The Mattresses are Coming…

When I step out of my door in Beirut, this is what I find: Syrian women and children begging on the streets, and cars from Syria topped with mattresses–fleeing the battle of Qalamoun. With over 17,000 Syrian refugees having entered Lebanon in just the last two and a half weeks alone, I’ve started seeing more and more mattresses hovering over the widespread traffic jams in Beirut. Maybe that’s why I felt culture shock this morning, while reading about brawls between shoppers in malls (including a taser attack) on Black Friday back home in the States…