FULTON - It's not every day that your country goes through a revolution. But for Mohamed Shahin and Martinos Botros, that's what has been going on back home in Egypt while they are thousands of miles away in Fulton.
Westminster College freshmen Shahin, 30, and Botros, 20, have been watching as events unfold in Cairo, where both lived until they left to start college. Their families and friends are in the middle of it, and when the Egyptian government caused a communication blackout on Jan. 28 in the wake of protests for President Hosni Mubarak to step down, Shahin and Botros were unable to reach anyone.
Shahin said he didn't want to study, eat or talk to anyone he was so worried about everyone back home.
"We couldn't function at all," he said.
"We kept thinking, what's gonna happen?" Botros said.
The two stayed glued to the TV, watching news coverage until the blackout finally ended a few days later, and they could reach family members. Everyone they knew was fine, but they had plenty of stories to tell.
Botros said the looting in the country was terrible and the citizens had to become like police officers to patrol the streets and protect their own property. He said his parents told him: "There was massive chaos."