expat issues

Conference Weekend, Our Way

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last Saturday and Sunday were “Conference Weekend” for millions of Mormons around the world. Every April and October, we gather together to listen to counsel from the current Prophet, the Twelve Apostles, and other Church leaders, as well as beautiful music by the world-famous Tabernacle Choir, in what is known as General Conference.

Watching Conference overseas, though, can be a bit of a challenge. My first experience with this was when I was in Syria in 2001. A friend who owned a business offered to let us come sit in his office and watch Conference streaming on the internet. Considering the fact that our only other option would have been spending a fortune to sit for eight hours watching it in an internet cafe with loud music blaring in the background, we took him up on the offer.… Read more

Success (and a little embarrassment) at the Turkish Bath

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Photo credit

I’ve only been once to a Turkish bath, or hammam as they are called in Arabic. I don’t know that I’ll ever go again, but it was certainly an experience. The hammam I attended was the Hammam al-Nasri, located in a 14th century building in the charming old city of Aleppo, Syria. I don’t remember every single detail, but there are certain parts that really stick out. After disrobing and putting on a special towel, I was ushered into the steam room, where I was soon surrounded by billowing white clouds, which rendered it impossible to see anything more than a few feet away.… Read more

Where to Find News on the Arab Revolutions

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So, it looks like somehow, bizarrely, we managed to move to what looks like it might be the safest country in the Middle East right now: the one that’s already finished its revolution. I never would have thought it when we arrived. Back then there was a 6 pm curfew, our neighbors were out manning the barricades every night, and prisons were still getting broken into and emptied.

Of course, we’ve been haunting the news over the past few months, and especially lately, as the situation in Libya has gone from bad to worse to we’re not sure what. Many Egyptians voted for the first time in their lives last week.… Read more

May the Force Be With You

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So, I let my preschoolers watch a PG-13 movie. I know, bad mommy. In my defense, it was Star Wars (that makes it OK, doesn’t it?). It was also Tony’s custom version, expurgated for three- and six-year-old eyes. And, we LIVE on the planet of Tatooine. Besides, the damage had already been done six years ago when Axa saw it multiple times in the theater as a baby in the Philippines.

Bizarrely enough, Star Wars is something my children can really relate to. As we were preparing to come to Tunisia in the wake of the revolution, I cast about for a way to explain the events to them without overwhelming or frightening them.… Read more

In the Arms of the Angel

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

As of today, we are officially out of olive oil. Whatever our failings, we are at least Italian enough to be unable to cook for even one day without some good extra virgin olive oil. We’ve been trying to buy it for a couple of days now. There’s no chance of getting it in our neighborhood. The abundance of little corner shops where we can get our normal staples (butter, yoghurt, fruits/veggies, fresh bread, etc.) only have various kinds of gross vegetable oil. I haven’t used vegetable oil in years. So it was off to the grocery store in downtown Hammamet, just across the street from the medina.… Read more

Christmas or the call to prayer?

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last night I was musing aloud on how much I would miss the call to prayer if we moved away from Tunisia. Axa remarked in reply, “Which do you prefer, Christmas or the call to prayer?” Tony immediately protested that the two things were too different to compare. I know what she was driving at, though, and she quite impressed me with her six-year-old insight. In a predominantly Muslim country like Tunisia, she knows without having even experienced it yet that Christmas as we knew it in the States or in Italy just won’t be the same. We won’t answer the door to find carolers, or cruise around the neighborhood to see the lights, or visit a gigantic creche display in an ancient church.… Read more

Just another manic Sunday

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So, I’ve noticed that whenever I make an optimistic blog post, things get worse here. Hopefully it’s not my fault. Friday 100,000 people marched through downtown Tunis in the largest demonstration yet against the transitional government. Another rally on Saturday turned violent, with three deaths, dozens of wounded, and a hundred arrests. Our taxi driver this morning told us that the violence had been caused by Ben Ali supporters who had infiltrated the crowd and incited security forces. I wonder . . .

The reason we were in a taxi in the first place was our weekly pilgrimage to visit friends in Tunis.… Read more

Female and Foreign in the Middle East

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

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

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

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

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

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