out onto the balcony. There seemed to be a small group of guys harassing a car on the street but I don't know why. Several small groups of men going about with bats and such. The streets are definitely not the safe place to be. All in all lots of activity going on. People in small groups talking, or walking around.
There is a mosque nearby that plays some quran for a while every now and again, which is nice and somewhat comforting, but I'm not sure if they'll do that into the night or what. It's almost 1 a.m. now. I do hear a speaker somewhere broadcasting something but it's not the quran, more like someone speaking? Maybe it's a radio on a speaker or something but I can't tell.
Also, it's rather chilly out tonight! The weather was absolutely perfect for the demonstrations on Friday. It went from being in the mid 50's lately, to what I believe was mid 70's Friday. Couldn't have asked for better weather. Sunny and warm but not hot. Still nice today, though it was cloudy very early in the morning.
1:11 and sounds of another scuffle outside.
Hubby called a bit ago and when I asked him about the earlier commotion and the cars being stopped he said that the groups were stopping cars they didn't recognize and making sure everything was okay. Glad I don't have to be out driving!
1:38 and another scuffle down on the street. Quran has been playing nicely somewhere nearby for a while.
Scuffle going up and down in intensity. Wish I could understand what they were yelling. Though it's possible even if I understood Arabic I wouldn't know what they were yelling. Definitely fighting going on though. Doesn't sound good. Hubby still down there somewhere.
2:13 and time for the next scuffle. Little farther away but I can still hear it, and it's moving closer.
2:24 quran still playing outside somewhere. it's calming.
3:09 and I hear several people whistling and a loud rumbling noise, and I had heard the same things several times in the night but always missed what was going on by the time I went to look, though my suspicion was that the people out on the street were whistling whenever the army was going by on their tanks. This time when I heard the whistling start up and the noise that was there as well, I ran to the window, and sure enough, there's a tank rolling down the street. Dorothy, you aren't in Kansas anymore.
3:31 and I can hear a tank rolling down the street. They're quite loud.
3:41 gun shots in the near distance.
4:06 and quran still going. I wonder if it will stop or just keep playing?
4:15 gun shots in the near distance.
4:17 and a group of guys going by whistling. I really don't understand what the whistling is about? It seems every time a group goes by there are some people who are whistling. Maybe it's some sort of signal.
4:36 finally tired and worn out and want to go to bed, but hubby is still down at the front of the street on guard duty with some other guys. I think he likes it, being involved somehow. I think they all do. Feeling like they have some control over what is happening, at least on our own little turf. I will be happy if I wake up rested tomorrow, to bright sunshine and day life that is somewhat normal compared to what the night life is here now.
I wonder what is in store for this country. Whether or not the demonstrations will have their intended effect remains to be seen, but they have affected this country to it's core, to be sure. I have a feeling that things will be unsettled for a time, though no idea how long. And I have a feeling that some things will change, but I can't get a handle on exactly what. If the current government remains with no change to it, I think things will get worse, and I feel that the people, if they can't maintain the demonstrations at the same level as now, will go underground and things will get somehow uglier and scarier. And even if the government changes and someone new comes to power, things will obviously change, but it is not so easy. Even if the changes are good and moving in a positive direction, it is not so easy.
And, sorry to say it, but Egypt is now going to be on a list of places not to vacation in the coming months and perhaps years. And this is sad, because it is a big part of how the country and its people bring in income. It's a beautiful country, with a simple and lovely people, and there truly are wondrous things to see and explore.
I don't know how I feel about living here, I will have to see how things turn out after all the dust settles. Maybe things will feel at least somewhat normal again at some point. Maybe not. Too early to tell. But I don't think I will feel so carefree about life here for a long while. I'm not sure anyone will.
I had hoped that my son might spend a semester or year in college here, but I'm not sure how I feel about that anymore. If I had him with me now, I would wish that he wasn't experiencing this, that he was back in the States. It's not the worst thing I've ever gone through, (though it's certainly all sorts of surreal), but we never want the ones we love to be in any sort of harms way.
