Travelogue -- Tunisia

Travelogue - Tunisia - May 20-25, 2007(written Tuesday and Wednesday in the hotel, then Friday on the plane ridehome)Lyrad was excited to present a poster at the 37th World Conference onMilitary Medicine, held this year in Tunis, Tunisia. In order to take mealong, he arranged to fly his mother out here for a few weeks. Shirleygraciously agreed to come babysit even though she's in the middle of movingfrom one house to another. On Sunday, May 20, we packed our suitcases into the car at 7:30a.m. and went to church with Shirley and our children (we go an hour earlyfor Lyrad's meeting). While waiting for church to begin, I finished writingup all the details for each day we'd be gone, so Shirley would know who hasto be where and when. All the German schools begin and end at differenttimes each day, so the schedule is quite complicated. Isaac, Eliza, andMadison are completely on their own for getting to school all week (viapublic bus, train, base shuttles, and foot or scooter), and Joshua doesn'thave to go at all (but if the neighbors are going, they'll drive Joshua).But Rachel is too little (in my eyes, not hers) to walk the half-hour walkto school and then home again each day. So Lyrad showed Shirley how todrive to Rachel's school, and apparently they made it home in one pieceyesterday (though a German polizei did pull her over after she drove througha pedestrian zone - but she got off with a warning!). We are so gratefulfor Shirley's willingness to Control the Chaos at the Riley home so Lyradand I can have this trip together. After Lyrad conducted sacrament meeting, we said our lastgood-byes to the children (who didn't show much emotion about us leaving -having Grandma here is too exciting, and 5 days is not very long anyway),handed out cookie plates and birthday cupcakes (for Joshua's primary classand my primary class), then Kris Taylor drove us to the airport duringSunday School. We had plenty of time to chat and read until our plane took offfor our 1 1/2 -hour flight to Paris at 1:15. I didn't like the No-Liquidsrule while going through security; I was protesting about having to emptyout my face-soap bottle into a plastic bag. I enjoyed reading Elder EnzioBusche's biography, Yearning for the Living God, on the airplane as he'sGerman and we've been to many of the places he described in his book. Veryuplifting read. We boarded our plane in Paris around 4:00 for our 2 ½-hourflight to Tunis. It was fun to watch Lyrad speak proficiently in French. Idecided to try speaking French when the flight attendant came down the aisleand asked what I'd like to drink - how embarrassing! I pointed to the juiceon her cart and said "pomme de terre juice". When she looked at me inconfusion, I remembered that "pomme de terre" is POTATO ("apple of theground") and I should've just said "pomme". Lyrad straightened out my errorand I didn't have to drink potato juice. Since then, the only French I nowattempt is "merci" (though I often catch myself saying "danke"). I am theblack sheep in this multi-lingual family. We had an interesting dinner ofstuffed chicken and sautéed veggies with vinegar and a brownie. We werevery grateful to be fed because of its being Sunday (though we'd broughtgranola bars in case we needed them. I'd even brought leftover sweet andsour pineapple with rice, but Security wouldn't let it by because it had toomuch liquid in it, so I ate a few bites at the security gate then threw itaway). As we flew over North Africa, we saw the coastline and Imarveled that I was finally seeing Africa. When I was about 12 and sodistraught over the plight of the starving Ethiopians, I made a lifelonggoal/wish to visit Africa and help the hungry people. So I'm fulfillinghalf of that goal as I visit Africa for my first time. And maybe Lyrad'sattendance at this conference in some small way will help the medical careof indigent Africans? He brought along a large poster all about his effortsas an International Health Specialist setting up clinics and providingmedical care around Africa. Tunisia is a very well-off African country(compared to Africa, not compared to the USA) and it seems more"Middle-Eastern" than African to me, as most of the citizens are Arab andmixed-race, and few have black skin. As we landed in Tunis, we were escorted to a nice waiting roomwhile we waited for an army-green shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. Theytreat all these visiting doctors very well! As we drove to our hotel, Iadmired the Islamic architecture (mosques, minarets, domes on buildings) andwas thinking of Isaac as I saw groups of barefoot boys