Wednesday, February 21, 2018 4:13 PM

The boulevard is swarming with teenagers, some in parkas, some wearing as little as the law allows. The ones in matching t-shirts all speak English. At the entrance to the market, a gaggle of North Americans gather around women in headscarves seated at checkerboards on the ground. From where I stand, drinking a sahlab (it's neither sahleb nor sahlav here), I watch the women sliding pieces around the boards but can't figure out the game. Another woman in a paisley skirt runs past, weeping and shrieking, waving an empty coffee cup in the air.