Adventures around Tunis
Ariel here. I'm stealing my blog back for now.
Forecast for the day: "Sand Squalls" so our plan for lunch on the beach got canceled. We're now holed up in my apartment, Amara cleaning and me working. I've been working on this post slowly throughout the day. Every once in a while, the lights will flicker and we'll hear something crash outside in the courtyard. The trees have been permanently tilted for several hours.
The most current news from here is that we had to cancel our planned weekend in Sousse. It is fairly near Kairouan, where there is a protest planned for Friday. Just to stay on the safe side, we're sticking close to Tunis this weekend. We were going to try to fly somewhere exciting, but Tunisair employees might strike on Friday, which would seriously mess up any plans we make.
But we're rallying and coming up with an exciting new plan. Amara's on research duty, since I've been working all day.
My boxes arrived from the U.S. yesterday, which gave us a whole new project. Getting my things through customs was an interesting experience. I met someone from my moving company at the freight airport, then spent the next hour and a half walking back and forth from one desk to another, getting various things signed, copied, signed again, and stamped. My purpose was to produce my passport every once in a while and smile apologetically when someone spoke to me in Tunisian Arabic, which I am still getting used to. I knew enough Arabic and French to understand when the officers asked about my company, my background (the "Shaker" on the passport confused them), and made fun of how many shoes were in my shipment. My piano keyboard caused a lot of debate among my agent and the 5 customs officers who came over to asses whether it was a true musical instrument or a toy. The tax on a musical instrument starts at 100 dinar and goes up from there. Luckily my agent was able to convince them that it was just a recreational instrument (there is no way that I'm a professional!) and talked them down to 10 dinar. It is lovely to have my things here, including all the do-it-yourself books people got me before I left and my language books. Amara got started on Mcgyvering my apartment immediately. We've had to get creative because we have had trouble finding a few necessary things. First, hangers are strangely expensive. I may ask the next person traveling this direction to bring me hangers. We also can't find a hammer anywhere! We got a very useful tool kit, but no hammers to be found. We've made do and we're slowly making all the changes we need to.
More on this weekend later.
My internet is still slow, but I made progress on upgrading it today, so hopefully I'll be able to skype soon!
Forecast for the day: "Sand Squalls" so our plan for lunch on the beach got canceled. We're now holed up in my apartment, Amara cleaning and me working. I've been working on this post slowly throughout the day. Every once in a while, the lights will flicker and we'll hear something crash outside in the courtyard. The trees have been permanently tilted for several hours.
The most current news from here is that we had to cancel our planned weekend in Sousse. It is fairly near Kairouan, where there is a protest planned for Friday. Just to stay on the safe side, we're sticking close to Tunis this weekend. We were going to try to fly somewhere exciting, but Tunisair employees might strike on Friday, which would seriously mess up any plans we make.
But we're rallying and coming up with an exciting new plan. Amara's on research duty, since I've been working all day.
My boxes arrived from the U.S. yesterday, which gave us a whole new project. Getting my things through customs was an interesting experience. I met someone from my moving company at the freight airport, then spent the next hour and a half walking back and forth from one desk to another, getting various things signed, copied, signed again, and stamped. My purpose was to produce my passport every once in a while and smile apologetically when someone spoke to me in Tunisian Arabic, which I am still getting used to. I knew enough Arabic and French to understand when the officers asked about my company, my background (the "Shaker" on the passport confused them), and made fun of how many shoes were in my shipment. My piano keyboard caused a lot of debate among my agent and the 5 customs officers who came over to asses whether it was a true musical instrument or a toy. The tax on a musical instrument starts at 100 dinar and goes up from there. Luckily my agent was able to convince them that it was just a recreational instrument (there is no way that I'm a professional!) and talked them down to 10 dinar. It is lovely to have my things here, including all the do-it-yourself books people got me before I left and my language books. Amara got started on Mcgyvering my apartment immediately. We've had to get creative because we have had trouble finding a few necessary things. First, hangers are strangely expensive. I may ask the next person traveling this direction to bring me hangers. We also can't find a hammer anywhere! We got a very useful tool kit, but no hammers to be found. We've made do and we're slowly making all the changes we need to.
More on this weekend later.
My internet is still slow, but I made progress on upgrading it today, so hopefully I'll be able to skype soon!