El-Gazzar concedes that some things have declined, among them, education. He once had a promising future.

This man who transports bricks has a university education, holding a bachelor's degree in law. Like so many educated Egyptians unable to find work in their professions, he also worries about his children.

A father of four, he shares the concerns of those protesting economic conditions in cities across Egypt, protests still going strong even after Mubarak stepped down.

He wonders why the Egyptian people did not speak out before, why they put up with what he calls 30 years of oppression. But then, his ambivalence returns. He is forgiving, not just of the former president and what he did, but even of the widely despised police.

"There were good ones along with the bad," he says, and when they all disappeared during the unrest, he feared criminals could attack his home and he wished for the police to return.

But of one thing he is certain: a pride in country common to all sides during the protests, where battles were fought between groups each raising the Egyptian flag.

"It is enough we have the Nile," he says; we want nothing. "We plant and we eat and we can farm our land."

While many questions remain about Egypt's future, el-Gazzar says he is not afraid of what is coming. He adds for emphasis, "I am never afraid when I am on Egyptian soil."