Cairo Crisis....my experience....

Thursday 27th jan

Things had been quiet on Wednesday,

and i was beginning to think that i had slightly over re-acted by not going into work.

Then i spoke briefly to one of my roommates who had heard it from his

Egyptian friends that things were going to kick off again on Friday afternoon after prayers. (Friday being the Sabbath in Egypt so a lot less people were at work.)

There were also rumours that it may start again on the Thursday evening after work hours.

i headed to my local supermarket to buy a few supplies for a couple of days, just incase.

When i got back home i received a phonecall from one of my friends from work.

They were heading into work to speak to the Director to tell her that we didn't feel safe working from 5pm till 9.30pm on a day when there were rumours of more disruptions.

I said that i would join them.

They wanted me to come stay with them as they lived

on the opposite side of town further away from the main square.

Instead, i called a friend from Church who lives in an area of Cairo called Maadi,

its a richer area and about 20mins away from the centre by Metro.

I asked if i could stay at her house that night as i was feeling

a bit restless being so close to the action

.'No probs' she replied.

So i picked up my passport and a change of clothes for the next day

and headed of to my work to speak to my director.

When i walked down my street there were no policemen out and about yet,

but there were 5 vans full of them sitting at the bottom of the street ready to be deployed. Other than that the street looked like every other day.

When i got to work,

without any transport disruptions this time,

everyone was so happy to see me.

I'm pretty much the only one from work who lives in the Downtown area,

so they had been a bit worried about me knowing how close i was to the action.

The Director was busy with a rehearsal when i got there,

but the general feeling from the other staff and dancers was that if i was there i was going to have to stay there until the end of the rehearsal at 9.30pm.

I left.

I didnt care about rehearsals or even my job,

i wasn't hanging around at the Opera House until 9.30,

what if my road got blocked off again?

what if the protests started up again and i couldnt get home?

I headed to my friends Simmone and Dan in Maadi.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful,

but when i was lying in bed that night

it was nice for it to be so peaceful.