“Before the revolution everyone was thinking of themselves,” said 85-year-old Salah Ezzedin Aly to me as we sat together on a bench in Saad Zaghloul Square in central Alexandria, Egypt. “After the revolution there is a new spirit.”

Salah had wanted to talk after seeing me photograph several youthful volunteers here in the square as they painted railings and curbs. Since the resignation of Hosni Mubarak two weeks earlier on February 11, this volunteerism had become a common sight in Egypt. Usually in their teens and early twenties, and often organizing themselves through Facebook pages, people were picking up trash and in other small ways  -- e.g., painting curbs and railings -- making an effort to beautify their communities.

volunteers in Saad Zaghloul Square (Alexandria, Egypt)

Salah Ezzedin Aly (Alexandria, Egypt)

Salah, who had witnessed a lot of Egyptian history since his birth in 1926, was proud of what these young folks were doing. “Now everyone thinks of his country. Especially the young generation. They spend their time cleaning and decorating the country because they feel for their country.”

“I saw the time of [King] Farouk, the Revolution of ’52, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the taking over by Mubarak,” he continued. “Now the country is in the hands of the Armed Forces who give six months for the transfer to civilian rule. The Armed Forces is in a very good position. They stand with the people—not like the Revolution of ’52, when the Air Force took over and continued to govern. A military man cannot govern. He can only give orders. The revolution principle is rule by the people, not by autocratic chief.”

Salah was an old-school gentleman, polite in speech and dignified. His business card said he was an expert in insurance settlements and French and English translation. And as we sat together on a bench, him in his eighties, me in my thirties, and the volunteers in their teens and twenties, I saw how we each are here for a little while. Each generation is shaped by the history of the times in which it is born and brought up and lives out its years.

And history too is shaped, even if often just a little, by the small acts of people—even by kids on their knees in a park, painting a curb, and old men on a bench, voicing their pride in what the youth are doing.

Joel Carillet, chief editor of Wandering Educators, is a freelance writer and photographer based in Tennessee. He is the author of 30 Reasons to Travel: Photographs and Reflections from Southeast Asia. To learn more about him, follow his regular photoblog, or purchase images, visit www.joelcarillet.com or www.istockphoto.com/jcarillet.