borogove

sabrina here again. so we leave for london in less than two days, and i must say that i, at least, am ready. i finished my stint at the El Walid school for disabled kids last Friday, and since then, serge and i have been taking full advantage of living so close to the water -- going to the beach, visiting friends who live near the beach, and sitting at the cafe sidi chabaane so we can look at the beach. it's been great fun, but our beloved apartment started acting up a few days ago and leaking water in various places, so keeping house has become much more of a chore. and i'm looking forward to having more diversity in my diet (though yesterday we did find the Hong Kong restaurant in tunis! it's a branch of the one we'd tried to go to in sousse. it's owned by a tunisian and has tunisian staff, and the food was really pretty good).

these past few weeks have been lovely, though. my time at the el walid school was frustrating in some ways -- i didn't often feel like i added much to the equation, as there were plenty of staff for the number of kids in attendance (there were even 3 german volunteers living at the school doing their 10 months of national civil service -- in germany, apparently, you can do civil service instead of military service, and you can apply to do it abroad!). i was supposed to serve as a teaching assistant for the pottery classes as well as do some painting of the facility. they decided not to have me do any painting, though, and given the number of staff, i wasn't really needed as an assistant. so mostly i just tried to help set up and clean up and interact with the kids, who were great fun. most of the kids only speak arabic though, so we had to make do with lots of hand gestures, occasional teacher translations, and singing -- i think i did more singing than pottery, in fact. we sang frere jacques and alouette, as well as old macdonald, which they sang in arabic while i sang in english. and, at their request, i sang a few of the taiwanese folk songs i could remember. i also learned a few arabic words and got pretty good at shouting "le le le le", which means "no no no no", at them when they'd pick fights with each other. the kids were mostly in the pre- to late teens and had a wide variety of disabilities. many were autistic. some had physical disabilities only. others could not communicate verbally at all.

the kids were lots of fun, and it was also fun getting to know some of the teachers and other staff, many of whom were in their twenties and early thirties. two were planning to get married this summer, in "small" weddings of 200-250 people, and graciously invited me, but alas, we'll be gone before they take place. so anyway, i'm disappointed that i didn't add much value as a volunteer, but it was a fun experience for me in many ways.

so everyday i'd come home to our apartment, which serge kept immaculate -- he was a wonderful househusband -- and we'd take walks by the harbor or go shopping at carrefour (where i found one other asian restaurant, in the food court) and then cook dinner, watch tv, go to our cafe, and, if they were open, go to the bombaloni (kind of like a fluffier zeppole) stand (note to talat: still haven't found yoyos but have at least learned that they're like bombaloni but with less sugar). it's definitely been a very nice life.

well, it's been a while since we've written -- our lives are not as eventful now that we've settled down. but we've been taking a couple of weekend trips, and we're now in tabarka, on the northern coast a little over 3 hours west of tunis (by louage, that is-- we just found out that it's a mere 16 USD and 30 minutes by plane, which we may take to get home), not far from the algerian border. it's the best beach we've been to so far -- a curve of sand backed by green mountains, with a view of a genoese castle on a peninsula jutting out from the harbor. and not much in the way of hotel development, yet. rough guide says that tabarka is still mostly a tourist destination for tunisians rather than europeans but that it's being promoted more and more to foreigners. we haven't seen many tourists here at all, though, tunisian or otherwise. now that we've been getting closer to the supposed high season months of july and august, we've been expecting to see a lot more tourists everywhere, including in our town of sidi bou said, but there still haven't been very many at all.

although the beach here in tabarka hasn't been too crowded, the ones near sidi bou said have been full of people, most of whom are tunis area residents. tunisians young and old, male and female, seem to love the beach, though the dominant demographic is young men who come in big groups and kick around soccer balls or throw each other in the water. we've seen a fair number of young women, some of whom go swimming fully clothed, jeans and head scarves included. but enough of them wear bathing suits that i feel comfortable wearing mine.


tabarka's also meant to have some of the best diving and snorkelling in the mediterranean, so tomorrow we're going on a boat trip so that serge can do some of the former while i do some of the latter. and just so that we would be sure not to get too tired of the sea, today we took a quick trip up into the mountains just behind us, to a hill station built as a hunting retreat by the french, called ain draham. our rides through this part of the country have made us feel like we were back in italy -- lots of green hills, cypresses, and olive trees -- as well as vast fields of sunflowers, which we'd hoped to see in italy but hadn't. and up at the top of the hills in ain draham we walked through forests of cork trees.

we've also gotten in some viewings of roman and punic ruins, at dougga, utica, and carthage.


the sightseeing's been lots of fun and all, but i must admit that my favorite activity is hanging out at the cafe sidi chabaane just up the hill from our apartment in sidi bou said. the cafe consists of a series of whitewashed terraces built into the side of a cliff overlooking the harbor and seems to draw men and women of all ages for tea, coffee, coke, and hookahs. i think it's what i'll miss most about life here.

serge here. we are back in tunisia after our quick jaunt through italy. tuscany was lovely, as expected, and we really enjoyed the chance to spend some time with good friends (actually, i suspect that sabrina would have been excited to spend time with anyone who wasn't me for a change) in a lovely house near florence. we did the usual tourist thing, going to quaint old towns and eating delicious pasta and pizza. so, just imagine us soaking up the culture and the scenery every day and playing scrabble (with an italian-english dictionary, which led to not a few controversies).

sabrina may disagree, but for me the highlight (although that may not be the right word) was when several of us went to a Serie A soccer game between two teams at the bottom of the standings, and the winner would stay in the first division but the loser would get sent down. the home team, fiorentina, pulled out a decisive victory that led to pandemonium in the stadium and, we thought, joy all around. we discovered our mistake when we got to the train station to find a train full of visiting supporters of the losing team, yelling at a train full of jubilant and taunting fiorentina fans. of course, the platform where we were waiting for our train was directly between the two groups. the platform quickly filled up with riot police who dealt with the situation professionally and quickly, and we left without incident. it was probably not as exciting as it seemed to us, but we were still glad to get away from this minor bout of soccer rioting.

also, one day we were enjoying breakfast in the yard when i was attacked by a very small bird. the consensus was that it must not have liked my pajamas, but i can't say for sure. i'm not the first member of my family to come under avian attack, so it may just be a martinez thing. at any rate, i survived its talons with minimal damage.

we took the ferry back on saturday night (there was a swimming pool, but it was too cold to use it) and on sunday moved into our house in sidi bou said. it was absolutely delightful to cook a meal at home for a change. now we're cleaning it up and just hoping that someone will come visit to make use of all our space. that means you, gentle reader--we hope to see you soon.