SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
The mass carnival that began Egypt's post-Mubarak era is starting to ease. Many protesters are packing up and going home for some rest after 18 days of non-stop protests. Among them, Omar Mohamad, a young man we first heard on this program when the protests began.
We heard from him again yesterday as he joined the celebration in raucous Tahrir Square.
So how do you feel at this moment?
Mr. OMAR MOHAMAD (Protester): It's so difficult just to describe what I have inside me. I just wanna cry and at the same time I just feel I want to hug everybody around me. I want to sing, I want to dance. This is just the beginning. This is not the end of it. Getting rid of this whole regime opens the door for new Egypt, to build it with our own hands, new and clean and free of corruption.
SIMON: You're a teacher there, right?
Mr. MOHAMAD: Yes. I teach in (unintelligible) University here in Cairo.
SIMON: Mr. Mohamad, what would you like students and young people all over the world to learn from what you did in Egypt?
Mr. MOHAMAD: Okay. Yes. And actually I was thinking the first thing I'm gonna do when I get back home tomorrow morning, I'm gonna write an email for all my students to tell them exactly what you're asking about.
I remember President Obama spoke in the presidential campaign when he said yes, we can. Now, yes, Egyptians can really say it now, that yes, we can, and we did it. The good thing about this revolution, it has no father. It has no (unintelligible), it has no leader. It's not following any party or anything. It's just the Egyptians, all Egyptians. So it's ours. We own it, every one of us.
SIMON: Do you want elections to occur pretty quickly?
Mr. MOHAMAD: Thats a challenge right now. We need to know, as you know, Mubarak stepped down, but then it's in the army's hands. Now, for the first time in decades, we need a civilian person from the army. So we want to watch for what the army is going to do. Now, if they are going to somehow, the person's going to be from the army, then we know how to reach Tahrir Square again and we are willing to stay there for as long as it takes.
SIMON: Omar Mohamad, who's been in the streets of Cairo and Tahrir Square since the first of the protest that changed Egypt. Thanks so much for speaking with us again. Good luck to you.
Mr. MOHAMAD: My pleasure, and thanks for all the people who supported us, and who had all the love for us. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.