First Encounter With Yemeni Protest.

I just got back to my apartment after experiencing the revolutionary air that swept across the Arab world. Walking back after having dinner, my group and I looked down the street and noticed an oft-seen sight on Al-Jazeera, a procession of angry protesters. We stepped to the side of the street and let the near-1000 strong group pass. We then decided to follow them. Most of us have experience of living abroad, and we rarely leave our apartment without our cameras. This time, they would come in handy.

By speaking with people in the march, we learned they were going to the Egyptian embassy. It was more a celebration than protest, so we didn't sense any danger. We marched through streets choked with pedestrians and honking cars, many people shaking our hands and smiling due to the news of Hosni Mubarak stepping down as president. The crowd eventually merged with a procession coming from the other direction, and we stayed there for about 10 minutes until a consensus was seemingly reached by the protesters to head back to Liberation Square. We turned around with them and marched as well. After seeing people jumping on top of SUVs in order to gain a better view point, I asked the riders of a nearby one if I could join them. They agreed so I climbed atop, and informed them I was American. They were very happy to hear that the outside world might hear of their struggles as well, and we rode the half mile to to Liberation Square shooting video and talking. We eventually reached there, and the most famous anti-government protester, a woman whose name escapes me right now, began anti-government chanting. I didn't know who she was until I asked a Yemeni man nearby, then I recalled reading about her. I was suddenly within 10 feet of someone who up to that point seemed as fictitious to me as any other protester on the TV; suddenly, I sensed the importance of this protest and I gained a new appreciation of the events.

As the army and riot police started to move in, we backed away a bit as this wasn't our protest. We stayed back about 20 yards from the epicenter and talked with a man who eventually revealed himself as one of the infamous plain-clothed policemen. He told us as long as we stayed there we'd be fine, and taking pictures was permissible as well.

All in all, I never really felt danger, save when a pro-government group met the anti group head on, causing a brief stampede in which I was forced to partake. Fifty yards later though, the danger had passed. We stayed back a bit further and talked with a man who works in Aden and speaks impeccable English; we later started noticing people carrying the long wooden sticks carried by anti-looters and determined we'd stayed long enough and would make sure we could get back to our apartment. The army throughout all this time had consistently reinforced itself throughout all the events, and even now from the 6th story rooftop of my apartment I can hear the chanting. I'm going to sleep tonight, not knowing if Yemen is the next Egypt or not. The future is very unclear, but it promises to at least be exciting.