The Embassy Awaits

In each of the past few years that we've lived in Saudi, and also in the time we lived in Ecuador, we have been occasionally invited to various events at the US Embassy. These are usually a lot of fun, pretty casual, and also different from our every day routines. Last week, Shannon, who teaches the parent of a high ranking official at one of the embassies in Saudi (not the US Embassy),was invited to go to an independence day celebration with her spouse.

Interested in the opportunity to break up the monotony of our last few weeks, we jumped at the chance. After some hemming and hawing, we found a babysitter who we felt comfortable with and got him all set up for the night. Our only two other date nights since the baby was born were both covered by family members. So this felt a little weird at first. But we got over it and got ourselves ready for the night. We got somewhat dressed up and met up with another couple of teachers who had also been invited.

When we arrived at the embassy, we quickly realized that our kind of dressed up look, which can mostly be described as 'business casual' was simply not going to cut it. We walked up to a red carpet and people donning tuxedos and ballroom gowns. We, the teachers, among the dignitaries, ambassadors, business moguls, and other important folk, stood out.

It was a little uncomfortable to be honest but we enjoyed ourselves. We had some delicious food, had some time out of the house, and got to immerse ourselves in what seemed like the clandestine gathering of various Bond villains. I believe I heard multiple conversations about keeping untraceable money in offshore accounts. All in all it was a fun night, and an opportunity that doesn't come across too often.

Do I stay or do I go now?

The time is here for us to take another trip for Fall Break. We have worked hard and held our noses to the grindstone for a while now. So this year, in an effort to continue to explore more of the Middle East, we booked trips to Beirut for our break. We did research on all of the local foods to eat, restaurants to visit, and neighborhoods to check out. We went through the process of finding an apartment for rent that would be close to the sights we wanted to see, but that was still baby friendly. 

Well, now we’ve got a choice to make. Following a path of many countries around the world recently, and of countries in the region specifically, the people of Lebanon have risen up and decided that for a variety of reasons, they no longer want the government structures, systems, and people who are in charge to be in power any longer. Protests began over the last weekend and quickly escalated. As recently as last night, there were reports of 1.5 million people protesting. The streets are full of protesters exercising their rights and fighting for political change.Admittedly, I have to say, it looks like the protesters are having a great time. Spirits are high in the streets, and some protests have even featured DJs and turned into all out parties.  

While we have been lucky to have not been directly put in the middle of too many political movements, we do acknowledge and appreciate the rights of citizens to seek better lives for themselves. But...we’ve been put in an admittedly weird position. Our flights are booked, our apartment paid for, and tours are arranged. In two days, everything could blow over and be fine. Or it could continue to escalate and turn into a scene that we don’t want to be involved in. The risks of going range from not having access to restaurants and grocery stores due to protesting, or as severe as return flights being cancelled. The risks if we cancel include the fact that we will lose a lot of money that we’ve already paid, and we would risk the opportunity to see a really amazing country and city. So now we’ve got about four days to decide if we are going to rebook a trip to somewhere else, or try to ride it out and go for it. Yet another in a long line of unique experiences to living overseas. We aren’t planning our trip with weather or activities in mind. We’re trying to predict and account for the will of the people, the concessions of a government, and the whims of fate.