Tunisian Cats

Cats are everywhere in Tunisia. They’re in the dumpsters, on the walls, in the gutters, and under cars. They’re in the trees, on the streets, in the cities and on the beach.
Compared to mangy street dogs I’ve seen in other countries, I quite like the street cats. They’re not as scary as dogs, not as dirty, and they don’t bark. They also help catch mice!

     
Being that there’s so many cats it’s hard to live here without ending up with a cat of your own. My neighbors started looking after a stray kitten that moved into our yard and my friend just gave me a cat which I named Gizmo. My new cat is just 6 months old and would have died in a dumpster when he was two weeks old if my friend wouldn’t have saved him. So far he’s doing a great job scaring away little critters that try to get into my house. He also keeps my legs warm when I’m reading books at night or working on the computer.

Knitting Club Goes Fishing

I was surprised when one of my friends from knitting club told me that she had always wanted to go fishing. When I mentioned the idea of going fishing to my Norwegian model friend she also surprised me by saying that she, as I, really liked to fish. So the plan started to grow. After a little bit of searching I found a street in town that has seven different fishing stores on it. We convinced the whole knitting club that it would be fun to take a day trip to Mahdia and go fishing. Then a few of us went to the fishing store street and bought three fishing rods. We also got some lessons on how to do things like tie knots on the fishing line.

A few days later, eight of us met up early on a rainy morning in Mahdia. We braved the elements and started to fish. After a few knots in the lines, lessons on how to cast the fishing rod, a little boat ride, and a lot of laughs we started catching fish. Though we only caught extremely small fish, the girls were so excited and insisted on keeping them to make soup with. The weather turned out to be beautiful and sunny so we were able to fish most of the day, only breaking to have a picnic and to go get hot drinks at a nice coffee shop in town.

      

Getting to work

This past week has been busy. Between work, volunteering, my online class, Arabic classes, and business meetings with some of my expat friends, I hardly feel like I have time to think or relax. I’m enjoying all that I’m doing though! The most stressful part of my day is getting to work. I’ve figured out how to get to and from work using either one or two louagges (public vans that have specific routes), but the time it will take to get to work seems to be out of my control. One day it will take 10 minutes because the louagge fills up quickly and there’s no traffic. Another day it will take 30 minutes. And when it rains, there’s no guarantee that the louagge I need will ever show up.  I was thirty minutes late for work last week because I stood in the pouring rain for forty minutes waiting for the public car I needed, but it never came. I was fortunate enough to have some friends who were willing to drive me but we got stuck in the worst traffic I’ve ever been in here. Luckily, my boss and my students were understanding.

  

Here’s a few pictures from my volunteer work at the hospital.
 

Knitting in Tunisia

As most of you know, I’m part of a knitting club here in Tunisia. No knitting clubs are not common here, as far as I know this is the only one in the whole country. Most people here think knitting is for old women, but we were fortunate enough to meet one young lady who had studied art and textiles in college and loved the idea of starting a knitting club. Through her we have met a few girls who were interested in learning how to knit and now have become avid knitters. On an average Sunday afternoon seven of us come together to knit or crochet, drink coffee or Tunisian tea, and talk. We’ve also had some lunch parties and gone on a few road trips. This club is truly the highlight of my weekends.

Here are a few pictures from recent gatherings and outings shopping for yarn.