5:00 and I think I hear a tank coming. I had wanted to get video of one going by but honestly I'm too tired to get the camera out and run out to the balcony. If they're going about in the day I'll try to get a picture or some video.
5:05 lots of multiple shot gun fire in the middle (to far?) distance. And our local rooster crowing, who crows at all hours of the day and night. Quite the conversationalist he is!
5:15 hubby finally home. says we can stay at the in-laws tomorrow (night?) if I want to. Not sure that's a fantastic idea. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
5:16 and now the morning call to prayer is starting up in all the mosques around us.
6:00 and time to lay down in bed and try to sleep.
Weather is also starting to warm up a bit and there are a couple of days forecast at low 80's in the coming week.
I love the Fall and Spring here in Cairo, but the short Winter and the ever lasting Summer really just aren't that pleasant.
We recently bought a kind of small sized emergency light. You charge it by plugging it in, but then the light will last for quite some hours, so it will be useful in the Summer when the power goes out all the time. I do also have the hand crank flashflight, but you have to keep winding it every few minutes or so or the light starts getting dimmer and dimmer.
:::
Finally decided it was okay to post the log/journal that I kept while the internet was down during the recent activities here in Cairo. Looking back it seems that I kept a log for about 5 or 6 days, can't remember exactly.
I'll be posting a couple of entries a week. They're kind of long in one sense and there's no way I want to post it all at once and overwhelm anyone.
So, the first one today and then the next one either Wednesday or maybe Thursday.
Would appreciate any feedback on these posts. I had hubby read over the first day and he thought it was accurate and enjoyed reading it.
Unfortunately, most of what I got regarding images were videos, in which you can kind of clearly tell where we live. I'm not so excited about posting those up and I got very few pictures, so I'm not sure what to do about that. I may post up the videos privately for family or something to see. Will think about it.
So, onto the first day. By the way, this first day is fairly long but by the last log, it was much shorter.
:::
Jan 29, 2011
The sun has set some few hours ago. And now, in the dark, we hear gunshots. I am told that they are signals, from sentries on nearby streets. What they are signaling, I'm not certain.
It's disconcerting to hear them from a few streets away, and more so to hear them right on your own street.
I hope they don't keep at it throughout the night.
It is said that police were letting the prisoners out of the police stations. Which explains all the looting of electronics that has been happening in the last 24 or so hours. And not just thieves hubby says, they are "thugs". Apparently this has been done to keep people too busy guarding their houses to be able to go out and demonstrate.
They have looted many many places, some large, some small, all over Cairo.
I would have to say, not so safe to be walking the streets at night now.
Even the very young boys on the back streets are carrying around weapons, perhaps something like bats.
There is supposedly a curfew, from 6 p.m. til 7 a.m., but I don't know how long that is supposed to stay in effect.
Last night (Friday night), after things settled down on our street, was the quietest night I've ever spent here in Cairo. Hardly a car going by and not much to speak of for foot traffic either. It was eerily quiet.
But we did hear unexplained firing. My first thought was that it was tear gas being fired somewhere not too far away, the sound carrying in the quiet night.
Hubby thinks more along the lines of gunfire of some kind, which may be more accurate, since it was more rapid fire than I think the tear gas cannons shoot.
This went on through the wee hours, every 20 minutes or so from 3 a.m. til maybe 5:30 a.m.
They cut the internet by midnight on Thursday night, and when we woke at noon on Friday, all cell lines were dead as well.
The phone lines came back by 11:30 a.m. today, Saturday, but they still have not turned the internet back on.
With cell phones, communication and information is able to spread more easily, once again.
We hear news that there are buildings that have been set afire in Tahrir square, the area that seems to be the main meeting point for the protesters.
We know someone who knows someone living in Tahrir square, with a direct view. I wonder what it has been like the last few days, and although I'm not sure I'd feel safe living there right now, I wish I had been able to capture some of that on film.
The army was out with tanks on Pyramid Street last night (about 5 or 10 minutes walk from us). Not sure if they are still there or what is going on.
