My days are mostly punctuated with three things, bus rides, politics with the debbabi's and hairstyles by Zainab. I live in La Marsa, a large suburb of Tunis, and I take the bus daily to Sidi Bou Said, the suburb where I have class. The bus rides are probably my most real and genuine interaction so far with the pulse of urban life in Tunis, which i mean to say its my most frequent contact with a wide range of Tunisians- students, laborers, shopkeepers, shoppers, etc, etc. The bus is always late and always crowded, but no one seems to mind either of those "problems." This is because time does not exist in Tunisia and neither does personal space...two concepts I'm growing to appreciate more and more everyday. My host family doesn't have a clock in the house and a class that was supposed to start at 10 started at 11:20 today and we all just drank mint tea, orange juice and water until everyone got there, which I couldn't love anymore. In terms of personal space, I will say it's mildly off-putting at first when you don't have your 1-foot radius of space, as a security matter, at first. But, in general, it just feels very human and the general understanding of hospitality and affection among strangers here is much stronger than in the states. An illustrative example from the bus stop: While walking up to the crowded bus stop on a rainy morning, I saw an empty chair under the awning, which totally excited me in a way only something like that can, and as I was about to sit down, I felt hands on my back from the women on either side of the chair. When I turned around expecting to find a small child or an imaginary friend, the women were pointing to a puddle and started drying it with their newspapers. That is the Tunisia that I have seen and am living so far, and maybe it's because I'm still heavy into the first weeks euphoria that I'm only seeing the good things that I want to see...but it's as real as anything and I'm as happy as can be.
After class, I go back to La Marsa to a very charismatic, intellectual, elegant and dynamic host family. They are originally from Niger, but have lived in Tunisia for generations and have more relatives than I have acquaintances and some of their extended family also took students from my program, so many of my friends are also my "cousins." My immediate family is a Mom, a Dad, A 17 year old sister, 13 year old brother and 3 year old sister. We have dinner together every night, which always inevitably turns into cross-cultural exchange and socio-politico comparisons between "Al-Gharb w' Afrikeea Al- Shamaleea ( The West and North Africa.) Today, our conclusions were that Eqypt is the mother of the world, Obama is the president of the world ( not because people love him, but because America's actions affect the entire world, a fact that was said with disdain and rightfully so) and iron and irony have too different of meanings to be one letter apart ( my 13 year old brother had an english test today). After dinner, we sit in the living room and Zainab, my 3 year old sister, does my hair, which hurts a lot, but she loves it and I can't say no to her since she marches around the house spritzing herself with parfum speaking french/arabic while her two little pigtails stick straight up.
I can't write this entry without mentioning how happy I am to be with the other students in the program. I just feel very lucky to get the next 4 months to get to know them while getting into all sorts of good trouble wandering through the winding roads of the markets here, eating street food, drinking tea, getting colds, getting better and speaking french/arabic/english.
Also, Lara is planning a trip to Tunis and Tunis is planning quite the trip for Lara. Hope you are readyyyy!
Sincerely,
your expatriette in tunis.
your expatriette in tunis.
