It’s been a long week for me, probably even longer for my daughter. But last night, I breathed a sigh of relief as she arrived in Istanbul.
For the previous diaries on the saga of being a worried mother of a 17 year old exchange student in Egypt, you might want to read the previous diaries.
**UPDATE**
Just heard that she will be home at 6pm on Friday. I wish she had a full year, but right now, I just want to hug my baby girl.
And more on the flip...
I was able to call her yesterday. Even better, we were able to skype for the first time since Thursday, 6 days ago when the Internet was shut off in Cairo at around 4pm.
They arrived in Istanbul late Tuesday night. It was about 2pm EST which is 9 in Cairo and also Istanbul. And all she wanted to do was to talk about how much she likes Turkey and wishes she could stay and learn Turkish or go now to Morocco.
What was most sad, was to listen to her talk about leaving and crying with her host mother. She wouldn't let boo pack her bags, she packed them for her, crying. Now, we will work toward taking boo up to Buffalo so that she can meet her host sister who is there on exchange.
I'm worried about her host family. Things like this:
2.33pm: An al-Jazeera correspondent estimates he has seen around 100 people carried away from Tahrir Square, with the most seriously injured an unconscious boy, no more than 8-years-old, who was being carried on the back of a man.
A crying female protester told the station that pro-democracy protesters were being prevented from leaving the square and urged people not to credit the pro-Mubarak supporters with the description "protesters".
One of the AFS students had been living near Tahrir Square and said that when the jet fighters flew over head, they were so low that the building shook. She said that was the scariest part of being there. She also didn't receive the evacuation order and barely made it to the staging area in time to leave with the other students.
Mubarak is trying to hold on to power by brutally crushing a peaceful movement. The host families said that the peaceful protests will end on Friday with prayer. I think from what my daughter and the other students said, that Friday will be the final blow to the regime. I can't see how police dressed as civilians and an army that doesn't protect the citizenry will be able to stop the toppling of Mubarak. The host families were hopeful and prepared for a siege in a very pragmatic way, now, I just hope that the protests are successful and the families this children have grown to love are able to put their lives back together without much more bloodshed.
I'm glad my baby is almost home (should be this Friday), I just hope that her host sister can find internal peace from watching the Lotus revolution from the US. I hope in a few days we'll be able to give her peace as well.
Thank you all for the kind words and thoughts.