Day 5 (cont): The New Public Guard; Things fall apart...

6:00pm

The coordinators at UChicago are now 70% sure that we will evacuate to France tomorrow. They’re changing the flight to 3:45pm. Even if this is resolved soon, the country will not be functioning for a while. There are no banks. Banks and ATMs are being robbed. She said people are boarding and bricking up their shops in the streets there. We need to leave the country. Apparently the Public Guard mentality has not reached Dokki yet. At least they have tanks near to them (though honestly I feel safer here, away from downtown with guys in the street armed with sticks, than I would in Dokki with tanks in Dokki Square).

They are now certain that this is the end of Mubarak and there may soon be no government in Egypt.

I knew this was officially the end of Mubarak as soon as Egypt made headlines on CNN…

Tahrir Square is so packed with demonstrators that people can barely move. They all paused at maghrib to pray together in the street. They have continued to be admirably peaceful in their protest.

6:30pm

We are preparing to have our last resources cut off. We’ve been advised to fill bottles with water and get out candles and flashlights. We’re also leaving all the lights on outside so the men can see in the streets. They will be up all night protecting us from robbers.

The looters are everywhere downtown. They are robbing everything – they have stripped all the gold stores, a major department store called Karfur, the headquarters of Saudi Airlines, even the Children’s Cancer Hospital.

The head of security in Egypt (???) is advising everyone to arm and protect themselves and each other until they can send more troops to Cairo.

Apparently Zagazig does not have a curfew right now and the police are there and are actually protecting people. Stores are not being looted there.

Amu Ayman just found out from a neighbor that the skirmish we saw down the street earlier was actually people chasing down a robber that was looting a store down the block from us. They caught him and turned him over to the army. Rabbina ma’ana…

Talked to Taunt Nagwa and my cousin Osama. Both had tears in their voices. They are praying for Egypt. They are proud that I am here with the family to witness this.