Day 5 (cont): DON'T MESS WITH EGYPTIANS!

5:00pm

I AM SO OVERJOYED!!!!! After the warning from the Army that civilians should protect themselves against the robbers looting the city, the young men of the neighborhood are outside guarding the houses! Better yet, all over the city Egyptians are working together to catch the robbers and turn them over to the army!! They have armed themselves with whatever they can find – pipes, sticks, baseball bats, hammers, wires, wood planks – I saw a guy climb up in a tree and start breaking off branches and handing them to people. My God, Egyptians are so resourceful and adaptive. And they will protect each other at all costs. GO EGYPTIANS!!! DON’T MESS WITH EGYPTIANS!!!! I called Mom and Dad again and told them not to worry, we are being protected by the Public Army.

Now I can relax. Everyone is safe, my friends are all safe and together and not about to try anything dumb, my family is safe, back-up plans are in place, and we are safe from the bandits in the streets with the young people of Egypt protecting us.

  

5:40pm

Everyone is watching the streets from their balconies and watching the men patrol the streets with the make-shift ammunition. We heard shouts and yells down the block and saw a lot of people running down the street at the end of the block, and noises that sounded like gunshots. Many of the men ran to the end of the block… a short while later the commotion calmed down. We don’t know what happened, but everything’s fine.

Two screens on the TV right now: To the left, a man standing on top of an army tank, dancing and waving an Egyptian flag (with a soldier behind him gently trying to calm him down); To the right, ten or so protesters riding on an army tank with soldiers through the street. Unreal...