A long awaited, month-long trip to Egypt was going to be a highlight of the year for Laverne Cullen of Little Horse Lake.
In some ways it was, but the timing of her business holiday made it memorable in an unnerving sort of way.
Cullen, 58, travelled alone to Cairo on Jan. 28 to purchase goods for her home-based import business. It happened to be the turn-around date for escalating protests that had been taking place in the country, aimed at supporters of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Non-violent protests turned into a revolution that day, and Cullen found herself in the middle of it.
This was a return trip for her, after first visiting Egypt in March 2010, where she instantly fell in love with the country and its people.
She returned to the small Zayed Hotel where she had stayed before and reacquainted herself with old friends from the previous year. They would prove to be her comfort and her guardians during the week that followed.
Immediately, hotel staff advised her not to leave the property as protests were gaining strength. The hotel was situated just a five-minute taxi ride from Tahrir Square, which was the centre for protests in that city, and it was only two blocks away from a main street that would soon turn into a looter’s paradise.
Cullen says she had a sleepless first night, with the sounds of gunshots piercing the silence every now and then. By the third night, gunshots filled the air following an incident at the nearby prison, which resulted in 8,000 inmates escaping into the streets.
“News stories described Cairo as a war zone. The looting by the prisoners started.
They were breaking into banks. They looted an entire mall and broke ATM machines.”
At one point during the escalating mayhem, looters entered the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which is filled with the largest collection of Egyptian treasures to be found anywhere.
She says it was amazing how regular citizens handled the situation.
“When the Egyptian people outside heard that there were people inside wanting to steal things, they made a human ring around the museum to stop looters if they got outside with something.”
Elsewhere, Cullen adds, people were protecting their own neighbourhoods by barricading their street corners and checking the identification of everyone who wanted in.
At her small hotel, guests quickly vacated, leaving her and a professor from the University of Iraq as the only ones remaining. Staff members took their visitors’ safety and the protection of the hotel very seriously and guarded the entrance 24 hours a day.
The guard party was usually three or four staff members who would sit around a small campfire on the street, make tea and listen to music as they watched. Their weapon arsenal consisted of a pile of hefty sticks and rocks that sat ready by the doorway at all times.
Curfews were in place from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day, so most of Cullen’s evenings and many sleepless nights were spent around the outdoor fire, catching up on daily developments with staff members and improving on her grasp of the Arabic language.
“It might sound strange, but I trusted myself to be out there at 4 a.m. with a bunch of guys with sticks. They are such trustworthy people and I knew my welfare was important to them.”
Internet and mobile phone service were down, and banks, schools and stores were all shut, making it impossible for Cullen to contact her family and reassure them she was OK.
Fortunately, she had registered with the Canadian Embassy before setting out on her trip, and after being contacted by Cullen’s sister in Canada, an embassy representative contacted her to check on her status.
One day, while in her room, reading a book, Cullen says she was startled by the thundering noise of fighter jets overhead, sent out by President Mubarak. They buzzed the city for about 30 minutes, she adds.
“Then, I was a little anxious, but at the same time, I always had a feeling of safety and peace. That was the only time I felt really nervous.”
Cullen waited for a week while family at home worked on arranging an early return flight home for her, but there was little to do during the day or night.
As a courtesy, her hotel arranged a taxi to take her out to visit the home of a friend named Sayidda, whom she had met last year. The driver was instructed to stay with her, and after one hour, drive her back to the hotel.
Otherwise, she got a bit of exercise daily by walking the perimeter of an adjacent square, and over and over again, greeted the people who were out there to guard other buildings.
Cullen’s family was finally able to arrange a flight home for her, but the problem was it departed at 4 a.m., during curfew hours. Another problem was she had no money to pay for the taxi ride to the airport.
Banks were still closed and most ATM machines had been destroyed, but finding one in working order somewhere was imperative.
She found a taxi, and the hotel sent a staff member along to guard her as she searched for a working ATM.
“There were tanks and soldiers on the streets, but not many regular people. We drove through areas where rock throwing had happened and the whole block was littered with stones the size of baseballs.
“The taxi had to bump its way through. To see a modern street just covered in rocks was weird.”
After coming across many ATMs that didn’t work, Cullen finally had some luck.
The taxi stopped on the empty street and she got out and raced up a set of stairs to what looked like a promising prospect. The taxi driver and hotel employee stood guard while she hastily jammed her card into the machine and was rewarded with cash.
“It was sort of exciting, but it was scary, too. It felt like I was sneaking around, trying to pull off this big caper. The whole thing had its anxious moments.”
With a 4 a.m. flight departure, it was difficult to find a taxi driver who would break the curfew to get Cullen to the airport at a decent time. She managed, but once at the airport, found that her flight had been delayed until noon.
She found an American representative who was able to give her some much appreciated information and then settled in to think about getting back to Canada.
“I was relieved that I could go home and rest, but I was sorry that I had to go home and miss out on an adventure. I hope that people in the world will still see Egypt as being a safe place to stay and visit.”
Cullen says she plans to return to Egypt some time within the coming year and pick up where she left off.
