In Cairo, Chester Countians witnessed history in the making

What started as a winter getaway to visit family in Cairo ended up as a brush with history for Shereen Abou-Gharbia and her mother - eyewitnesses to events that could help reshape the Middle East.

Abou-Gharbia and her mother, Lamaat Shalaby, both of Chester County, arrived in Cairo on Jan. 26, the day after the first demonstrations in the city's Tahrir Square. They were intending to meet Shereen's father, Magid Abou-Gharbia, a professor at the Temple University School of Pharmacy, who had been scheduled to arrive later and speak in Luxor, about 450 miles south of Cairo, but wound up canceling.

The women made signs reading, "We need Justice," and went to Tahrir Square, before the chaos and bloodshed that overtook the pro-democracy rallies there.

Within days they would look from the balcony of the family's suburban Cairo apartment to see armed vigilantes keeping the neighborhood safe.

They were forced to cut their trip short by the violence and were picked up at New York's JFK Airport yesterday by a relieved Magid Abou-Gharbia.

The demonstrators, shouting for the departure of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of rule, came from all walks of life, said Shereen, a pharmacist and mother of two.

"The country's in poverty for no reason," she said. "They have a lot of resources, money coming in from the U.S."

But corruption and a huge divide between the poor and very, very rich have mired the country in poverty.

"Students go to college for four years or more and go for years without a job, even though you have a degree," Shereen said. "Doctors and lawyers there are a dime a dozen.The shortage of jobs there is unbelievable."

The huge demonstrations turned ugly when thousands of inmates across Egypt escaped on Sunday. Shereen contended that the government freed them and paid them the equivalent of $17 to cause chaos in the square.

Despite the violence, her father is heartened. "This was long overdue," he said. "The future will be good for us."