playing soccer ondirt fields - "football" truly is the universal sport! After registering for the conference, we found our room in theMiramar Carthage Thelasso Hotel. I was so excited to finally relax after aday of traveling. When traveling with squirmy, jetlagged children, I alwaysthink how relaxing it would be to travel without children, so it's alwaysamusing to me how I still get tired and sore while traveling for severalhours, even without children. Security guards are posted all over thishotel property for this conference, which is good since the room has noinside lock but just a flimsy lock that locks when you close the door. Thehotel (and most buildings) are thick cinderblock, with painted tiles allover the bathroom walls, and the floor is a hard floor (with a few throwrugs). We have a little patio (we're on the first floor) and constantlyhear birds chirping. After I lay down for a few minutes, we went outsideand walked around in the dark. Behind the hotel, past a big pool, is aboardwalk down to the beach. We wanted to go out the walkway to the beach,so Lyrad asked a security guard if we could go see the water for 5 minutes.He called ahead to another guard to let us out, and the guard took his huge,barking, snarling, jumping watchdog out of the way so we could walk throughthe opening in the wall. I was quite terrified as I imagined what wouldhappen if the dog pulled loose and went after us. We walked past goat-hairtents (set up for medical displays for medical care in the desert) just likeAbraham lived in. After admiring the beautiful ocean for a few minutes, weheaded back to the DOG. I don't know when I've been so scared as I was whenwalking past that watchdog (with his leash held only casually by his relaxedowner), and that night I had nightmares about dogs. After Lyrad and I bothtold our getting-bitten-by-a-dog stories from our childhoods, we bought abottle of water from the bar (for drinking and brushing teeth) then arrivedat our room and SAFETY. On Monday morning, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast of sautéedtomatoes and zucchini with spices, breads, coconut yogurt, and canned fruit(we're being careful and not eating fresh veggies and fruits, since theycould've been washed in bad water), and I found a new love: crepes. A manstands behind a big griddle and makes whatever kind of eggs one requests,and I loved watching him make a big crepe, fill it with strawberry jam ornutella, then fold it up just like the vendors do on the streets of Paris.After Lyrad went off to a day of lectures, I climbed back into bed and readuntil I fell asleep, then read some more until I fell asleep, then at 11:15I headed down the hall to the indoor pool for my 30 minutes of exercising.I enjoyed swimming around the huge warm pool (only about 2 other people werethere). The ceiling was a big glass dome, so I felt the warm sunshine whileswimming. I am NOT a swimmer and the only stroke I do is my version of thebreathstroke (sometimes on my back, too) but I used lots of muscles I haven't used in a while and it felt good. For lunch we enjoyed Tunisian couscous with sautéed veggies,squash, rice, gazpacho soup, hummus, and dates. Our all-you-can-eatbreakfasts and lunches are provided for us at the hotel restaurant - yum.After lunch I joined a Ladies Tour Group to visit Sidi Bou Said, a populartourist village with tourquoise painted window trim on square whitebuildings. First we toured a palace and admired the ornate interior, thoughI didn't care for the lengthy lectures about the building and itsinhabitants. The view from the palace courtyard was stunning: beaches andbright blue ocean. After the tour, I enjoyed our half hour to walk aroundthe souk (market stalls) looking for ideas of what to buy my children. Iwasn't going to actually buy anything until I'd shopped around a littlemore, and I'd prefer to have Lyrad with me to help me make the decisions,but every time I asked a price of something, the vendors were determined tokeep on me until I committed to buy something. I did get our tour guides toexplain the money to me, so I wouldn't get gypped. (the dinar coin said"100", whereas the bill said "10"; what is worth more? I felt better once Iknew that 10 of the coins equaled one dinar, and the bill was worth 10dinar, which is about 7 dollars) I was very interested in the chess sets,either with brass pieces or wooden pieces. The wooden camels would be cute,and I'm supposed to buy a traditional mask for Leyla Williams who collectsthem. But the masks here are made of CAMEL LEATHER - that could getsmelly!) While I was shopping, I heard an annoying