Damascus

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM getting out of Lebanon was at the Syrian side of the border where, as my traveling companion quipped, we were delayed by the “kind of mayhem that mocks the idea of a police state.” Charles is a 25-year-old Lebanese-American, and the collective anxiety of people wanting to get out of the war zone had clearly taken a toll on him.

There were other Lebanese-Americans at the border, a group of young women overwhelmed by the lack of order. “What is everyone’s problem?” the girls asked. “We’re all going to get out of here and the more patient and calm everyone acts the better.” These Americans probably now understand why their parents left the old country, and perhaps why they shook their heads sweetly when the girls said they wanted to go back for the summer to study Arabic and engage their heritage more directly.