We (Omar and his rarely maligned wife Christine) are traveling South America. We quit our jobs in DC, sold out everyone I know, and are bumming around Spanish speaking countries until someone hires us to go live abroad in a really weird place. Deal with it (please).
I will attempt to capture some of our tales through the written word in this space. I’ll prolly also throw in a few incoherent and nonsensical posts, mostly about dinosaurs eating cheese. Above all though, this blog will be kid friendly, with few giraffes suffering in the process (legal disclaimer: I did not say none).
NOTE: All blog entries are written in a private capacity. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of his employer or its clients.
Why did you click here? 
So when I hear the neo cons say we need to embrace the prlincpies laid forth by Ronald Reagan, I wonder what part. That would be the imaginary prlincpies that their collective imaginations have elevated to scripture.Just to clarify, I think either the post is unclear or I’m misreading it.Reagan didn’t pull the Marines after the embassy was bombed; I don’t even think there were any Marines in Lebanon prior to that.Reagan sent the Marines in after the embassy was bombed, but shortly thereafter their barracks were bombed and a couple hundred Marines were killed. That’s when he cut-and-ran. But either way your main point is still valid.As a side note, I recommend Hugh Pope’s book Dining with Al-Qaeda to anyone who’s interested in foreign policy as it related to the Middle East. There’s a chapter in there about his experience as a reporter in Beirut, and he chronicles in detail the events described above.
Great story about the coffee scam in Ethiopia. The exact same thing happened to me, and I also read about it before I went there. Also realized it when they started dancing and got out of the place in a very similar fashion as you did.
Reading your story made me laugh.