Today (June 23) is my last full day here.  We are thinking of going to the museum and then back to Sidi Bou Said for a music festival. It is now 10 A.M. and the other two are still sleeping, so I am going to go get them up.

Off to Paris tomorrow.

Saturday

Yesterday, we went north to Bizerte.. .the most northern city in the country of Tunisia. We were trying to avoid the sun and heat of Tunis. It worked. Once you get to the coast, the temperature really changes. We ate in a traditional Tunisian restaurant (couscous and lamb) and walked along the old part of town and the port to the Medina (old Arab section) which consists of extremely narrow walking-only streets that form a maze of residences and some little shops. The Medina continued into the Kasbah, which housed another labyrinth of streets around a mosque. This was an extremely poor section with garbage strewn in corners, attracting the many of the hundred thousand free cats in the area, and little children following us for souvenirs or dinars (the local currency).

We rode around the town but found no really attractive section so we moved down the coast to a beach in Remel where we all went swimming in the med. Met some kids who told us that Germany had beaten the US in the World Cup, so our hopes of the disinterested country winning out over all the crazed Football fans of the world were dashed.  The highlight of this part of the trip was Barbara emerging in a t shirt with huge USA letters across the front. At a time when there is a warning out for Americans here to lay low and a particular new threat due to the recent uprisings in the middle east, the last thing we were hoping to communicate here was that we are American.  But, alas, we could no longer hide our identity.

We moved on to a delightful little town called Raf Raf, a Tunisian tourist haunt with a little village by the sea, at the bottom of a small mountain. We had green tea at a beach side cafe and listened to the Arabic music (which escapes us). Who is staying in Tunis for two weeks by herself in a downtown, air conditioned hotel.

We eventually drove back to Tunis and had supper in a highly recommended Tunis restaurant and had grilled fish.  Barbar entertained us with stories of her "boyfriend," whom she claims fell in love with her at first sight.  He thinks she is 40 instead of 63 and she is flattered. She is a bit concerned, however, that if she brought him home to Cincinnati, that she would be supporting him, as he hasn't much in the way of job skills. He now works at the hotel where she is staying as a bell hop. She does seem to understand that he is something of a gigolo, but there is a part of her that interestingly seems to be flattered and to be taking him seriously.

We listened to her stories of the couscous and grilled meat dinner with mama and watched the restaurant waiters as they watched the Arabic version of " Do you Want to Be a Millionaire" on the TV overlooking the restaurant tables and in full view of all of the diners.  With the exception of not having Regis, the show is identical to ours. . .except that the answers are written in Arabic cursive and the contestants are in Saudi Arabic garb. The waiters, completely disregarding their customers in favor of watching this show, were totally glued to the set.

Speaking of sets, it is a thrill to have a dish so that we can watch all the tv coverage in the world.  We were glued to our own TV during the middle east conflict as well as the World Cup.  We were particularly worried when the mid east conflict started up again because the downstairs neighbors seem to be very political and, of course, the U.S. is to blame for everything that is happening there.

So, on the fashion:
The women here, who almost to a woman have beautiful faces, are dressed in a variety of costumes.

Costume 1, and the least common, are the women who run around in white wraps which cover their heads and whatever clothes they are wearing underneath. They seem to use these like we use hooded raincoats (only no need for the rain) to cover up when they are outside as a gesture of religion and respect.

Costume 2, going up the ladder from least to most common, are the women who are in regular street clothes but with heads covered, mostly in white.

Costume 3 is the fashionless look of the women who are35+. They must buy their clothes down in the souks of the Medina or in Ville Nouvelle (the French, contemporary section of town designed to look like Paris and the Champs Elysees, but with no accompanying pomp and circumstance, and no upscale stores. All the stores are kind of cheap looking with cheap, outdated looking clothes and shoes. If you were looking to buy an outfit here, you would be hard pressed to find anything attractive.

Costume 4 is the look for the younger set.  They seem to ignore everything that we had been told  about covering up legs and arms and sport tank tops and jerseys.  The girls have one kind of pants.. . black polyester, very tight fitting pants. . . occasionally capri length now that it is warmer.  The guys all wear levi 501 button fly black jeans and shirts.

Driving
the driving is positively insane, and the only reason I have been able to survive is because I got my training in Boston, equally insane in terms of driving.  There are usually two, sometimes three lanes on these roads, to which no one pays the slightest attention. People ride the middle, bop back and forth, and literally crowd two or three lanes to make three or four respectively.  While all of this is going on (with some difficulty for me because I am not used to a standard shift) the pedestrians simply wander out into the middle of the streets and cross when and wherever they please. They often walk along the roads and highways on their way to wherever in the blazing unrelenting heat, nearly getting killed on a regular basis.

Wandering seems to be the preferred mode, not only for people but for the stray cats that populate the entire country.  Wherever you are. . . north, south, city, country and beach, the skinny, unhealthy looking cats who belong to no one, roam the streets and beg at the restaurants.  They lie around all the neighborhoods and cafes languishing in the heat.

