Western graduate student Dan Reese will sit and wait among thousands of foreigners at the Cairo International Airport Thursday, Feb. 3, in an attempt to leave Egypt and the recent outbreak of violence and chaos.
Reese said he went to Egypt a month ago to take a break from his master's program at Western and to avoid a depressing job market in the United States. Reese has lived in Egypt multiple times since 2001 through study abroad and work opportunities and decided to travel there once again January 2011 for a student teaching position at a high school in Cairo, Egypt.
But his time in Egypt has been cut short as a result of the growing demonstrations that have turned violent across Egypt, pinning police forces against Egyptian civilians. Reese said he has been in contact with Jennifer McCleery, the director of Westerns Office of Field Experiences, and was told by the university to leave Egypt and make his way to Athens, Greece to join a growing number of Egyptian refugees.
Reese, who was living in a downtown section of Cairo called Shahid-azani, watched from his balcony Jan. 28 as street battles between anti-government demonstrators and police broke out below.
"I have been in and out of Egypt for a very long time and I have never seen anything to this scale," Reese said. "Of all the Egyptians I have spoken to, nobody has ever seen anything like this."
Up until now, Reese had not been fearful of the situation in Egypt. But now, Reese has registered with the state department in an attempt to get out of Egypt on a government aircraft; all commercial airline flights leaving Cairo have been booked.
For the full story on Reese and his personal experience in Cairo, see the Friday edition of The Western Front. The Western Front will attempt to follow Reese in his journey to Athens. Check back online for more details as this story develops.