Ibrahim Dik has been trapped in Lebanon since Israel started bombing the country in mid-July. Dik, who has been trying to get to Cyprus, said the U.S. Embassy has given him word he will leave tomorrow around 12:30 a.m. Hawai'i time.

Contacted this morning by The Advertiser, Dik, a St. Louis Heights resident said the Israeli military bombed the southern part of Beirut yesterday.

"There were two huge explosions," Dik said. "I could hear it."

Prior to getting to the evacuation point Dik had been staying with relatives in Aouker. He said spy planes are constantly flying overhead and the noise is "like a lawnmower."

As far as his condition, Dik said he's "doing fine," but "very anxious."

He occupies his days in Beirut by sending e-mails to his family and friends back home.

"I didn't go outdoors," Dik said.

According to Dik, he had to make his own arrangements out of Cyprus. He has flight arrangements from Cyprus to Bahrain on Gulf Airlines on Aug. 8. Then from Bahrain to Singapore, to Japan, then Honolulu.

"I'm making a long trip," Dik said.

Dik is on stand-by for the same flight route Saturday. He hopes that he won't have to stay in Cyprus long.

"Cyprus is very busy now with all the people (being evacuated)," Dik said.

The 62-year-old arrived in Lebanon on May 26 with his wife Susan, also a KCC professor, to spend the summer. For the past 10 years, the couple from St. Louis Heights have spent their summers in Lebanon visiting Dik's family, in the town he grew up in. Susan Dik flew to Malaysia to finish out a fellowship just a week-and-a-half before the bombing started. She returned to O'ahu yesterday.

Dik was scheduled to return to Hawai'i on Aug. 11, in time to report to KCC for the new school year on Aug. 15.