Little Silver resident awaits return of her daughter from Egypt

Kelly Roache, a 21-year-old Princeton student and daughter of Little Silver resident Linda Roache, is attempting to return to the United States from Egypt after she found herself “caught in the middle of an enormous political uprising,” NJ.com reports.

Kelly Roache and three other Princeton students had planned to spend the upcoming semester at the American University in Cairo, according to Princeton University spokeswoman Emily Aronson.

On Jan. 23, the students arrived in Egypt, where they lodged in a three-bedroom apartment after they’d declined housing at American University. “Classes were scheduled to begin this past Sunday, and the students were attending orientation before the protests began.”

Linda Roache says her daughter and her classmates attempted to book a charter flight home on Jan. 31 when the mass exodus appeared “seemingly out of nowhere.”

Jody Gibbs, the mother of Roache’s classmate Michael Gibbs, said the family tried to phone their son 30 times on Sunday night and couldn’t get through. Although they eventually reached him, Jody Gibbs said the conversation was “patchy at best.”

Ericka Deglau’s 21-year-old daughter Tal Eisenzweig told her mother that all the students were “exhausted after three days of virtually no sleep,” and that there was some looting in their neighborhood.

“They’ve been waiting for this [study-abroad program] for three years,” Linda Roache said, expressing the students’ disappointment to NJ.com.