Maryland Student Returns Home From Egypt
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's day eight and protests in Egypt are the largest so far. The demonstrations have remained peaceful for the most part, but the U.S. is telling Americans to leave the country immediately.
Kai Jackson has the incredible story of a Maryland student returning home.
The protests many people are watching on television and the Internet around the globe, Sarah Blake saw first-hand. The "Welcome home!" sign is ready in the living room for Blake, who was studying Arabic in the heart of Cairo and finally got a flight back to Howard County.
"We were Skyping and I said, `Sarah, please just come home,' and she said, `I want to be here for history,'" said Sarah's mother, Mary Blake.
"Each day, things were getting worse and worse," said Sarah's father, Dan Blake.
"She said [they] were barricaded in and...chained. The doors were chained," Mary said. "She had called the U.S. Embassy and they hung up on her."
"I knew I could get her out one way or another," Dan said.
Dan Blake is a commercial pilot and quickly booked a flight.
"Her last text, I said, `This is your flight. This is the time.'" he said.
"She said, `Dad, I'm not going to make it,' and he said, `You yell you have a ticket and you run,'" Mary said.
Sarah did make it. First to Rome and then on to Philadelphia. Now, she's glad to be home.
"It feels wonderful [to be home], but I haven't really had a chance to sit down yet," Sarah said.
"She could fly into BWI. We would prefer driving with the weather. We'd prefer driving, knowing she's in our car and she's on her way home," Mary said.
"We knew that somehow it would work out," Dan said.
Sarah said she was never in any danger. While cell phone and Internet service was cut off, they worried, but they say they'd let their daughter go back once things settle down.
"This isn't going to be the first for her. She'll be a Hillary Clinton in the State Department, she really will," Mary said.
"Get a passport, see the world, see how other people think and you learn so much about yourself," Dan said.
Sarah Blake was in Egypt for a month. She's an experienced traveler and says she's been abroad 11 times.
