The Worst of Times

Life kind of sucks right now and is downright frightening to be honest. Having sold the business and not sure what I wanted to do with my life from that point forward, I embarked on some world travels. I spent a week or two in Germany and Switzerland and then hooked up with an old girlfriend from my undergraduate days. She works for the US government in a diplomatic capacity, and is posted in Kuwait for a year (of all places). Having always been interested in the Middle East and having been there briefly last year, I decided to join her for what was supposed to be a week....or maybe two at most. Well, my friends, a week or two is now going on four. Why? Because the government here has placed a travel ban on my ass, that's why. And I don't even have access to my passport. Why would they do this, you ask? What did I do? Well, the short answer is I rode in the front seat of a car with my girlfriend and two Kuwaiti guys hit us broadside. It was clearly not our fault. One of the guys in the other car was seriously injured and is reportedly still in the hospital on a ventilator. And there is an ongoing invesitgation. Apparently there's some rule here that states if there's an accident with fatalities or serious injuries and it involves a foreigner, there's a huge investigation and a travel ban is placed on the foreigner. The foreigner would be me. There's a travel ban on my friend too, but it really doesn't affect her as she's working here right now anyway. Again, the accident was clearly not our fault and even if it had been, I wasn't driving the damn car, so why the hell am I banned from traveling? I can't get a straight answer, other than "it's the law here." The embassy is of no help. They just keep telling me to be patient and let the process take care of it itself. I"m not incacerated or anything, just can't leave. My girlfriend has a nice apartment overlooking the Persian Gulf and there are many luxuries here, but I want to go the hell home. Apparently what's taking so long is that they haven't even started this socalled investigation yet. I've contacted a political friend back home who tried to make some inquiries, but he gets the same answer, "she just has to be patient." All I want to do is go home. And I'm going to kiss the ground as soon as I get off the plane. What I'd like to know is, what would happen if I had a family and children or a job to get back home to? What would someone do in that situation? My situation is bad enough. I shudder to think what would happen to someone with more responsibilites back home. God bless America.