Tripoli, Libya - Amhar Sandibar never thought he'd be so lucky again. Back in the good old Khadafi years, he had a nice little business selling swimming pool supplies: floating loungers, blow-up whales and arm-swimmies, etc. to a wealthy flow of the Khadafi regime families - all of whom had a nice big swimming pool in their cushy backyard.
Then it all got blow to smithereens.
"Times have been rough for many years-" howled a newly giddy Sandibar. "But now the good lord has shined his light on me again!" Which seemed to be true, as we watched Sandibar take his daily ration, from a mountain of pool related equipment that has built up over the years of bad sales, and hawk it from the back of his Toyota, down by the ship docks, where hoards of scared refugees-to-be plan to board a boat for Italy.
"Life is a funny, funny bitch," explained Sandibar, who has had to hire two full time body guards to escort him to the bank at the end of each day. "These people have all heard the gloomy stories of ships capsizing out in the ocean; many have already lost someone. They're scared shitless! And here I am, with a shitload of pool floaties!"
Sandibar was easily getting quadruple the price he would have normally charged for his blow-up dolphins with dual cup-holders and the like. "My Dragons were off the hook!" he said, explaining that they were his biggest seller. "They were a pretty good size - very long. You could have lasted for days on one out in the ocean - but I ran out last week."
And all this good fortune couldn't have come at a better time, as Sandibar was just about to close up shop for good, and sail out of port with the rest of the masses. "Thank god I listened to my wife for once! She was like, 'take them down to the damn docks and sell 'em.' For years she's been nagging me... I never listened."
Sandibar turned back to his long line of customers, each with a suitcase and cash in hand, each hoping this very happy man had just one more Sea Turtle with sturdy handles left in the back seat of his car. "Your in luck!" he gleefully told the next worried woman with her two young children. "I have a very nice three-seater Killer Whale that I think you're going to love!"
