Until next time Cairo!

Until next time Cairo! I can't believe I've been here almost six weeks. It's flown in. The city is almost empty of tourists. It's also almost empty of obvious trouble at street level. By 'trouble' here I mean shootings, violent demonstrations, unrest and protests.

Mother Cairo doesn't need to seek her daily troubles though as they are everywhere: homeless mothers with innocent babies who become begging toddlers who become street kids who never go to school and never receive an education through no fault of their own. How can they possibly ever hope to ever get out of their hopeless situation? They sit on the filthy streets outside shops in areas populated by the wealthy Cairenes, hoping for a few coins that are too heavy for the better-off to carry around. The babies cry, the toddlers play in piles of rubbish and beg at moving car windows, and the older kids learn to smile sweetly and play the game and sell flowers, hankies and jasmine necklaces and have their photos taken and accept gifts gracefully from strangers. Where will it all end?

I see the young educated teachers in the British Council, who for the first time in their lives are taking an interest in politics, and demonstrated in the streets over recent months. The future of Egypt is in their hands. They know what they want. They don't want to turn their backs on Islam, but they do want an understanding of it which fits into life these days and all that means. They need a strong leader to represent that new life in Egypt.

I hope this happens before it's too late for the likes of Yasheen. And before more lives are lost.

See you before too long Cairo, enshallah!

That's our flight called. My blip was a snap of a crammed microbus on the way to the airport.