by

Arita Baaijens

‘He’s gone, the Pharao is gone,’ I shouted when I received a text message that Mubarak had stepped down on 11 February. I had just come back from Cairo to Amsterdam and sat there, dazed, happy, not knowing what to do. The only thing I wanted was to join the crowd in Cairo and celebrate, but I had obligations at home.

Back to Tahrir Square

To cut a long story short – I went back a week later, last Friday, and arrived on time to join the festive crowd in Tahrir square on the Day of Celebration.

‘We have our country back!’  people told me time and again with a big smile on their face.

A positive vibe surged through the city and the whole country. Don’t forget that also elsewhere in Egypt people had taken to the streets to protest and fight for freedom. My eyes popped when I saw young and old cleaning the streets. Others painted lamp posts and bridges.

‘We want a clean start.’

Teenagers kept up signs on  Tahrir square to show citizens what they could do for their country: Keep it clean, learn about the constitution, do not pay bribes, pay decent salaries, become active.

Khaled

That Friday I stayed out till late at night and ended up in a coffee house in a small alley in down town Cairo. ‘Hey, Arita.’ It was Khaled, a young sound technician with whom I had worked two years ago when he had been my guide into the world of young writers and bloggers for a feature I was working on. As  I remember, it was quite depressing to listen to these kids with talent and who had lost hope. The only thing that kept most of them going was the dream about leaving the country and start a life elsewhere although leaving Egypt is the very last thing an Egyptian wants to do.

One of the organizers

Khaled happened to be one of the organizers of the demonstration on 25 January – ‘the day I was born’ as he and others refer to that day. We talked for hours about the events that had taken place. The organizers were not a movement or a political party, they knew each other from Facebook.

‘We are fast,’ explained Khaled the main tactic during the revolution. ‘Someone has an idea, others join in and we act.’

Khaled in the middle

Because of their speed and unpredictability the government was always light years behind the demonstrators. There wasn’t one leader on the square so nobody had to wait for orders. Ideas could be carried out instantly. The group was amorphous, which is why bribes and pressure did not have any effect. Since this revolution took place I believe in miracles again. Not only did the people on the square do the impossible – stick together and beat the system – they didn’t stop there. Take yesterday. I spent all day with Khaled and his friends and went with them to Qasr el Eini hospital. The group wanted to find out how many seriously wounded  people were being treated there. ‘We feel responsible for them and want to help them.’ The director of the hospital stated there were only 3 injured people left. One was in a coma, two others in intensive care. Nobody believed him but the group didn’t press the director. They were more clever than that and sent in an under cover girl. She talked to all the nurses, searched the wards and came back with a long list of patients who had been shot, beaten or who suffered from injuries because of stones thrown from roof tops. The girl was pretty upset when we met her a few hours later in a down town café. She had seen gruesome things and wondered why the director had lied.

Did he receive orders? If so from whom? Were authorities afraid that more deaths would trigger violent reactions?

The group is going to find out in a meeting today with doctors and with the press. They will not rest until there’s a list with patients. Patients who need support and money for treatment because they fought and protected the boys and girls who now walk around free. This is only one example of what is going on in post revolutionary Egypt.

Old System still in place

The old system is still in place and demonstrators realize they have a long way to go to change this country. ‘But we’ll do it because this is our country now and our responsibility.’

Arita Baaijens is one of the worlds most famous desert travellers. You can read more about the fantastic personality at http://www.aritabaaijens.nl andhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/aritabaaijens

Arita has featured or written 3 articles already on my site here.

1. Thoughts after meeting a female explorer

2. Exploration, an outdoor activity or what?

3. Female leadership in the desert.

4. Article on ExWeb: From the saddle Arita Baaijens in Cairo; Those kids really pulled it off!

Arita Baaijens - desert explorer

Please visit my sponsors Termo who are making it possible for me to write 2 blog reports per week. Just click the logo to find the best underwear on earth

…and he will travel the world.

