I haven’t yet finished telling you about my birthday trip. When we awoke the next morning, Tony tried to track down a 4WD vehicle so we could drive out to some of the more inaccessible Berber villages. The hotel employees told him he actually didn’t need one. And more to the point, they didn’t have one and couldn’t find one. So we set off slowly and carefully, to visit the village of Chenini. Even when one is not visiting an actual Star Wars site, that part of southern Tunisia looks a lot like Tatooine. The sandy brown color is exactly right, and there are all sorts of little dwellings that look like they might harbor jawas or sand people.… Read more
Tunisia
Tourism in Tunisia? Only for the Brave
Had we not been in the midst of such a “culture shock” moment a few days ago, Tony and I would have found this article on Tunisian tourism at the moment more than a little amusing. I guess we count as brave. And I don’t know. Would taking pictures of our kids next to a Tunisian army tank be considered voyeuristic? We did ask permission first . . .
In any case, other than the odd panic attack, we continue to feel quite safe. Unfortunately, although the situation improved dramatically between the President’s departure and our arrival, things since have taken a bit of a downturn.… Read more
Female and Foreign in the Middle East
Today I had been planning to write a funny, lighthearted, slightly mushy late-Valentine’s Day post about my most useful accoutrement these days: my husband. I’ve been noticing lately that the difference between walking around as a single young woman in the Middle East and walking around on the arm of your husband is pretty significant. I have to say that I vastly prefer the latter. But my playful mood evaporated when Bridget’s blog alerted me to something truly stomach-churning that happened last week.
If you are female and foreign in the Middle East, regular harassment by the opposite gender is a fact of life.… Read more
Adapting to Tunisian Food
Tunisian cuisine can be more or less described in one word: harissa. The basic ingredients of harissa are dried hot chili peppers rehydrated in oil, to which various seasonings, including garlic, cumin, salt, etc., can optionally be added. Wiktionary remarks helpfully that harissa is “used both as a condiment and an ingredient,” which pretty much says it all. Tunisians are fond of a soup that seems to consist entirely of watered-down harissa. If you don’t stop them, they will spread it liberally on any of their myriad types of sandwiches. Axa even claims to have seen someone putting it on pizza.… Read more
And the People Wanted Life
That’s two for freedom, democracy, and the power of the people! Looks like Tunisia was NOT a fluke, and the Egyptian people were much more powerful than the pessimists predicted. Who’s next? Well, if you ask me, a village in England is missing its ophthalmologist . . .
Since Egypt eclipsed Tunisia in the press a couple of weeks ago, some of you have asked us how things are going now in Tunisia. The short answer is, great! Nearly without exception, the Tunisians are thrilled with their newfound freedom of expression, and exuberantly optimistic about a democratic future. We’ve seen fewer police and military, although they’re still around (I wasn’t here before the dictatorship fell, though.… Read more
A few of my favorite things . . . about Tunisia
The beach. Yes, I’ve mentioned it before, but I just can’t get enough of it. Today we walked out to the beach nearest our new house (after several wrong turns and a minor detour through somebody’s olive grove). The water was so still it looked like a huge, shining lake lapping gently on the sand. The beach was utterly empty, except for someone walking toward us in the distance, who eventually turned out to be two someones: a man and his camel. We took a rain-check for the camel ride.
The call to prayer. A lovely, haunting thing, somewhere between a chant and a melody, reminding me to take a moment to be with God.… Read more
Sunrise on the Mediterranean
Walking through the resort town of Yasmine Hammamet last week was like stepping into the aftermath of some global disaster in a sci-fi movie. The streets were literally deserted, and there was just a bit of that lonely wind that picks up a few odd pieces of paper and scatters them down the street, just to show how empty and forsaken everything is. Other than the utter absence of people in the streets, it was gorgeous. It looked like the nicest parts of San Diego, but with a flawless beach of bright yellow sand and a brilliantly blue sea under a cloudless sky.… Read more
The Longest Distance Between Two Points
When last I wrote, we were still a little jittery about flying into Tunisia less than a week after the President flew out. By now though, we’re pretty pleased with our good sense in moving to Tunisia just after a revolution rather than to Egypt just before. Impeccable timing, don’t you agree? In all seriousness, though, I wish the very best for the Egyptians in their political journey, and hope that this will be a new dawn for them and their beautiful country.
Our apartment, when our actually quite nice taxi driver dropped us off, was as beautiful as the pictures we’d seen of it on our latest favorite website, No Marmite in Tunisia.… Read more
Getting to Tunisia
Although we came here with reckless abandon in the wake of a revolution, Tony and I did at least have the decency to feel a little jittery on our arrival in Tunisia. After the exhilaration of finally getting on the train, and the beautiful ride over the mountains from Italy to France, our first really bad moment was in the Nice airport. Our flight had been delayed for a couple of hours without explanation. So we sat for a long time at the departure gate, entertaining our tired but hyper children and vividly picturing any number of disastrous events that could very plausibly be suspected of delaying our flight.… Read more
Our Next Great International Adventure
Apologies for my recent silence. I hate to leave you all without suitable reading matter (although there are always my voluminous archives). But as usual, I have good reasons. I’m writing this from Tunisia! So, we’re not out manning the barricades or marching in the streets, but still. We’re in Tunisia. Remember last week when I blogged about the Tunisian revolution? Well, my obsession with recent events in Tunisia was more than a little motived by the fact that we had plane tickets to land in Tunis on Saturday, January 15th, less than 24 hours after the President fled the country.… Read more