siren-noise that wouldn't stop - and then I figured out that it was the Muslims' call to prayers. Iasked the vendor and he confirmed that it was the call to prayer (though Ididn't see anyone on the street preparing to kneel down and pray). When Irealized our shopping time was about up at 5:15, and the tour guides wereheading down the hill to the bus, I headed toward them and passed all thevendors selling chess sets. The vendors recognized me as someoneinterested in their wares (just because I asked for prices), and begancalling out to me in very broken English to come inside their shop for justa minute. I knew it was time to take off my nametag-necklace when onevendor kept calling, "A-Lee-see-a from the U.S.! The chess set is only 15dinar! 10! 5!" 5 would've really been amazing (that's about $3.50) but I'd just wanted to get an idea of prices; I wasn't planning to buy anything myfirst time at the markets. I took my nametag/necklace off after that, whileshopping. But we're supposed to wear them to show we're part of the group,and I love reading what country the other people are from - there are over70 countries represented here. On the Ladies' Tour, I was the only personfrom the USA in 2 full busloads of people. But I found a few people fromthe UK and Canada who spoke English, and everyone else knows minimalEnglish. Our next stop on the Ladies Tour was to a glass-blowing and rugstore. We watched a few workers working their glass "blobs" over a flamingkiln, as the blobs (on the end of a stick) became beautiful vases orglasses. Shattered glass was all over the floor of the back workroom, butfrom such dirty surroundings it's amazing what beautiful artwork can beproduced. (Kind of like my feeling when touring China's dirty workrooms.)The glass products were way overpriced, and the rugs were nice but I'm notplanning to get an Arabic rug, so after a little while I found a chair andjust read my book (a juvenile WW2 book, Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery).We arrived home at 6:40 and I found Lyrad waiting for me (he finishes at6:00). We walked along the beautiful beach and collected shells; manyshells had little holes made by starfish, so we tried to find matches withholes so Rachel could make earring sets in her "craft shop" (part of ourbedroom, which she's taken over with her desk and craft containers and herstore; it's hard to keep the pile of cardboard boxes and egg cartons downbecause in her eyes everything is a potential art project). She's made manyearrings sets with paper clips, but for the shells we'll give her copperwire. We saw lots of beetles crawling around the fine sand, hordes ofbeautiful shells, and - my favorite - big camels with a baby camel! Wewaded in the water and Lyrad relived his childhood dream of becoming amarine biologist as he inspected every little object on the shore. We weren't very hungry that evening because of ourall-you-can-eat lunch, but finally at 8:00 we caught a taxi in front of thehotel to go to the Renaissance Hotel's Thai Restaurant (White Elephant)about 2 miles away. We love Thai food, and the restaurant was fabulous. Weate egg rolls, spicy chicken soup, vegetable green curry, and phad thai(noodles). Delicious. The taxi ride home cost 8 dinars (as opposed to our5 dinar bill for the earlier taxi ride) but it was a great night out. Thelanguage barrier can be frustrating, even with Lyrad's French, because theArabic speakers can pretend they don't understand him if it works to theiradvantage (ie the taxi driver, the hotel workers). All the Tunisians knowFrench and Arabic, but very little English. The stop sign even has Arabicwriting! We arrived back from dinner at 10:30, which seemed quite late, butwe were to find out the next night that 10:30 was nice and EARLY!! On Tuesday, we went swimming together at 7 a.m. My arms weresore from the day before but we enjoyed our tropical exercise. Lyrad founda bubble massage seat in one corner of the pool and relaxed there while Itried to burn some of the calories from our large meals before another dayof hearty Tunisian food. I enjoyed another crepe for breakfast, then whenLyrad went to classes I scoped out the hotel gift shop for fun things forthe kids. The most fun thing to do on these getaway trips is to pick outthings we think the kids will be excited about! Traditional dresses (for anightgown), jewelry, little beaded boxes, candlestick (for Rachel thepyromaniac), a wooden snake (for our birthday boy), cancelled Tunisianstamps, a camel for the dollhouse people to ride (made of camel leather).lots of unpractical possibilities. I tried to finish KL