[in48092]

I'm in Damascus, Syria taking a cab from my apartment to a cafe. I hail a cab and tell the driver my location. When traveling solo here it's standard to ride in front with the driver. After a minute or so the driver asks me, "what is your blood" or something to that effect. My Arabic is so so and i ask him to repeat himself. He does, and i figure this is a roundabout way of asking where i am from. I answer with my standard, Bermuda.

He gives me a "no, no your blood, positive, negative? I, quite honestly, tell him I don't know. He then launches into a rambling story. From what i can gather he is telling me that his 2 month old baby is sick, and needs three bags of blood. Then, presumably to emphasize his point, he pulls a bag of what appeared to be blood out from under his seat. It is literally about 100 degrees, and said blood is stewing under his seat. I recoil a bit when he starts waiving the bag of blood in my face, but quickly regain composure.

He then states that blood costs $20/bag, and he has an hour and a half to get his baby 2 more bags. At this point I deduce that this has to be an elaborate scam to try and seperate foreigners from their money, but i semi play along wanting to keep things civil. He proceeds to inform me that i can go to the clinic with him and donate blood for free, if it matches his baby, we are in luck. I assume he knew i would never agree to this, and figured this question would increase his chances of getting $$$ from me. I tell him i was under the impression that Syrians recieved health care of some degree from the government. "Yes, yes, some things are free, but not blood." We go on like this for a while until we reach my destination. moment of truth for him as i reach for my wallet. I can tell he thinks he has duped me. I almost want to give him more then the standard SL50 (about $1) just for the creativety and use of props, but not wanting to encourage this type of behavior i pay him the normal amount, and go on my way.