Shopping
You can never just look at the price of anything.  These salespeople, who actually begin to drive the living crap out of you in short order, never expect that you will pay the price they first give you.  And they harass everyone walking through the market.  If you want to "just look", a concept that they do not in any way understand, you harass you the whole time until you either leave because you can't stand it, or you buy the damn thing just to shut them up. The concept of leaving because you don't think you like anything, is always mistaken for the notion that you want them to come down in their price. So, it is always a catch 22.  Yesterday, I went back to the Souks to buy a few things. I actually had fun because I didn't care whether I got the things or not, and that helped me to get the bargains I wanted.

The first installment

Just wanted to keep you abreast of the goings on in North Africa. I have been having a terrific time since I arrived on Friday of last week. It took a long trip and many hours to get from Columbus through Newark through Paris and eventually to Tunis. I arrived on Friday and basically we hung out here on Friday and cooked Couscous and lamb, a Tunisian specialty.

I have been trying to avoid eating anything that is likely to make me sick for half the time I am here, even with the shots I had to get. For example, they say to avoid anything that is not cooked, or that you can't boil or peel. That leaves out all the fruits (with the exception of bananas, which are unavailable, and oranges that you peel yourself). It also leaves out all salads and any vegetables that are raw. Not a good situation for one on a weight watchers diet.

Tunisians eat a lot of fatty food, things made with quarts of olive oil. Desia has become proficient at making many of the local dishes. They are fabulous, but one must watch the amounts. Walking it off is good, but it is very hot here.

Tunis is a fairly free atmosphere, with a fashionable ville nouvelle created when it was a French Protectorate. This stands side by side with the Medina, the old, traditional arab part of town where you see many traditional people in traditional dress and the architecture of the ancient edifaces. On my first full day here, we went for a tour of the Medina led by a representative of the organization dedicated to the conservation of the old Arab part of town. In French, she led us through houses and restaurants, museums and alleyways, telling us about the history and the architecture. We eventually went to the marketplace and shopped in the souks, the small shops in the labyrinth of traditional shops where shopkeepers sit on mats and sew traditional outfits, hawkers sell silver and gold, and shoppers can rest in restaurants and dine on couscous and fish for reinforcement for the remaining hours of shopping.

That evening, we attended a church supper/social held at St. Jean D' Arc church, the Catholic church that Brian and Desia attend here. Since most everyone is Islamic, attending mosques that are here, the Italians, Americans, Brits and other misfits here in Tunis seem to go to this Catholic church. Very sweet little church with a priest running the show who speaks every language known to man and talks to all the parishioners in their languages,which include Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, English.

I met several interesting people there, a couple of whom had visited the states. The main language of the evening, of course, was French and it was a scream to watch all of the parish people and their kids putting on little skits and exhibitions of their native lands. There were songs and dances (complete with costumes) from Italy, the U.S., Palestine, Israel, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. One fantastic group from Cameroon sang during the Mass in their native language and then again outside at the church supper in thechurch yard. They wereworth thewhole trip. . . totally fantastic African counterpoints by men andwomen from Cameroon. The group from the Ivory Coast were all women, all dressed in traditional West African dresses, who were also great. Other than the fact that people were speaking in twenty languages and representing many of the nations of the world, it seemed like any church social you had ever been to, kids running around, parents watching them and talking to their friends and enjoying the food and the entertainment. I thought that if I woke up and found myself there and couldn't hear the language, that I could easily be participating in a scene in Detroit, Columbus, New Jersey, Paris etc. .

Yesterday we went to a sweet Mediterranean coastal town called Side Bou Said. It is near Carthage, which is a suburb of Tunis. It is very like the Greek Islands, all the houses being white with fantastic blue trim and doors which matches the deep blue of the sky and the blue of the Mediterranean. It is a very wealthy and very touristy but adorable and beautiful place. We shopped a bit and ate in a restaurant that I had read about, which had a tremendous view of the Med.

Before we ate dinner, we did some walking around the area to see the houses and peoplewatch. We went to one cafe and had coca cola which tasted like the coke from my childhood that they sold in tiny little bottles. We marveled at the way the people dress here. It was very hot, and yet, most people wear long black pants and long shirts and some of the women are in traditional Islamic dress with heads covered.. Some people, however, who had come off cruise ships on the Mediterranean, were scantily clad, a situation which is looked upon critically here, although it is a style which is definitely coming into vogue among some people. I was told not to expose legs or arms, which I have not, but you do see some men wearing shorts and some girls looking Westernized.

We spent much of the afternoon in a Chicha cafe, a room of platforms covered with mats in which the locals sit and sip green tea and smoke Chicha from a pipe and bong apparatus. Very exotic and I loved it.

All in all, the day was wonderful. By the time we got to go to dinner, the blistering hot day demanded sweaters as the sea cools the air at night.

Today is a lazy day. Brian has a Tunisian Arabic lesson and Desia has gone to the University to proctor an exam. We are going to town called Dougga tomorrow with friends of Brian and Des and we are planning an afternoon/evening in Carthage, in commemoration of the Punic Wars and the Roman takeover of the territory. . . one in a long line of takeovers, with the Arab/Islamic infiltration having been the most currently influential. It is interesting to see, on the one hand, evidence of Roman ruins, next door to mosques from which the call to prayer blasts five times per day, including once at around 3:30 A.M.

We are also planning a road trip to what is called Cap Bon, a peninsula to the east of Tunis where there are many beautiful beaches (frequented by Germans and French tourists) and some Roman ruins to see.

Will keep you posted on things to come.

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