Auschwitz Seen bythe SS but kept falling asleep, then reading more, then falling asleep. butfor years (of motherhood) I haven't been able to take Sick Days when I'vewanted to, and I've been storing them up until I can someday take a fewweeks of saved Sick Leave and just stay in bed for several days. So I guessI was just taking 2 days of very overdue Sick Days (even though I feelperfectly healthy). After more couscous and vegetables and cooked tomatoesfor lunch, I finally finished the Auschwitz book (very heavy and graphic,but interesting accounts by 3 SS men). Then I headed out to the beach tofinish my Enzio Busche book and begin a book about a Korean woman's life inKorea loaned to me by Loree Katahara. I lay on the beach chair under astraw sunshade roof, enjoying the ocean in front of me. When the breezemade me cold, I moved my legs into the sunshine and soon moved all of myselfinto the sun. These were not the scorching hot Guam beaches I remember, butmore like the breezy beautiful CA beaches. I wanted to get typing on Lyrad's laptop (instead of leaving the Travelogue to write after I arrived home,which would be hard because I'll have a lot to do to get ready to camp inFrance next week and a lot to catch up on after being gone all week) so Ibegan writing this Tuesday afternoon until Lyrad arrived home from hisclasses after 6 p.m. The conference attenders were invited to a Tunisian FolkloreEvening Tuesday night, beginning when we boarded the buses at 7:15. Wedrove to the Acropolonium, a very pretty church we'd seen up on the hill.The church had changed hands many times over the years, so it had bothMuslim architecture and Christian mosaics and paintings. Next we walkedaround the building to the ruins of Carthage, many over 2,000 years old!Carthage was conquered by Hannibal, then the Romans, then the Vandals, andsomehow some of the old pillars from their great buildings have survived.We could see the harbor down below where ships could be hidden. A man inblack ribboned clothes with a scary black mask was dancing around to adrummers beat, while vendors sold some of their crafts. Lyrad was veryimpressed with the man creating a mosaic (cutting pieces of a stone withpliers, then setting the little chunks on a paper with pencil lines) and wemay look for a mosaic to take home. Lyrad is planning his first mosaic tocreate for our house someday, though he may first practice by making abean/legume mosaic with Rachel. After we looked at the booths, includingcute baby turtles in a bowl and a man hammering a name onto a brasswall-hanging plate, we waited a while to enter the huge tent. A huge tenthad been set up to accommodate several hundred people at elaborate dinnertables, with a stage for the entertainment. I've remarked before howAmericans aren't so good at waiting, and I had first-hand experience withthat as I stood in the crowd waiting. I eventually pulled out my Ensign toread (I think Americans have too much of an "I'm wasting time" mindset,whereas others can just chat for hours and to them, hospitality meansspending hours feeding and entertaining their guests) but the most annoyingthing was all the cigarette and pipe and cigar smoke surrounding us. Andthese are DOCTORS smoking! Lyrad can't get over the fact that so manydoctors smoke. After we sat down at a table for 6, 2 very nice Hungariancouples joined us. I sat next to Ildiko from Budapest, whose husband is theSurgeon General of Hungary. He's a very nice man, but he SMOKES! The 3smokers at our table kindly left the table to smoke, luckily for us becausemost smokers just smoked where they sat. Ildiko tried hard to speakEnglish, and when she just couldn't understand me, the Lt. Col. sitting nextto Lyrad would help translate. The other Hungarian wife at our table didn'teven attempt to speak English, but the funny thing about her was she keptputting her cloth napkin around her neck like a bib. Her sweet, friendlyhusband would lovingly try to remove it for her (this was a very formalsetting) but she insisted on wearing it. I never tire of seeing all ofthese cultural differences! We had four forks and multiple knives at eachplace setting, so we got the impression (correctly) that this would be along night! We ate some appetizers (though I gave Lyrad my shrimp witheyeballs) but didn't eat the fresh lettuce. Lyrad and I and maybe a fewmore Americans are the only ones I see being careful about not eating freshveggies nor juices or drinks with ice cubes, but NO ONE else is gettingsick. Maybe it's our American paranoia that drives us to get food poisoningif we accidentally drink any of the local water - maybe