B. and I were eating dinner at the middle eastern restaurant last night. The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife - she is from Iraq, he is from Syria (they cook and serve fabulous food, just FYI). Her sister and brother in law are in Saipan right now, visiting for three months from Baghdad.

They were all playing backgammon at the restaurant last night. The wife was smoking cigarettes and telling stories. She said they all went to the bank together the day before, and her sister said as they were leaving, “Hold your purse closer!”

The sister said that if you look even a little bit loose when you leave the bank in Baghdad, you get kidnapped.  If you have out-of-town guests for more than three days, you get kidnapped.  You get kidnapped if you work for a foreign company.  You go to sleep and wake up to the sounds of bombs going off right near your house.

“Don’t worry about that here, it’s safe in Saipan,” the restaurant owner said to her sister.

The sister and brother-in-law are a little bored in Saipan, she said. There’s just not that much going on.

posted by Arin at 1:48 pm & filed under Uncategorized, bloggy stuff, saipan |