I talked to two female Druze friends today who are staying in their Beirut apartments. At some point, in the conversation, I asked when they were going to join the rest of their family in the mountains. Because that's what people do during war. The mountain is usually considered safer. (But I don't know how true that's going to be now.)
But neither one of them can leave their apartment. There are thousands of homeless people, everywhere. They are breaking into empty apartments. They are hungry.
I asked Maya what she's been doing. "I get up, go to work, come home," she answered defiantly. Like she's not going to let situation decide her life. Good for her.
Iman is like get me a visa to the U.S. There won't be anything here now. No work. No nothing. What are we going to do?? It will take months, years, to rebuild stuff.
And prices are going up. A kilo of lemons usually costs 1,000 lira; today it was 3,000. And she said the guy felt so bad about it. "He's not taking advantage of the situation." But he had to drive who knows where and had to pay a lot too.
And then she said that the money is now 1540 lira to the dollar. (Since I've been here, it's been fixed at 1500 to the dollar.) Is that true?
Lebanon is weird with money. It's the only country I've been to that accepts U.S. dollars like local currency. You can pay in a combination, and sometimes you will receive change in a combination.
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