I heard that the army is being sent out to guard the streets because the police are just gone. But, I hear that the army is nicer than the police, that the police are justs corrupt and can't be trusted.
So, presumably we will have an army guy, gun and all, guarding somewhere nearby? Probably quite a few since we live just off the main street.
After things died down yesterday, hubby went out to buy some supplies, as we weren't sure what would happen.
He got a case of water and food and even some candles. We had heard that they might cut the power and though I have a flashlight that runs by manual power, it's always good to have a backup.
There is still a smell here and there today of tear gas. It got up onto some of the roofs and I suppose with the wind blowing off and on it hasn't all gone yet. I hope it goes soon. I hate to leave the windows open with drying laundry, if there's a the chance of even little bits of tear gas blowing in.
It actually sprinkled about 3 times in the night, but only for about a minute each time. We could hear the splatters on the air conditioner outside our bedroom. And it was very windy as well. There was even dust in the air but thankfully that didn't turn into a dust storm today.
The army has asked everyone to guard their selves and their possessions until they can get to each area to protect us.
well, 10:00 p.m. and it seems they are attacking on our street? I just got out of the shower and hubby got a call while I was showering that the building his business partner lives in was attacked. I believe they were able to take care of the situation, but it seems that things are getting out of hand.
It can't be just prisoners that were let out who are attacking, so I don't really understand this.
The people wanted freedom and a fair government, and how does that jibe with stealing and looting? Are the two factions completely separate, one only taking advantage of the groundwork the other laid? (I figured out the answer to this later on, with the additional information that the police let out the prisoners on purpose, to keep people busy and from demonstrating)
So, things are a bit beyond not safe on the streets right now, and I think I'd even be reluctant to go out in the daytime.
Hubby was telling me about the gun shots in the neighborhood and what they mean. It seems that this is well known, and he knew about it because he was living in Kuwait when the takeover happened there.
So what happens is this, the block or parts of the block get together, and they separate out all those people that have guns. Those people take turns, up on the roofs, guarding the buildings. They fire shots at intervals to let the others know that everything is okay. The first guy starts and it goes down the line. If anyone misses firing a shot, then they know something is wrong.
There are also guys down at the beginning of every street, and you need to get a password before leaving the street, and then when you come back, you need to repeat the password to pass by.
Sounds like a lot of work but perhaps it's effective.
Okay, just heard from hubby, apparently the gun that was going off on our street was just the owner of the building "saying hello". *sigh*
I don't know what will happen in the coming days. I'm excited and nervous and happy and scared.
The banks are still closed and not sure when they will open. I know the stock market has taken a tumble as well.
And I hear that things have erupted in Jordan as well, and other countries. It seems the middle east is having some kind of general revolution!
I have to say, they way the government has handled this whole situation is just disgusting. They obviously care nothing for the people, for rights, for freedoms. For peoples well being and happiness. The things I have seen the government doing in the past few days give me just the tiniest hint of why the people here are so fed up. I don't blame them.
I'm not about to take to the streets and protest. And I feel bad for those who do, getting tear gassed and water cannoned, and even being shot at. Even a rubber bullet can kill you when they shoot in the right place.
But the people have rights, everyone has rights, and after 30 years of being denied the rights, people are simply fed up. They've had enough.
I'm tempted to play some music and chill out a bit, but I don't want anything to interfere with the sounds outside, as it's a very good clue as to what is going on around us. We need to be at least somewhat alert.
I've put a chicken in the oven to roast, so at least we'll have something nice to eat for dinner. Wouldn't mind some home made macaroni and cheese with that, and a nice crisp salad, but no such luck, don't have the right ingredients for either. Maybe just some pasta.
Not sure when it will be "safe" to upload videos of the protesting and attacks that happened here yesterday, Friday, but when I feel it is safe I will. Or I'll send them to someone else to upload and link to them.
I'm not sure how far the government will go in that department. I know that they don't have the same freedoms here in that way that we do in the States, the freedom to post what you want, to state your opinions and thoughts. So I worry about stepping over any lines.