it's partly a mentalthing! But I still refuse to drink orange juice at breakfast because itcould be made with tap water. While waiting for each course (at least 30 minutes' wait eachtime) we had plenty of entertainment: Arabic hip dancers (thankfully notimmodest belly dancers) dressed in traditional robes and swiveling theirhips endlessly to the monotone chanting. The dancers were all quite hefty,which surprised me, but Lyrad said many Africans think it's attractive to beso large. When he was running free clinics in rural African villages, womenwould come asking him for steroids so they could be LARGER. In the cities,women have a more "modern" perspective, and those who watch American t.v.pick up the cultural tendencies (often unfortunately) but I was surprisedhow large all the dancers were, with lots of fabric wrapped around theirhips to make their hips seem larger, and pom poms hanging down. (continued writing on the flight to Paris, May 25) The entertainment also included Arabic "singing" (I consider itmoaning and chanting) and instrumental music - mainly percussioninstruments. The Tunisian hospitality was incredible! I had to keepreminding myself what a fantastic once-in-a-lifetime cultural experiencethis 5-course dinner was, when it began to feel tedious. Our first coursewas an appetizer plate; we've enjoyed all the types of olives this week.Next we had a chunk of meat, probably fish. Our main dish was wonderful -couscous with cooked vegetables and lamb (tasted like beef). I don't eatmany foreign meats but loved the couscous and veggies. Next we had a bigbowl of fresh fruit and dates (the only fresh fruit I considered safe arethose with a peel: bananas and oranges), then a plate with little dessertthings (the size of fudge, but things like pistachio balls, candied dates).Quite a good dinner! Finally after midnight when we saw people heading outto where the buses were waiting, we joined the throng of tired people readyto return home. On Wednesday, I slept in then ate my breakfast crepe alonebefore enjoying some reading and typing time in the room. After lunch(rice, couscous, lentil salad, more cakes), we went with a great tour guide(Khalil, though he said we were welcome to call him Denzel Washington) on a4-hour tour of the Carthage ruins. What a thrilling experience to see theremains from thousands of years ago - from the Punic days, then from thedays when the Romans controlled Carthage. In the Carthage Museum, we sawmany artifacts found in graves (including from the graves of many childrensacrificed to their gods when the parents wanted a favor from the gods):jewelry, masks, statues, lamps, even a pottery baby bottle with a little"straw/suction" spout. We loved the old Roman Amphitheater - it was justoff to the side of a road, with no entrance fee or fence around it, so weenjoyed it more than the fenced-off amphitheaters we saw in Italy. We couldclimb underneath the arena (the arena in which gladiators fought animals,and unfortunately, also where Christians were thrown to the lions) and walkdown passageways to the cage/room where the lions and panthers were kept.The vendors were so persistent and followed us for several yards, trying toget us to buy their postcards or whatever else, insisting, "good price!"Quite annoying. Next we drove to the Punic Ports, to see the military portand commercial port used in early Carthage. Because the Carthage area has agreat natural harbor, the Carthaginians could hide their ships in theharbor. Our next stop was to the Roman Baths Remains, an area that seemedlarge enough to be a village. We saw the remains of an old church (fromwhen Christianity took hold in the 300's), with no walls remaining but wecould see the early baptismal font, when Catholic baptisms were stillperformed by immersion. We walked among the basement area which was onceunder the public baths (some pillars and wall fragments still stand). In our van on the tour, we rode with a Swedish couple and 5doctors from Iran. Whenever I meet someone from a foreign country(especially a small one), I rack my brain to think what I might know abouttheir country, and sometimes all I can come up with is the children's bookswe've read about that country. (i.e. the night before, all I could come upwith about Hungary was old traditions of the peasants that I learned in TheGood Master and the Singing Tree, very good books about Hungary but not verypertinent to modern city-dwelling doctors) So I of course told the Swedesthat our favorite thing about Sweden is Pippi Longstocking! They spoke goodEnglish and we had fun talking; they told us about the Swedish