Pharmacist Rehab Salama had just returned to the United States from an extended visit to see her family in Alexandria, Egypt, when the revolution began. It was her first visit to her home country in seven years.

Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt behind Cairo, is nestled on the scenic Mediterranean coast, about three hours by car from Cairo and Tahrir Square, where the world has been watching as crowds of protestors cry out for freedom.

Salama, who works at Albertsons on Mercer Island, moved to the United States in 1998 to further her education. Her mother, Aziza Kato, and brother, Mohamed Salama, remain in Egypt. Mohamed Salama has been involved in the protests in Alexandria since the first day. Although he is trained as a dentist, he works on manuscripts at the library of Alexandria. He does this because dentists, doctors and pharmacists are underpaid in Egypt.

“Incomes in Egypt are very low,” Salama said. “They average about $2,000 a year.” In fact, her brother is able to make more money at the library than his dental practice.

What is happening now in Egypt came as somewhat of a surprise even to the Egyptian people, she said.

“Everybody complained about the situation. Everybody complained about what was going on. People have been oppressed for almost 30 years now, but we never thought Egyptians are actually going to be able to finally do something,” Salama said.

She said the revolution really started a few months ago when the police asked a man in an Alexandria Internet cafe for his ID. He refused because he thought it was illegal. The police took him from the cafe to a building and beat him to death. His name was Khaled Said.

“This enraged people and made them very angry,” Salama said. “Because there was no reason whatsoever for this guy to die.”

She said the government tried to cover it up by saying he had drugs; still, no reason to kill him. A group was formed called “We are all with Khaled Said.”

“This was just one example of the oppression and corruption of the government. Unfortunately, he became a symbol of the human rights that do not exist anymore in Egypt,” she said.

People went out and protested, but it didn’t really lead to anything. Then came the revolution in Tunisia.

“The Egyptians were very inspired with what was going on in Tunisia; I’m pretty sure every Egyptian who went out to protest the first day never thought it would end up like this,” Salama said.

She said they didn’t expect the movement to become so huge. Amazingly enough, it got bigger and bigger as president Hosni Mubarak’s government started beating, attacking and killing people. She said the first day of the demonstrations, Mubarak released all prisoners from jail to work as his “thugs.” Her brother, Mohamed, was one of a group who was protecting buildings in Alexandria from these individuals, just as the Egyptian Museum and the Great Pyramids are being protected by other unofficial groups. Mohamed was severely beaten by one of those groups the first day of the demonstrations, but is fine now.

Salama said Alexandria and Cairo are not the only places where the people were protesting for change; it was happening all over the country. Her friends in Cairo were hopeful.

“They’re injured and they still stayed there,” Salama said of the people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

She said Cairo looks better than it did when she was there just a few weeks ago. Cairo is not the glamorous city most Westerners imagine — rather, she said, it’s very crowded and very dirty.

But since the demonstrations began, pride in their country is returning to the people. She said people from all classes are coming out to clean up the streets.

“They didn’t have that sense of pride before, but now they feel like this is their country again; they are saying we’re getting it back and we need to finally take care of it. Unfortunately, with 30 years of corrupted government, they lost their sense of pride,” she said.

She said there was also a great deal of harassment against females after dark. She said she felt unsafe when she was there. Now, there are many, many women in the crowds and no one is touching them because, she said, “The people are reborn again.”

“One of the best things about this revolution is that it did not begin with a religious or political group; rather, a group of young people on Facebook who thought if Tunisia could do this, they could, too. They’re not doing this to be oppressed by another group,” she said.

Realizing that tourism is one of the biggest economies of Egypt, they certainly don’t want to have another oppressive government that would deter tourists.

“It’s not just the poor and hungry who were protesting; it’s everybody,” she said.

Salama said that Islam is the predominant religion in Egypt, but Christians and Muslims are in this together, and they don’t want this to turn into a religious war.

“Everyone is just saying, ‘We’re Egyptians,’” she said.

To Westerners, it’s hard to imagine one president for 30 years. Salama said Egypt has had only three presidents since 1952. Asked why the people didn’t revolt before this, she said it’s because people were just fighting to make it to the end of the month, feed their families and survive.

She said all the financial aid the United States has given to Egypt went to the pockets of the corrupted government. None of the aid reached the everyday citizens.

“Mubarak was a big ally. My opinion is, it’s for the benefit of everybody to have democracy in the Middle East,” she said. “If you live in a country where your human rights are protected and you have a future, you’re not going to think about killing yourself,” she said, referring to martyrs. “Those people that kill themselves every day, it’s because they don’t have anything else to live for. They’re desperate. Hungry, oppressed people can be easily manipulated.”

Now that Mubarak has stepped down, Salama said a few people still remain in Tahrir Square to be sure changes are made. Mubarak’s emergency law must go, she said, and the Egyptian people are going to make sure Mubarak’s and his cabinet members’ assets are frozen so they can get some of the money back for the country.

“There is no real leadership in Egypt; those young people in Tahrir square don’t have a leader to fall on,” Salama said. “They are looking for fast change, but that’s not going to happen.”

Some good names have been tossed around for a potential new leader, Salama said, including Amr Moussa, the former Egyptian foreign minister and current secretary general of the Arab League and Ahmed Zewail, a chemical engineer currently living in the United States who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1999.

Meantime, Salama’s mother called and told her she has been giving chocolate and other candy to people celebrating in the street.

“A lot of people are doing that, and dancing in the streets,” she said.

Salama is raising money for food and medical supplies for the demonstrators through a Facebook page under the name Rehab Yousry.

“This might inspire other Middle Eastern countries to do the same thing,” she said. “I honestly don’t think that’s a bad thing. I hope people don’t give up.”