I'm sure the government has bigger fish to fry than an American housewife who mostly talks about how dusty it is, but still.... doesn't hurt to at least be somewhat cautious? People have gone to jail here for posting online. I don't want to be one of those people.
Hubby just said he wants to help guard the building. This raised immediate alarms for me. "What if.., what if... what if...", but he feels that he needs to help, and that more people make a better show at scaring off thugs. Not sure when he will go down. He will sleep for a few hours and then see how things are.
I have a feeling this will be a long night, and like many nights recently, I may not sleep til the sky is light.
10:45 p.m. Just heard from my folks. They used my calling card I left them to call my cell phone. Nice to hear from family and back home and feel connected to something outside the mess here.
Midnight and eating dinner when a gun goes off four times in rapid succession. I'm not sure gunfire makes for good digestion.
12:41 and shooting and a scuffle on the street. Not sure what's going on. Hubby is down at the cafe on the corner......and now the scuffle seems to have moved a street over or a little further up but it's still going on. Some yelling and shouting and now it sounds like a big fight. Time to go look out the window and see if I can see anything. Hmmmm, couldn't see out the window so went out onto the balcony. There seemed to be a small group of guys harassing a car on the street but I don't know why. Several small groups of men going about with bats and such. The streets are definitely not the safe place to be. All in all lots of activity going on. People in small groups talking, or walking around.
There is a mosque nearby that plays some quran for a while every now and again, which is nice and somewhat comforting, but I'm not sure if they'll do that into the night or what. It's almost 1 a.m. now. I do hear a speaker somewhere broadcasting something but it's not the quran, more like someone speaking? Maybe it's a radio on a speaker or something but I can't tell.
Also, it's rather chilly out tonight! The weather was absolutely perfect for the demonstrations on Friday. It went from being in the mid 50's lately, to what I believe was mid 70's Friday. Couldn't have asked for better weather. Sunny and warm but not hot. Still nice today, though it was cloudy very early in the morning.
1:11 and sounds of another scuffle outside.
Hubby called a bit ago and when I asked him about the earlier commotion and the cars being stopped he said that the groups were stopping cars they didn't recognize and making sure everything was okay. Glad I don't have to be out driving!
1:38 and another scuffle down on the street. Quran has been playing nicely somewhere nearby for a while.
Scuffle going up and down in intensity. Wish I could understand what they were yelling. Though it's possible even if I understood Arabic I wouldn't know what they were yelling. Definitely fighting going on though. Doesn't sound good. Hubby still down there somewhere.
2:13 and time for the next scuffle. Little farther away but I can still hear it, and it's moving closer.
2:24 quran still playing outside somewhere. it's calming.
3:09 and I hear several people whistling and a loud rumbling noise, and I had heard the same things several times in the night but always missed what was going on by the time I went to look, though my suspicion was that the people out on the street were whistling whenever the army was going by on their tanks. This time when I heard the whistling start up and the noise that was there as well, I ran to the window, and sure enough, there's a tank rolling down the street. Dorothy, you aren't in Kansas anymore.
3:31 and I can hear a tank rolling down the street. They're quite loud.
3:41 gun shots in the near distance.
4:06 and quran still going. I wonder if it will stop or just keep playing?
4:15 gun shots in the near distance.
4:17 and a group of guys going by whistling. I really don't understand what the whistling is about? It seems every time a group goes by there are some people who are whistling. Maybe it's some sort of signal.
4:36 finally tired and worn out and want to go to bed, but hubby is still down at the front of the street on guard duty with some other guys. I think he likes it, being involved somehow. I think they all do. Feeling like they have some control over what is happening, at least on our own little turf. I will be happy if I wake up rested tomorrow, to bright sunshine and day life that is somewhat normal compared to what the night life is here now.
