Tunisia

Even Laundry is Better in Tunisia

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I am not the most awesome housekeeper in the world. (Just ask my cleaning lady.) But I have laundry down. My mother taught me when I was six years old.

It is true that at college I disregarded her advice about color sorting on occasion, and ended up with grey clothes like Claudia and Jamie when they ran away to the Metropolitan Museum in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I was always chronically behind, which I am sorry to say continued (and even multiplied) after I was married. Then I decided to use cloth diapers when Axa was born.… Read more

Tunisian Nature Walk

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Since we don’t have a yard at our little beach bungalow, Tony and I decided to re-institute the classic Charlotte Mason practice of nature walks. I take the children out for an hour every morning, and we look for “nature.” Somehow, we always find it. And a few days ago, I took the camera out to document.

Our first step was our favorite anthill. Yes, we have a favorite anthill. Dominique spends at least fifteen minutes watching it every time we walk down our dirt road. Tunisia is quite a haven for ants. There are the tiny black “normal” ants we are used to, along with a couple of similar species in larger sizes.… Read more

Life without internet

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

If this post ends up sounding a little woozy and weird, it’s probably just because I’m a little high on secondhand hubbly-bubbly smoke. Our internet is still not functioning, so we make a daily pilgrimage to the “Tea House” (Tunisian/British Tourist-speak for Cafe) around the corner that advertises free wifi. Besides the smoke (an abundant mixture of both regular and hubbly-bubbly kinds), which is par for the course in Tunisia, it’s a pretty nice place. The only other weird thing is that it is full of large flat-screen televisions playing Arab music videos. But the music often doesn’t match up with the video.… Read more

Next Stop, Narnia

Sarah Bringhurst Familia


This is one of Dominique’s favorite shirts. He’s quite strict about when he wears it, though. He will only put it on in the morning if he knows that the day holds some form of travel. Axa shares his passion for getting from one place to another. But for her, the world is not enough. Lately she has expressed a frequent lament that Narnia is not real. She would like to travel there. In fact, the other day I found this drawing on her desk:

In case you had trouble deciphering the spelling, let me give you hint: Who could resist a direct flight to Narnia on Aslan Airlines?… Read more

How to keep strange men from following you on the beach

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I like to go out walking on the beach in the mornings, and then find a quiet place on the sand to sit and write poetry. Tony was initially a little concerned about me going by myself. And really, so was I. Fortunately, I have a guardian angel. Named Rambo. No, really. We met him when Alistair took us out for strawberry milkshakes. He works at a café that belongs to a nice little hotel around the corner from our house. It’s called Les Citronniers, and is heartily recommended by everyone (in case any of you are looking for accommodation in Hammamet and (gasp!)… Read more

Kind of a Fashion Blog

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So I’m not a fashion blogger, but I couldn’t resist this post. Despite strong ties with/influence from Europe, Tunisia is an obviously Muslim country. The beautiful call to prayer can be heard five times a day from mosques in every neighborhood. Declining to order alcohol at a restaurant doesn’t brand you as weird and cheap. And although there is plenty of visible female hair, many women do wear the hijab (Muslim head scarf). It was actually suppressed during the administration of now-deposed President Ben Ali, so it’s now enjoying a bit of a renaissance here.

The hijab is especially in fashion among younger women, who tend to make it so deliciously stylish that I feel a little jealous.… Read more

In which we get in on the pillaging

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yesterday Tony and I went on our first date in Tunisia. And it was wonderful. Our Irish cleaning lady happens to be great with children (and our children like her, which is no common feat), so we engaged her services for the evening in the capacity of babysitter. Then Tony and I took a long walk down the beautiful Hammamet beach. We passed the Hammamet Cultural Center, which was a mansion built by the Romanian millionaire who made it fashionable to holiday here. We passed Sinbad, the large hotel whence come all the Germans on the beach. And then we almost passed a burnt-out shell of a building, with a wide marble staircase leading up to it from the beach.… Read more

Where should we go first? Libya or Algeria?

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I do a fair amount of airing of exasperations about moving on this blog. But there are some delightful things that happen as a result of our wanderings. And one of the best of those is meeting new friends. We just moved to a different vacation rental (closer to the beach. Hurrah!), and our newest friend is a retired British gentleman who lives downstairs. Alastair (not his real name, but I assure you that his real name sounds just as British) is one of the most pleasant conversationalists I’ve ever met. He is unfailingly polite, thoughtful, interesting, and has a brilliant dry wit made all the funnier by by his proper English accent.… Read more

Return of the Pink People

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The one thing more gloriously beautiful than Tunisia in the winter is Tunisia in the spring. A profusion of flowers covers every field and patch of earth, and cascades down from whitewashed walls. The fragrance of orange blossoms drifts in the light breeze. Today I took a morning walk out on the beach, and could not think of a place in the world I would prefer to be. The Mediterranean sparkled in a thousand touches of sunlight. The sand stretched away in a gold curve, ending at the stone-walled fort of the Medina. And the water lapped my feet like the ripples of a gigantic, placid lake.… Read more

Tunisian Food Revisited

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

photo credit

Well, perhaps I was a bit hasty in my first blush assessment of Tunisian food. I think I can partially blame it on moving here directly from Italy. Sudden withdrawal from the consistently elegant simplicity of Italian food is bound to cause some degree of culinary culture shock, no matter which cuisine replaces it. However, during the past month, my perception of Tunisian food has undergone something of a rehabilitation.

First, there’s the fish. The Roman mosaics are full of fish, whether they’re appearing in Neptune’s train or being caught in nets by down-to-earth fisherman in little boats.… Read more