This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011 [1].
For the past few weeks, as Egyptians “cleaned” their country of a dictatorship, Tahrir Square was full of people, full of joy, and as a result, full of things to clean up. Though the activists at the heart of the square took care of their temporary home [2], there was nevertheless plenty to be done as the crowds thinned out. Today, reports indicate that central Cairo is cleaner than ever, thanks to loads of volunteers who chipped in.
As @CairoCityLimits points out [3] on Twitter:
Downtown Cairo: Cleanest city ever? Even the curbs have been freshly painted. #jan25 #tahrir
@JonJensen adds [4]:
Massive cleanup effort underway in Tahrir right now – mostly by the Egyptian people. The first traffic starting to come through. #Egypt
Linking to a photograph (below), Arwa Mahmoud (@arwasm) shows the teamwork in action:
Fixing the pavements we broke after using them as stones to protect ourselves! #jan25 #egypt http://yfrog.com/h2lcsqj
[5]A group of volunteers fix the pavement in Tahrir Square
Abdelrahman Hassan (@estr4ng3d) has a ground-level shot of the square to share, and this [6] to say about it:
I am not exaggerating when I say the asphalt in #tahrir is SQUEAKY CLEAN. Smells of disenfectant too! http://yfrog.com/h49dehcj
[7]A ground-level view of Tahrir Square
He adds [8]:
It is literally a challenge to find more dust to sweep in #tahrir now.
And yet again, the famous Egyptian sense of humor emerges, with @SharifKaddous's tweet [9]:
I bump into my cousin, Ismail Naguib, on Kasr El Nile bridge. He says: “the new weapon of choice is the broom” #Tahrir #Egypt