Three weeks after the revolution

Today there was a mass demonstration in Tahrir Square.  Fridays are the main days for protests since it's the first day of the weekend and since many people leave to go to the Square together after getting out of mid-day prayers.  I wasn't in the Square today, but did see evidence of the revolution in our community of Maadi.

Jeff, Cameron and I did a lot of walking today and saw a group of children with young adults painting a wall in a colorful geometric design.  Here are some photos of the group.  The children were organized by some Fine Arts students who got paint donated from a neighborhood hardware store.  I have a video that I'm going to try to upload speaking with two of the women organizing this painting.  They discussed how they were doing this project with the children from that neighborhood so the children could feel that it was their Egypt and that they should respect it, clean it, and make it more beautiful.

Later in the afternoon, we passed a group of young men headed for a large gathering of some sort.  We could hear people cheering and some speaking over a loud-speaker.  We found out from someone in the street that there was a celebration of the revolution happening in Maadi just a few blocks away.   Here's a short video clip of that group going by.  Unfortunately the lighting isn't great, but you can get a sense of their spirit:

Here's the link to this video online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIUXHTChTTc

We were on our way to church when we learned about the celebration so couldn't attend, but we did pass a couple people on the street later that night on our way home who had been at that gathering.  I stopped to talk to them because one had an Egyptian flag painted on his cheek, which is a sure sign here that someone has recently come from a protest.  Here's what this 17 year old young man had to say:

Here's a link to this video if you have trouble viewing it on the blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbLBqxBM2-s

Here's a link to the Facebook page for Maadi Festival that he mentioned was how he learned about the celebration.   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132665813421584


The news happens so fast in Egypt these days, my videos are sometimes outdated even before I post them.    One video that I took earlier this week was of an interview with a young man who was camping in Tahrir Square night after night demanding that Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.  Shafiq is an air force general appointed by Mubarak, resign.  Yesterday, Shafiq did resign!  Here's the headline from today's newspaper:

Here's a picture of the new prime minister appointed today:

Here is an article from the Egyptian Gazette about Essam Sharaf who is a professor of civil engineering at Cairo University with a PhD from Purdue University in Indiana.

http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=15693&title=Profile%20-%20Egypt

One media source reported he lead a group of professors to Tahrir Square prior to Mubarak resigning.  However even Sharaf had been in the Mubarak administration as the Minister of Transport two years ago.  He is also a member of the National Democratic Party, Mubarak's party.  Though opposition groups are said to approve of his appointment to Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, another big piece of news is that there will be a referendum on the proposed Constitutional Amendments on March 19, with Parliamentary elections scheduled for June and presidential elections to be held a month and a half after that.  Here is a link to an article about the proposed Constitutional Amendments.

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE7231RU20110304