I wonder what is in store for this country. Whether or not the demonstrations will have their intended effect remains to be seen, but they have affected this country to it's core, to be sure. I have a feeling that things will be unsettled for a time, though no idea how long. And I have a feeling that some things will change, but I can't get a handle on exactly what. If the current government remains with no change to it, I think things will get worse, and I feel that the people, if they can't maintain the demonstrations at the same level as now, will go underground and things will get somehow uglier and scarier. And even if the government changes and someone new comes to power, things will obviously change, but it is not so easy. Even if the changes are good and moving in a positive direction, it is not so easy.
And, sorry to say it, but Egypt is now going to be on a list of places not to vacation in the coming months and perhaps years. And this is sad, because it is a big part of how the country and its people bring in income. It's a beautiful country, with a simple and lovely people, and there truly are wondrous things to see and explore.
I don't know how I feel about living here, I will have to see how things turn out after all the dust settles. Maybe things will feel at least somewhat normal again at some point. Maybe not. Too early to tell. But I don't think I will feel so carefree about life here for a long while. I'm not sure anyone will.
I had hoped that my son might spend a semester or year in college here, but I'm not sure how I feel about that anymore. If I had him with me now, I would wish that he wasn't experiencing this, that he was back in the States. It's not the worst thing I've ever gone through, (though it's certainly all sorts of surreal), but we never want the ones we love to be in any sort of harms way.
5:00 and I think I hear a tank coming. I had wanted to get video of one going by but honestly I'm too tired to get the camera out and run out to the balcony. If they're going about in the day I'll try to get a picture or some video.
5:05 lots of multiple shot gun fire in the middle (to far?) distance. And our local rooster crowing, who crows at all hours of the day and night. Quite the conversationalist he is!
5:15 hubby finally home. says we can stay at the in-laws tomorrow (night?) if I want to. Not sure that's a fantastic idea. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
5:16 and now the morning call to prayer is starting up in all the mosques around us.
6:00 and time to lay down in bed and try to sleep.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The blaaaaaaahs
I wanted to post on Monday, to get back on track with regular Monday postings, but it seems I've got a serious case of the blahs.
This is extending to pretty much everything. Dishes, laundry, other housework. Even baking and cooking.
It's like my life got put on hold for 3 weeks and coming off that I just haven't quite figured out how to get back to whatever normal passed for around here.
But, today I've made some good progress. Got a load of dishes done and just baked some lemon biscuits. Hopefully this will be the start of shaking the blahs off.
:::
You know, many people have told me that I was lucky to be living here, to be able to witness history in the making.
I feel a couple (or more) of different ways about this.
For sure, it's been monumental. It's been scary and exciting and sad and wonderful. It's brought tears to myself and countless others.
And I'm not entirely ungrateful about being here during this time. But... I didn't do anything physically to support what was going on, and not even anything non-physical, unless thoughts count. I didn't voice my thoughts and opinions openly, not openly online anyways, and so as well as not contributing to things, I could only watch like the rest of the world on the television (for me the computer).
So... I'm not sure how that constitutes lucky in the witnessing history department.
The last couple of days before things ended, I actually went online to look up prices for flights back to the States, because I had reached a point where I really wasn't happy about staying here. At all.
But, I decided that I didn't have the money to spend and didn't want to ask anyone else for it, and that I would just try to tough it out.
What is lucky about hearing gun shots ring out on your street frequently during the night, or hearing tanks go down the street once an hour all night long?
What's lucky about hearing and seeing groups of men roving the streets, albeit in the name of protecting the neighborhood, holding guns and large sticks, knives and swords?
If I had been in the States and my husband had been here I would have been worried sick. So in that respect I'm happy to have been here.
And I wish that I could claim some kind of victory but I wasn't fighting with anything but thoughts.
I don't think there is any luck or honor in that.
I'm sincerely and completely happy for the Egyptian people. I was on the verge of tears off and on for 24 hours after the final news came. I hope, with all my heart, that they get the freedoms, all of the freedoms, that they truly desire.
I also hope they use it wisely and well. There is a beauty to this country that I would hate to see spoiled by it becoming too "Western". That doesn't mean they shouldn't have freedom, just that some people waste freedom in ways that don't further themselves or anyone else.
I hope all that makes some sense.
