A couple of local moms are relieved and thankful that their daughters — one a teacher in Egypt and the other a student — are out of harm's way.
"You don't really appreciate what other families go through when they have loved ones abroad and for whatever reasons, all the sudden you don't know what's happened to them, you don't know where they are, and the government has cut off e-mail and blocked cell phone coverage," said Ruth Sutter of Salem. "There are some pretty anxious moments."
Her daughter and son-in-law are teachers at the American International School of Egypt in Cairo. Heather Cooper, who graduated from Scio High School and the University of Oregon, teaches seventh-grade English. Zachary Cooper teaches computer skills in the elementary school.
When the school closed amid growing protests in the city, the Coopers and their 1-year-old son, Christopher, were evacuated with other American and Canadian teachers to an undisclosed location on the Sinai Peninsula.
Lisa Leslie's daughter also had to evacuate. Sarah Leslie, who grew up in Silverton and graduated from Sprague High School in 2009, was in Cairo for a semester abroad with the Middle East Studies Program.
While Lisa obviously was concerned about her daughter's safety, she appreciated the fact that Sarah had the opportunity to witness history unfolding in Egypt.
"We want our kids to have this kind of experience," Lisa Leslie said. "We were probably not as worried as some people think we should have been."
The program made the decision to pull its students out before orders were issued for the departure of all nonemergency U.S. government personnel and their families.
Sarah, along with 27 other American students in the program, were disappointed when they had to leave after just three weeks in Cairo. They were scheduled to be there 10 weeks.
"There is so much that we are missing out on," she wrote to me in an e-mail from Istanbul, Turkey, where the group has begun a new course of study.
Sarah won't get to study Arabic any more. She can't finish her service project, which involved volunteering at a deaf school in Cairo. (Sarah is hard of hearing). She won't be able to participate in select cultural activities such as belly dancing or tabla (drums). She can't visit places such as Mount Sinai or the Siwa Oasis.
Her family shared with the Statesman Journal a photo of Sarah with the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx in the background. She posted it on her Facebook page.
As disappointing as it was to leave Egypt, Sarah understood the program's decision was appreciated by family and friends back home.
"I agree that it is better for me to be out of Cairo now with the escalation of violence," she wrote on her blog. "But I am still remembering the people I've met in Egypt who are still there and even if they wanted to get out of Egypt, they couldn't."
The political and civil unrest in Cairo, now in its third week, disrupted the studies of many American college students. Some no doubt went kicking and screaming, figuratively speaking of course, because they were being removed from what they believed to be an important lesson in their higher education.
Sarah's mom appreciates how the events have affected all those who know her daughter.
"Having our young people in places like this causes us back home to get an education about what's really going on," Lisa Leslie said.
Sarah suggested to her mom early on in e-mails that she not use the term riots to describe the situation, but rather demonstrations or protests. Of course, that was before violence escalated.
Sarah, a junior at Bethel University in Minnesota, signed up for the Middle East Studies Program because of her experience traveling to Bahrain in 2008 with a group called Mobility International USA. (I did a column about her before she went on that trip.)
"I loved the people and culture and wanted to further explore the Middle East," Sarah told me in her e-mail.
She was loving the opportunity to immerse herself in the Egyptian culture, even if that meant deflecting unusual offers from the locals.
One merchant told her friend that she was very beautiful and actually asked how many camels she would take for Sarah. The incident, which happened during a visit to an alabaster factory in Luxor, prompted teasing from family and friends back home.
When the protests in Cairo began, Sarah was in Luxor. Protests also took place there, but on a much smaller scale. She and her fellow students watched the protests in Luxor from the roof of a hotel, where they were placed under lockdown.
"The protesters threw rocks at the policemen as the policemen shot tear gas into the crowd," Sarah wrote. "The tear gas affected us as well."
They returned to Cairo by train and upon arrival were informed that they would soon have flights out of the country. They stayed that night at the train station and then took taxis back to their flats the next morning to pack.
"On the way back we were able to observe the amazing group of men who spend their nights outside together alongside their neighbors, whether they are Christians or Muslims, protecting their neighborhoods from looting and violence," Sarah wrote on her blog.
Sarah said she never feared for her safety while in Egypt.
"My only unrest came from not knowing what would happen next in terms of our program's decision and not having access to news or Internet," she said. "I support and encourage the Egyptian people and am praying that their protests are not for nothing."
Sarah and her fellow students are adjusting to the change in plans. The Middle East Studies Program normally includes a travel component, but not until after the core of the semester has been spent in Cairo. Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Israel-Palestine are usually on the schedule.
"Whichever countries we travel to after Turkey right now depends on the stability of the country," Sarah wrote in her e-mail.
Ruth Sutter's daughter and family returned to the states this week. They are back in Kansas, where they lived before taking teaching jobs in Egypt two years ago.
"The main reason they went was because they were having difficulty finding teaching positions in this country," Sutter said.
The Coopers had been renting an apartment in a suburb of Cairo and didn't have much time to pack when they were instructed to evacuate.
"They left with the thought that they would probably not be back, and they had to leave a lot of their belongings behind because they were only allowed to take one bag," Sutter said. "I don't know what's going to happen with all their Christmas gifts and toys for Christopher."
The tradeoff, that they are safe and sound back home, is worth it in her mind.
"I'm just relieved to have them out of harm's way," she said.
"Forward This" appears Wednesdays and Sundays and highlights the people, places and organizations of the Mid-Willamette Valley. To share a story, contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6710 or follow at twitter.com/CapiLynn.