schools (someof the best in the world, I've heard). Only one of the Iranians spokedecent English, so he was often translating for his friends. The funniestmoment of the tour for me was when the Iranian had asked Lyrad what kind ofdoctor he was, and Lyrad had replied, "Family Practice", then a few minuteslater the Iranian was telling his friends that Lyrad was a doctorspecializing in Family Planning. I laughed and whispered to Lyrad (who hadn't heard that comment) that he better straighten out that fact, because ifthey find out we have 5 children they would be quite unimpressed with hisFamily Planning specialty. Lyrad tried to explain the joke to the Iranian,who translated it for his friends, but I think the irony was lost intranslation because they just didn't see the humor in it that Lyrad and Isaw. Our next stop was to Sidi Bou Said, to see a museum in a houseand to haggle with the vendors yet again. We enjoyed the wealthy muslim'shouse, with a prayer room, a display of several wedding gowns (7 are neededfor each bride, as the wedding festivities last a week), and we enjoyedclimbing up onto the flat roof/patio to see the view of the town and theocean. The view of all the white square cinderblock houses, with laundryhanging on many roofs, really made me feel as if I was in the Arabic middleeast. Next, we walked among the little shops, looking for fun things forour kiddos (especially for our little birthday boy that day). I kept askingfor prices (just to get an idea of what was charged), but as soon as I askeda price the vendor resolved to not leave me alone until I agreed to buy theitem. As I tried to politely walk away, the vendors either grabbed my arm,followed me, or kept yelling out lower prices to me. Irritating. At thetop of the hill, we found a shop that actually had prices MARKED! It waslike a breath of fresh air! We bought a dish and 2 wooden chess sets (withbronze soldiers, statues and elephants) and postcards. Finally a store with"fair price" and "low price" as the other guys kept claiming. When thestreet vendors saw that we were western tourists, they would quoteridiculous prices to us, such as "60 dinar", then we talked them down toabout a quarter of what they quoted. Lyrad and I got pretty good atdeciding what an item was worth to us, then not settling for any higherprice. It wasn't as simple as that, though, because often I'd buy somethingif it was dirt cheap, but I don't want to offer a dirt cheap price andoffend them. So when I'd say "no, thank you" and walk away, they'd pesterand pester, then when I finally said what I would be willing to pay, they'dbe in disbelief and try to prove why I should pay more. They didn't knowenough English to understand that I wasn't paying more. They thought ifthey hounded me more, I'd give in. What an exhausting pastime is hagglingin the Arab souks! (continued writing, May 29) We arrived back at the hotel at 6 p.m. and had a little time torest before our late night "Gala Dinner" at 9 p.m. After reading for alittle while, we went jogging along the beach for a half hour. The waterwas beautiful, but the shore was sure covered with litter. We avoided allthe fishing poles and I tried to not slow Lyrad down too much. Jogging isnot my favorite mode of exercise, but it felt good to actually burn afraction of the calories we'd consumed in our feasting that week. Weboarded the bus at 8 p.m., then sat at a fancy table in a huge decoratedballroom (with 9 pieces of silverware per person). I felt like I was in "IDream of Jeannie" again with the sheer "genie" fabric hanging from theceiling, and dancers in their Arabic costumes dancing on the stage onceagain. We enjoyed this night's entertainment more than the previous night's, as the singing was performed by a very professional group of women andmany of the songs were prettier than the moaning and chanting, and some ofthe dancing seemed more like "folk dancing" than just "swiveling hipsendlessly". The dancers were heavy and modestly dressed, but the "fashionshow" drove me crazy. It was supposed to be a showing of Tunisian bridalgowns through the years, but all it was was skinny beautiful women marchingdown the walkway trying to see who could show the most skin. We sat downfirst at our table and were joined by 3 Tunisian men, then 2 Namibian women,and 2 more African men. The Tunisian sitting next to me kept drinkingbottle after bottle of wine and became SO friendly with the African mansitting next to him. People all around us were smoking, but I didn't mindso much that night because we'd each been handed a jasmine flower as weentered the room, and I kept taking deep inhales of the wonderful fragranceall through the dinner. Our first course came at 9:30 (olives and somepasty thing, and rolls), and we sat there being entertained until 12:30. Bythe time the second course arrived, I was getting hungry and lookedlongingly at - what was it?