Germaphobe Street Sweeper

On a lighter note, a personal story that you may find amusing.

A friend of mine, bless her, is obsessed with hygiene. The disinfectant bottle by the bedside, the disinfectant gel in her purse, etc. I would always give her a hard time over this, trying to see how far the rabbit hole goes. I would come up with freakishly unlikely situations involving muck, dirt and bugs and gauge her reaction (and blood pressure). I believe the last one I conjured up was: "What if you were caught in a war and there was no soap or running water?" to which she cringed then falsely pretended it would be tolerable.

Well well, guess what. War.

There is still running water (at the time I write this) in Beirut. But with the exodus of all laborers due to the violence, the private company contracted to sweep the streets and dispose of Beirut's trash has understandably not been doing a great job of keeping the place clean. So, in order to mantain the company reputation and as a positive publicity stunt, the CEO donned the green overalls, grabbed a broom, and hit the streets to sweep the trash. With him, a group of the company's employees stuck in offices with no work to do.

Guess who joined in? She claims she did it willingly, but knowing her visceral loathing to anything dirty, I think she was 'persuaded'.

Ain't life grand?

Note: Dear Lebanese, if each one of us would sweep his doorstep then my friend wouldn't need to do this. If not for your country, do it for the phobicaly-challenged.