After spending 58 hours traveling, I have finally reached Baltimore, Maryland and am currently in Washington, DC. I am trying to share my experiences with as many people and help inform the American public about what is going on in Lebanon. If you have any organization or contacts that may be interested in hearing from someone who has been in Lebanon and can talk about the current situation, please email this blog..
The evacuation was an extremely long process:
The US State Dept is extremely unorganized and it's inefficient methods left many Americans stranded, who they promised to get out by unrealistic deadlines.
The US Marines in contrast, were absolutely wonderful, comforting people and offering immense help to all of the fleeing Americans.
The US Navy crews also were very helpful.
The evacuation route went from Beirut to Cyprus to Ireland to Baltimore.
While traveling, I heard a plethora of stories of family members who were forced to evacuate leaving so many family members behind. Eventhough many of people were fleeing the area, they were doing so reluctantly, especially myself, leaving friends and my students behind to an uncertain fate. The rumors are that the fighting will intensify after the foreigners have evacuated.
I will post more later, I am still trying to recover from the endless hours of traveling.
3 comments:
GREAT! Welcome home, John! We were worried sick about you, man... Give me a call whenever you're well-rested: ~~ 202 237 0584 ~~ 202 957 8996
welcome home bro
even though i know that the current events are the only thing that have brought you back i am glad to see you are ok
i wish you luck in your endeavors on behalf of your beliefs and you have my support
i believe whats going on is total bs and i hope someone puts a stop to Israel soon
perhaps if you're around long enough you'll have a chance to see my baby boy due in November or at least get a chance to come up towards Boston so i might be able to see you
I still owe you $60
keep in touch
I don't know why you were over there since the State Deparment has travel advisories against going there. Of course any kind of US government help is going to suck unless it's our guys in the military.
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