That is what my sister said when she was pushing me around in a stroller 47 years ago, when she met a neighbor and briefly stopped and talked to her. I learned that yesterday when I visited my American sister Sarah and met the neighbor. Since than I have traveled to 113 countries and spent more than 2500 nighs in a tent, many of them in a tent which you see to the right here. Photo is taken in the Sinai desert and this was one of the scariest nights in my life. Soon I will pass here again and I will worry less. Since than I have already met the worst demon of all.

As you can see, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, I have even been able to get my bicycle in, the one I used when I cycled from New Zealand to Cairo 1994-96, The reason was that i had been attacked the night before and was worried beyond belief. And trying to sleep then, isn´t easy. I just lay there in the dark, shivering, frightened, listening to every movement, just in case, somebody had spotted me leaving the main road and hiding behind this set of rocky outcrops, coming there to rob me, kill me…well, that is how the mind goes. Eventually i fell asleep, probably an hour before the arrival of dawn. Suddenly it happened!

Somebody attacked me, hit me hard in the right eye, I screamed and yelled, kicked and fought back against the attacker, and I shouted:

“You shouldn´t have done that!”

The attacker turned out being…..my bike. Strong wind had arrived and the bike just fell over and I got the end of my handlebar in my right eye….I did manage to brake a spoke and make life even more complicated, since I still, after almost 90 000 km:s and 7.5 years on a push bike, I still didn´t know how to adjust a spoke properly.

Another voice from the past also turned up yesterday, Bengt, a guy I worked with 1984-85, when saving money to do my first Expedition, from Chile to Alaska on a push bike, at a workshop manufacturing saw blades. He was my boss than and he´s kept track on me ever since and remembers the day I left for Chile. It was the same day the premier of Sweden, Olof Palme, was executed on a street in Stockholm. He came to honor me, traveled a big distance to do that, and that is such a privilege to experience.

I wish I was in Chile right now, because strong winds, grey sky and damp, bone chilling cold has arrived to Stockholm. I thought about yemen this morning and than thi article by a friend, Tim, showed up. Read it here!

It is like a dream, finally being able to try to pick up Arabic and live in a very exotic, demanding and exiting environment like San’a. The reason I choose San’a before Cairo or Damascus was also due to the fact, not only do I wish to cross this slightly unstable country and need to check out its possibility, but learning Arabic and being a real traveller, is being kind of a Robert De Niro of exploration. You have to prepare yourself for the leading role by becoming an Arab. Which is another reason I believe Yemen is the best choice, since I have a feeling very few speak English here, so they´re forcing me to practise my Arabic, plus that it is in many ways, if I am to believe what I have read on the Internet and in books, conservative. Perfect to learn more about Arabian Etiquette, which is harder than any I have ever come across in other cultures. Whilst browsing the Net concerning Arabian Etiquette, I found this link regarding business Etiquette in Arabia.

I have already found out that a gym does exist in San’a, which mean I will have to train as well, 4 times a week. However, I wish I could go today! Please stay tuned through my visit to see how all goes and I will tell you the truth and nothing but the truth!

Sana´a             Cairo         Damascus

I have a long time ago realized that I have to speak as good Arabic as possible, to fully be able to understand the Arab world. Otherwise it is impossible! Especially important if you are setting up an Expedition as the one shown in this little pilot:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GI-YeZP5E]

Anyway, now I am ready! And I have spent pretty much the last two weeks finding the right place and three cities have been suggested: Damascus, Cairo and Sana´a.

Damascus, Syria, which was my first choice, basically due to that I dreamt about the souks of the old city. But nothing happened there, so than I thought, time to go on. Syria seems stale….

After talking to a lot of people, they said, go to Cairo, because this is where the Arabic you want to learn exists, like the Arabic in the films and music that all of the Arab world understands. Good idea I thought, I have always liked Cairo a lot.  But then I met an Irish and very colourful character in Muscat, Oman, named Brid Beeler, full of energy and life, and she said, Sana´a is the best place…..it is the real Arabia!

Hmmmm, I will take a decision this week, so, question is where will I end up for ten weeks?

During my study, please do follow my blog which will give you an insight into a totally different world!