-chopped mushrooms with tomatoes and spices? Butas I stirred it around suspiciously on my plate, I noticed several smalltentacles in the mixture. so I tried to pick out some tomatoes butrefrained from eating all the octopus bits! Our next course was fish, and Ideclined the plate but the nice Tunisian men next to Lyrad told the waiterto give it to me anyway, and it was very good! I'm not a seafood fan, butthe Tunisians know how to cook fish. When I saw the waiters bringing outgoblet bowls with lemon ice-cream, I was surprised to think we might behaving dessert already - though it had been long enough, it wasn't enoughfood for a "gala dinner". But it was a mid-dinner dessert, to "cleanse thepalate". It was delicious, like sherbet or sorbet. Next came our maincourse, meat with carrots and potatoes and gravy: very delicious, and a lotlike beef stew (except I think it was lamb). I wished I could've spokenmore with the 2 female Namibian doctors at our table (the only other Englishspeakers; everyone else spoke French) but they were too far away from me andthe entertainment was too loud. I did have Lyrad ask the nice Tunisian mannext to him (in French) if his children had seen "Star Wars" (since thedesert scenes were filmed in Tunisia). He replied that he knew what "StarWars" was, but he was just too busy and hadn't ever watched the movie. Ourkiddos sure thought that was a funny comment! But I grew up in CA andcertainly did not see every movie ever filmed in CA, so of course Tunisiansaren't expected to watch films filmed in Tunisia! (500 extras were paid tobe in the background of the Star Wars movies, so it helped their economy alittle) Our next course was a big bowl of fresh fruit - I only ate whatwas safely inside the peel, plus a few very good dates - then we had apistachio pudding/yogurt dish full of nuts. We sure ate well. We were sotired when arriving home after 12:30 but were grateful for the chance toreally experience the finer parts of Tunisian culture! It's funny howAmerican I am; I get impatient and feel like I'm wasting time, so I'dbrought a stack of postcards to pull out and write on while everyone aroundme was speaking French or a speaker was going on and on. (It would've beentoo rude to pull out my book, but I figured postcards were okay?) We werealso low men on the totem pole, with most conference attenders beingcolonels, surgeon generals, etc. I was probably the only wife who wore thesame outfit both nights, to the 2 fancy dinners. I was thinking "beach" and"relax" so hadn't packed lots of semi-formal outfits as the other women did.At least Lyrad had told me to bring a nice skirt, even if it was worn withmy sandals. On Thursday, Lyrad had the day off so we went sight-seeing allday. We had a great time, with a personal driver all day (we'd arranged forhim through the concierge, and it ended up costing 100 Euro for the day; wewondered if it would've been cheaper to just hire taxis between each place?)who could weave through traffic and get us right to the places we wanted tosee, and quickly. We left the hotel with our driver at 8:40, to stop at theonly American Cemetery in Africa. It was a very neat experience to be there(just like going to Normandy's Cemetery and Lorraine, France's, cemetery).We walked past the wall with thousands of names of soldiers who are missingin action, then gazed out at the rows of white crosses (and a few stars ofDavid). An enthusiastic, retired Marine gave us a tour of the cemetery,showing us a large mosaic map of the North African campaign. He told a fewheroic stories, and I kept thinking about the Roald Dahl autobiography,Going Solo, and his experiences as a pilot in the North African campaign,and how most of his buddies didn't survive WW2. And my grandfather flew inNorth Africa, but was shot down and injured. While he was recovering formonths, his crew perished in the unsuccessful bombing runs over Romania. Sosome of his friends could've been buried there. We stood still while thebells chimed songs about America, and Lyrad and I kept crying, thinking ofthose who fought and died for our freedoms. Having a son who's nearly 14, Ikept thinking, "He's just a little boy!" But in only 4 years he'll be theage of many of those who died fighting in the war. And to their mothers,they were still just little boys. Very touching experience