I'm excited now, now that things are moving forward, to see where this country will go.
What shape will it take? What will come forward? What will change for the better?
There are so many areas that could use SO much help. And people, I think for the most part, are willing to try and help and "fix" the stuff that needs fixing. Even if they are unskilled or don't know what to do, I think they will be there asking to lend a hand.
Peace to all the people of Egypt. Peace to the families who have lost a family member in the fighting that went on. Peace to us all.
:::
Hope to be back to regular Monday posting. Hope to post some video and diary soon of the three weeks.
This is extending to pretty much everything. Dishes, laundry, other housework. Even baking and cooking.
It's like my life got put on hold for 3 weeks and coming off that I just haven't quite figured out how to get back to whatever normal passed for around here.
But, today I've made some good progress. Got a load of dishes done and just baked some lemon biscuits. Hopefully this will be the start of shaking the blahs off.
:::
You know, many people have told me that I was lucky to be living here, to be able to witness history in the making.
I feel a couple (or more) of different ways about this.
For sure, it's been monumental. It's been scary and exciting and sad and wonderful. It's brought tears to myself and countless others.
And I'm not entirely ungrateful about being here during this time. But... I didn't do anything physically to support what was going on, and not even anything non-physical, unless thoughts count. I didn't voice my thoughts and opinions openly, not openly online anyways, and so as well as not contributing to things, I could only watch like the rest of the world on the television (for me the computer).
So... I'm not sure how that constitutes lucky in the witnessing history department.
The last couple of days before things ended, I actually went online to look up prices for flights back to the States, because I had reached a point where I really wasn't happy about staying here. At all.
But, I decided that I didn't have the money to spend and didn't want to ask anyone else for it, and that I would just try to tough it out.
What is lucky about hearing gun shots ring out on your street frequently during the night, or hearing tanks go down the street once an hour all night long?
What's lucky about hearing and seeing groups of men roving the streets, albeit in the name of protecting the neighborhood, holding guns and large sticks, knives and swords?
If I had been in the States and my husband had been here I would have been worried sick. So in that respect I'm happy to have been here.
And I wish that I could claim some kind of victory but I wasn't fighting with anything but thoughts.
I don't think there is any luck or honor in that.
I'm sincerely and completely happy for the Egyptian people. I was on the verge of tears off and on for 24 hours after the final news came. I hope, with all my heart, that they get the freedoms, all of the freedoms, that they truly desire.
I also hope they use it wisely and well. There is a beauty to this country that I would hate to see spoiled by it becoming too "Western". That doesn't mean they shouldn't have freedom, just that some people waste freedom in ways that don't further themselves or anyone else.
I hope all that makes some sense.
I'm excited now, now that things are moving forward, to see where this country will go.
What shape will it take? What will come forward? What will change for the better?
There are so many areas that could use SO much help. And people, I think for the most part, are willing to try and help and "fix" the stuff that needs fixing. Even if they are unskilled or don't know what to do, I think they will be there asking to lend a hand.
Peace to all the people of Egypt. Peace to the families who have lost a family member in the fighting that went on. Peace to us all.
:::
Hope to be back to regular Monday posting. Hope to post some video and diary soon of the three weeks.
Friday, February 4, 2011
To echo the Whos of Whoville
We are here, we are here, we are here!
We are relatively safe here in our area of Cairo. Watching the news like everyone else.
Wondering what will happen in the coming days.
Not really much else happening. I read a lot to get through the internet down time, which was almost 6 days.
The weather has been nicer, but I guess that's to be expected as we're in February now and by April it will start get fairly warm. I'm not saying it's balmy right now, just not as freezing. lol
Will update more when there's something to update.
We are relatively safe here in our area of Cairo. Watching the news like everyone else.
Wondering what will happen in the coming days.
Not really much else happening. I read a lot to get through the internet down time, which was almost 6 days.
The weather has been nicer, but I guess that's to be expected as we're in February now and by April it will start get fairly warm. I'm not saying it's balmy right now, just not as freezing. lol
Will update more when there's something to update.
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