news from the ground... well... from the balcony....

i still haven't written up the last days........

and from my balcony you can hear the sounds of cheers and chants in support of Mubarak. It's loud. However, I am not near Tahrir....

.....and currently Egypt is more under stress than it has been all week.

Right now as I type, there are two seperate groups of people in medan tahrir... for and against mubarak... and they are fighting each other. The military have pulled back rather than fight their own people (ie both sides!).

I am very scared for the people fighting for their rights and their lives, right now, and over the next few days....

many people who originally protested for a govermental change last friday are now happy with Mubarak's speech last night... saying we've made our mark, change will come.... but others, especially families and friends of those who died in the protests... feel its not enough. There is also a massive fear that the people who have spoken out against Mubarak and who's faces have been captured by TV cameras, who's names have been lifted from facebook etc... the fear is that they will be punished somehow...... as they always have over the past 28years...

I hope the internet will stay up... and I will try to tell my experiences of it all as and when I can.

Tonight... we will be staying home, the curfew has been relax a little today- yesterday we had to be home by 2pm... today it is 5pm. And I have a couple of friends staying over, in addition to my four house guests, in order to celebrate the Chinese New Year... which is tonight... (since we have 3 chinese dancers in the house!)...

..... lets hope and pray that the fighting breaking out now, calms quickly..... with as few casualties as possible.