Student trapped in Lebanon

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Tweet Waleed Brinjikji took a tense taxicab ride along a bomb-riddled road in Lebanon with his mother, aunt and three younger cousins Sunday.

The ride from the small town in which they were staying to Beirut cost his family $1,300 and put them under the constant threat of attack.

But Brinjikji, an MSU physiology senior, said the ride, its cost and the stress it caused his family was well worth it, since it allowed them to leave the Lebanese town that was devastated by Israeli bombings in the past week.

"We had to leave this place because psychologically, it was too hard to stay there any longer," Brinjikji said.

Brinjikji was in Syria studying and spending time with his family when they decided to take a trip to Lebanon to visit his mother's birthplace.

Waleed Brinjikji's father, Abdul Brinjikji, who stayed in the U.S., said the bombings kept the group in Lebanon longer than they planned.

"The trip was only supposed to last two days to see his mother's birth place," Abdul Brinjikji said. "The plan was that they were going to leave a couple of days ago, but then the bombing started to happen."

The family was stranded in the small town of Bint Jbeil, which Waleed Brinjikji said has experienced some of the worst of the conflict.

"This place was one of the higher danger zones since the bombing began," Brinjikji said. "According to our taxi driver, he said we were in the most devastated area he had seen."

When the family realized the city they were staying in wasn't safe, they began to plan the best course of action to get out of the country as fast as possible.

Brinjikji said while he and his family stayed in the city and tried to find transportation to a safer place, they saw things that shocked and horrified them.

"There was a point while we were there when we witnessed a building being hit by a rocket," Brinjikji said.

"When the rescue unit came to retrieve the bodies that were still in the building, their car was hit by a rocket and they were killed. I really don't have the words to explain what it is like to see something that horrific."

He added that he was almost killed after going to a Mosque in the city to pray.

"I was actually going to stay longer at the Mosque, but felt I needed to get back to my family," Brinjikji said. "Moments after I left the building, it was bombed."

It was then the decision was made to hire a taxi to take the family to a safer place.

Brinjikji said the U.S. government has provided little help to his family to get out of the country.

"The American government has done nothing for us so far," Brinjikji said.

"They said to stay put and we would be evacuated, and there was no evacuation. As of right now they have only taken American-Americans and not Arab-Americans, pretty much telling them to find their own way out."

The U.S. State Department released a statement to Americans in Lebanon instructing them to stay in a safe location and that anyone who wants to travel to Syria should exercise great caution when traveling on major roads, since they are at risk of being hit by air strikes at any time. It also stated the only members being evacuated from the country were U.S. Embassy employees and their families.

The taxicab ride was stressful for the family members, who were constantly worried about being attacked.

"This was a very big risk for me and my family," Brinjikji said.

"The roads had been destroyed from the bombing, and that means any car was open to attack."

The family was able to quickly find a taxicab driver to take them to Beirut where they would be safer.

Abdul Brinjikji said he admires the taxicab driver's courage in the situation.

"No matter what the price was, it was worth many a folds," Abdul Brinjikji said. "The (taxicab driver) is a hero in my mind for risking his life the way he did."

The family is now in a Christian-Muslim part of Beirut, safe from the danger.

They are still awaiting another taxicab ride, which will cost them $2,000 to get them across the border to Syria.

As they wait, Brinjikji and his family remain hopeful and try to understand what led them to where they are today.

"We're trying to make sense of the situation," Brinjikji said. "We keep asking ourselves, 'Why us? Why did we have to see the things we saw?' And right now we just can't find the answers to those questions."

Justin Kroll can be reached at krolljus@msu.edu

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