An excerpt from an e-mail from a friend:
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> just got read your response. while i understand the
> need to raise awareness and ensure that people are
> exposed to what the reality on the ground is -
> selfishly, i am more concerned about making sure YOU
> are okay. are you looking to get moved out of
> lebanon
> somehow or are you going to bunker down and try to
> stay safe? please consider option number one.
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So yeah, really, I can't do anything right now. Actually, I was considering going to Syria, like tagging along with the Brazilians, to Turkey. But that won't work because
1)I'm not Brazilian
2) They wouldn't risk having an American with them.
3) If they have to abandon me, I would be by myself at the border or inside Syria.
4) I don't have my passport.
But now I've really totally ruled out that option.
So what are the other options.
1) Go with the Americans. So I'm waiting like everyone else, including the Australians and Canadians, for our governments to form a plan. (The French are evacuating their people right now. I know the exact place because my friend saw, but is it unsafe to say??)
2) There's also the Chouf. My good friend, staying with her mom next to the school right now, will be going up to the Chouf where her husband and kids are, once her sister and her kids leave with the Brazilians. I could drive up with her. The main roads of course are all blocked and she might not be able to go, because another friend had to come back when she tried the day before yesterday.
But I could go there and hide in the Chouf. If anywhere is going to stay safe (and I'll talk later about the safety of Aley), it will be the Chouf.
3) Or stay here even after that plan has been concocted. Because really, I'm concerned about this plan and the safety of it. Getting on a boat with a bunch of Americans to me seems like a very, very bad idea. This is war, by the way. In 1984, Hizbollah bombed the Marine barracks. 241 died. It just seems like I'd be putting my self in harm's way. Especially since I don't trust the Americans and don't think their military is particularly comepetent. They have a knack for going into places (especially like anywhere in Asia) where they don't know anything--and making a botched operation.
The American family downstairs has been teaching overseas for 19 years. They were in Kuwait in 1990 when Saddam invaded. At first, they stayed in their fourth floor apartment, hiding. It was August and all the other foreign-hire teachers had left. Apparently, there was a reward for turning in Americans and a death sentence if you were found hiding them. They broke the elevator, because they figured the soldiers wouldn't be climbing up the stairs in 50 degree (that's Celsius) weather. The locals, especially the Indian driver from the school and a Palestinian store owner, hid them, brought them food, formula, everything. They were there for a while. And then Saddam assured safe passage for all the women and children. So they sneaked the wife and their newborn baby into a truck and took them to the local Safeway supermarket where they were later flown to Baghdad. (They had to be sneaky to not give away that the husband and his father were still in the apartment.)
At the time, Saddam was using Americans as human shields, putting them in buildings around Baghdad so the Americans wouldn't blow them up.
From Baghdad, they were flown to London, then to D.C., then home to Florida. The BBC and Voice of America had a short-wave radio program in Kuwait called "Messages from Home." The guys were glued to their radio waiting for a message. Eventually they heard, " Hurry home so you can take George for a walk on the beach."
He came home four and a half months later.
My eyes welled up when they told me the story and even now when I write it.
That was a successful operation and they have faith in this operation. . . (Damn, what luck, having to go through this twice.)
But I'm still not so sure.
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