Furia en Egipto.

I am Maria a 19 years old young girl. I have been living in Cairo for the last 6,5 months and I went, of course, also through the last 1,5 weeks. I saw many things which I thought I would never see in my entire life. It sometimes somehow felt like walking through my history book.

Ever since the governmental TV showed an Egyptian woman speaking about the USA and Israel on February 2 some people got very anxious about foreigners. Quite a lot Egyptians were getting annoyed and aggressive about foreigners. They want them to stay out of their revolution and internal affairs. And those are not just the Pro Mubarak supporters but also normal people that I know.

Some also think that foreigners are spies and started arresting them; they have been hold in for a couple hours by the army and then been released again. I haven’t experienced anything like this rather being welcomed as usual but it stills draws uncertainty and fear to the few foreigners that staid. While the streets were full of foreigners in the beginning of the demonstrations there are none anymore. On Midan Tahrir however, there are still many.

In the last 13 days things were very crazy and one incident happened after the other or even at the same time. It was NEVER possible to forecast the next 12 hours which did not help to reduce any of the tensions that filled the air. Nobody was able to think about anything else but how to spend or rather survive the next 12 hours. Especially tensed were the situations at home -due to the curfew the whole family spent their whole day with each other, watching TV were the news showed nothing but Midan Tahrir. While sitting at home and seeing nothing but the picture the media gave the people, everybody started living in fear of running out of money and food which eventually happened after while which was visible when the banks opened today again (Feb 6). But not just food and money were the issues, also fuel went raw and cars lined up in front of the working gas stations. I never saw Egyptians lining up like during the last days –lining up waiting to get into the gas station or lining up to buy bread or lining up to get into Midan Tahrir.

While the many Egyptians mostly only saw the television picture of the demonstrations, they saw the young men armed with whatever they might find on the streets. The combination of watching the demonstrations on TV and experiencing the disadvantages themselves with their on flesh is a dangerous combination –at least for a revolution. The Egyptians felt the bad things caused by the demonstrations which influenced their opinion and feelings about the revolution.

While staying at a friend’s house, who opened his place not only to me, I saw how such a demonstration can also cause some other feelings: One of my friend’s friends is Egyptian, living in Switzerland and now by incident visiting Egypt at this time. On February 4^th he received the message that a close friend of his got beaten to death by the police on Friday, Jan 28 during the protests. While gunshots filled the air during the whole night, this Egyptian/Swiss guy threw up from all the alcohol he has been drinking to somehow deal with the situation, while I was sitting in the living room trying to deal with the enormous amount of information.

Most of the time when the government cut off the internet, I, for some reason, still had internet and felt like I should be the connection between Egypt and the outside world but I didn’t know what exactly to do and felt so helpless. The information were running me over, yes, I felt overwhelmed and by everything that was going on.

My feelings during the last 13days went from surprise that so many Egyptians showed up on the first day, to somehow excitement, to FEAR and SHOCK about the violence of the police, to fear to run out of supplies, to a feeling of security while being in and around Midan Tahrir, to fear to be in danger as a foreigner walking on the street, to a feeling of security again being in and around Midan Tahrir. It amazed me how secure and comfortable the huge amount of people in Midan Tahrir made me feel. You were one of many and at the same time a whole, everybody being equal –from a completely veiled woman to a woman with headscarf to a woman without scarf. There was no such thing like sexual harassment, everybody respected the other.

Today and yesterday it is raining which is quite uncommon, I’m wondering if it might has another meaning?! Is Egypt crying? Or just giving the hardcore protesters in Midan Tahrir a hard time?

However, after the worst case scenario of Egyptians fighting against Egyptians on Wednesday with many people killed and injured, the normal life returned today. Banks opened, people went to work again and the traffic was as bad as before. Now we can say good bye to the beautifully clean air of the last days. Thus, most of the Egyptians are happy as they were desperately graving for their normal life. They were tired of the demonstrations that interfered in their daily life, they wanted to go out again, go to work, earn money, … short: have their old life back. And firmly speaking, even the anti Mubarak supporters want their old life back; thus with one difference: without Mubarak.

Note: Reading now through what I wrote I feel like I have completely failed in describing what has happened and what is happening. It is just so overwhelming and incredible that it is nearly impossible to put in any written language! I feel the same feeling when looking at pictures and videos of the last days –it seems so surreal that it is sheer impossible to be real.

Maria Neubert, Egipto.