Acupuncture Abduction in Beirut…

After I had acupuncture yesterday, I was feeling really relaxed when I stepped back out onto the busy streets of Beirut to hail a taxi. Little did I know at the time that the taxi I was stepping into would soon abduct me to a neighborhood that wasn’t my own–and he would have no intention of taking me home. Sadly, this wasn’t the first time–and probably not the last.

Usually, after driving for a bit, I’ll start to notice we’re not heading in the direction of my house. Despite my protests to head the right way–we continue on to some neighborhood I’ve never seen or heard of in Beirut. Soon the driver will pull over, and tell me he wants to take me out for coffee, show me his apartment, or even worse–and that’s when things start to get really weird, and I have to make a run for it. After so many of these experiences, I’ve learned how to get away–fast. Not only is their repugnant behavior deeply unsettling, but it’s also highly inconvenient when my trips home take twice as long as they should–and cost twice as much.

Last night, thankfully, I was helped by a kind-hearted pharmacist, who stepped in to offer me some shelter and find me a better taxi so I could finally get home–after the dangerous and unexpected detour.

“I don’t even know where we are right now,” I said to the pharmacist. After telling me the name of the neighborhood we were in, he offered me a cup of tea.

Unfortunately, a number of my Lebanese female students have told me that they too have had dangerous taxi experiences–including some incidents which in the U.S. would count as crimes. So the acupuncture high I had yesterday didn’t last very long–since I was too busy in the backseat trying to figure out how to survive and get myself safely back home.