Art Fair

There was a ten day long art fair here in Sousse this month. It consisted of many traditional and untraditional Tunisian items like clothes, kitchen ware, rugs, sweets, furniture, paintings, jewelry and home decorations. I managed to go four times. This fair didn’t attract that many tourists so most of the vendors I met during my first time there remembered me the second time. By the fourth time many of them treated me like family. I hope to keep in touch with a few of them. One lady in particular is going to teach me how to do glass fusing!

  
Our friend from knitting club is a graphic designer and was in charge of making all the signs and sitemap for the event.

 
We went with a few friends from knitting club and had fun getting ideas for our future booth.

My friend, the ceramic artist, had a booth there as well. As I hung out at her booth I people-watched and saw of number of people I know from around Sousse.

Road Rage

After ten failed attempts to push my way into the right public car I finally got helped by an elderly woman who made sure I got a spot in the right louagge. (The problem is that by the time I read the Arabic to see where the public car is going it’s already been filled up by the mob of people waiting to get in one). As we were pulling away from the louagge station two young men on a scooter yelled at the chauffer because they thought he cut them off (I didn’t see who’s fault it was). They proceeded to follow us and were just about to bang on the windows of the van when the driver thought he’d teach them a lesson by swerving at them and nearly hitting them. They yelled insults at the driver but he just ignored them and drove off. About two minutes later some of the passengers noticed that the same boys were coming after us with rocks in their hands (at least I think that’s what they said). At that, the driver slammed on the breaks, jumped out of the van and chased the scooter half a block shaking his fists at them and yelling insults. After that the driver was extremely tense and drove twice as fast as normal, making up for lost time. (I’ll do my best to never get in a public car with that chauffer again).

How did your parents meet???

One of the discussion topics last week at work was “How did you meet?” Most of my students aren’t married yet so I asked them about how their parents had met. During my first class one of the students said that his parents were neighbors and that’s how they met, but no one else in that class knew how their parents had met. I was afraid that maybe it was rude to ask such a question. But they assured me that it wasn’t rude, they just hadn’t thought of asking their parents that question before.

During my second class one student also said that his parents had met because they were neighbors. The rest of the students said their parents’ marriages had been arranged. They told me that even fifteen years ago most marriages were arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. They informed me that it’s a very new thing in this country for people to meet their future spouse on their own without the help of their parents.

Roof Party!

It’s a tradition here to have a party the day you finish the roof of a building project. My friend invited me and some friends to come to her house at 8:30am on a Sunday morning to take part in watching two large machines pour cement for the roof of the second floor and to eat couscous for lunch. Unfortunately my friends and I arrived a little late and the cement trucks had already left. However, we got there a few hours before the giant pot of couscous was ready, so we had plenty of time to socialize with all the other guests, play with kids and get lessons on how roofs are built in Tunisia (large red bricks, rebar and a thick layer of cement). What a fun reason to celebrate!

  

New Year’s Celebration

My Norwegian model friend and I decided to invite a few local friends over to celebrate the New Year with us. I was so happy when our friend said that she was coming with her sister and her sister’s husband. She expressed how excited she was to come because it was the first time she’d been invited to celebrate the holiday with someone else. I was also very excited because it was going to be my first time hosting local friends for dinner and I was glad another guy was coming so that my model friend’s husband wouldn’t be the only one.

As we were waiting for the food we asked our local guests what they normally do to on New Year’s Eve. I assumed they would say that they usually buy a special cake, cook a chicken, make homemade french fries, and watch the countdown on the TV; as that’s what most of my friends seem to do. However, our three guests replied that they don’t usually do anything on New Year’s Eve “because it’s haram” (sinful). I‘d heard that before but I thought it was a made up teaching by some extremists, so I was surprised that my friends believed this as well. They explained that they studied the issue for themselves and are convinced that it is haram. At that point I was feeling a little guilty for inviting them to something they felt was sinful, so I asked them how they felt about celebrating it with us. They expressed how honored they were to be invited to my house and that they were just happy to be with us.

Despite what could have been a bit awkward, we had a great night together. We talked while eating snacks, we ate dinner, we played games, we ate dessert, and we lit some sparklers while making noise with kazoo-like-things. We ended the night at 11pm (it was midnight somewhere in the world) and everyone seemed to go home very full and happy.

Check out this link to find out more about why people think it’s a bad idea for Muslims to celebrate the New Year.

  

Trip to Spain

I went to Spain over the Christmas vacation to visit a Dominican friend and her new baby. There I saw many beautiful places and also got an inside look into what life is like for Dominicans living abroad. Here’s some pictures of my time.

 

I got lost downtown Madrid despite having a map, spent the night at a bed and breakfast where they treated me like family, then headed up north on a bus. My final destination was Sesma, a very quaint village of roughly 1,500 people. I had a relaxed visit there and a good Christmas dinner. My hosts seemed to enjoy taking me around their village and to a few other nearby villages as well.

     
 

Then my friend and I went to Pamplona, the town where people go to run with the bulls. There we stayed with a large Dominican family. The girls were kind enough to take us around the old town, to the mall, and to a great little Lebanese restaurant where five us were able to eat our fill of french fries and kebab meat for just 10 euros. The following morning I took the train back to Madrid and headed back to Tunis.