You ask at the front desk for the location of the American Embassy but no one seems to know. As they mill about trying to help you as well as many others, a thin girl wearing only a turban and loincloth steps up.

In broken English she offers to be your guide. "I have been there many times today. If you could, a copper or two." She holds out her bony hand.

The desk manager shouts at her as you agree. She runs into the street with your hand leading you and sealing the bargain with broad leaps. Once in the street she slows to a less frenzied pace.

"I am told not to beg in the hotel. My name is Elam. I am an orphan. My father and mother came here to make money, but like many of those you see they could not read or write. I will save my money and read and write and speak the words of foreigners."

"Are your parents dead?"

"No, I am abandoned, they went home and left me with my grandmother here to care for her, but she is now dead. I will stay here. I want to go to University and then travel the world like the people I guide through Calcutta. There have been two Americans just today who paid handsomely to be guided here." Elam says as you turn the corner.

A large building compared to the others, the embassy is set back from the gate and wall surrounding it. It's about the size of your home in New York. There are two Marines in full dress at the gate.

"Quickly, there's trouble at the hotel!" you admonish but the guards do nothing. "Someone could be killed." Again the men are unmoving.