Good news

We were very happy to get a text message this afternoon from our friends who had been stuck in Beirut. They were on a US naval ship headed for Turkey (after an 8-hour wait at the port beginning at 5:30am with three small children). From there they'll evidently take a flight to Istanbul and then finally back to Switzerland. And as awful as it sounds like their experience has been (evidently their youngest daughter came in during the night and told them the "lightning"--i.e., shelling--scared her), in a lot of ways they're lucky in that they were in a relatively safe area unlike those who are stranded in the south of the country. Plus, of course, they have the passports and means to get out, whereas many others don't have that option. What an incredibly depressing situation...