to be there. We next drove a half hour into the big city of Tunis. We'd beenin a more rural part of Tunisia all week, and I'd been wondering where allthe stores were. Tunis was full of tall buildings and was crowded, thoughless than half of the women wore the Arabic robes. It's a very modern city,compared to the rest of Africa and the rest of the middle east. We went tothe Bardo Museum, one of the best ancient museums in the world. It had thecoolest collection of old mosaics, which we loved: animals, landscapes,people, myths. Many covered whole walls, and the floors were all mosaics aswell. We spent over an hour admiring the artifacts, then met up with ourdriver to drive to the nearby Medina, a huge shopping place, like an oldtown souk. Hundreds (if not thousands) of booths are set up indoors, andshopkeepers love to grab a tourist, pull them into their shop, and chargeexorbitant prices for their junk. We haggled for a few things, such as anightgown for Eliza, one for me, local spices, camel earrings for Madi, andLyrad kept looking for The Perfect Mosaics. When he didn't find what hewanted, we decided to go back to Sidi Bou Said to the same pesky venders we'd seen the day before. We made our way out of the walkways between all themarket stalls, then drove 20 minutes with our hearts beating fast: you'dnever guess he was getting paid by the hour, the way he weaved in and out,drove quickly through the left turn lane, then didn't slow down when it wastime to turn but rather swerved to the right in front of the throughtraffic. Whoa. It's always taxi rides like this that do NOT have workingseat belts. At Sidi Bou Said, we walked up the hill in the crowds oftourists, to compare the mosaics. Some merchants recognized me from myprevious 2 trips there and called out to me, "California! California!"Other merchants would call after me, "LADY! LADY! Good price!" When Lyradwas insisting on a price for a mosaic, the vendor said, "But you PROMISED,the other day," and Lyrad was irritated: "I did NOT promise you I'd buy ithere." They don't know much English, but enough to really haggle and bepushy. Lyrad ended up with 4 nice quality wall-hanging mosaics, and I ofcourse found a little more junk for the kiddos, then we headed back from ourfull day of being tourists. We rested and read our books for a little while, then we caughta taxi to the Renaissance hotel (2 km away) to eat at the White ElephantThai restaurant once again. We just loved their food, so once again weenjoyed spicy chicken soup and phad thai (noodles). We read part of an A.Conan Doyle short story together in the lobby while we waited for therestaurant to open. After the meal, we walked home at 8:30 along the beachuntil we found our hotel a half hour later. Beautiful walk! We swam in theindoor pool for our last time, and relaxed on the bubble jet massage seats.Our last night was spent packing up all our fragile goods to get them homesafely. On Friday, we ate our last breakfast at the hotel (my finalcrepe with strawberry jam), then boarded the airport shuttle. We had lotsof time to wait for the plane, which was fine because I was hooked on mybook about Korea, Still Life With Rice - a great read (if edited) forMemorial Day weekend because it's a true story about a Korean family and herexperiences trying to get out of North Korea in 1950, then her son getsstuck in North Korea and she doesn't hear from him for FORTY YEARS! Ireally take my freedom for granted. The Korean woman somehow got out ofNorth Korea on foot with her other 4 children, starving nearly to death andmiraculously surviving so much danger. A very hard-to-put-down book, whichis great for a long day of airports and airplanes. Once again we had a veryFrench meal on the airplane, with slices of a loaf made of eggs andvegetables, like slices of a quiche. One of the best parts of traveling is bringing home surprisesfor the children! After a great dinner of Shirley's pot pie, potatoes, andfoccaccia bread, we gave everyone their surprises. Very fun. It was greatto see them all again and we're so grateful to Shirley for taking care ofthem so well. She survived her week of Controlling the Chaos! Lyrad and I loved our 5 days in Tunisia together and we're sograteful for the chance we had to experience north Africa (and for me, myfirst experience of the Middle East culture) and to spend so much timetogether eating out, walking along the beach, looking for what the childrenwould each like best, haggling for those items in the souks, relaxing in thepool, reading together, and experiencing Tunisian hospitality at dinnersthat dragged on past midnight!