Here There and Everywhere

Morocco Malta and the Med: Tunisian Interlude

We aren’t just sailing away from Malta. We are sailing toward a part of our history, and please pardon that these photos are not that great; I don’t even know what kind of camera we were using and they are now very old.

We lived in Tunis for two years, courtesy of the US Government, wanting us to be linguistically and culturally more fluent. For me, it was scary at first – coming from Monterey, CA and entering into what seemed to be a very alien culture.

It began a great leap in opening our visions to other ways of thinking.

Below is our old villa – I am showing you this because when we went to visit it, it looked entirely different.

Our son went to a local Pre-School, Joie de Vivre, the Joy of Life 😊. This is his class photo.

AdventureMan on our back porch, where we often ate. We only had air conditioning in our bedrooms. The candelabras (there were two) were made for us in Binzerte.

My French teacher, Madame Huguette Curie invited us into her culture; she lived on Avenue Habib Bourgiba in a palatial apartment and had this seaside cottage where we could swim and picnic together. She was beautiful and cultured, and helped us learn about and love our time in Tunisia.

My parents came to visit, and we had a wonderful time showing them Tunisia. This was at the Ampitheatre in El Jem.

We camped in desolate areas – now built up – in our Volkswagon Bus.

Once a year, there was a Bedouin festival in Douz (where much of the original Star Wars was filmed.) We camped there, too, and have never been colder in our lives than in the Tunisian desert in late November.

The Camel Market in Nabuel was a great weekend favorite.

So my friends, on! on! We are on our way back to Tunis, 46 years later.

January 14, 2025 - Posted by intlxpatr | Adventure, Africa, Aging, Arts & Handicrafts, Beauty, Biography, Cross Cultural, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Living Conditions, Travel, Tunisia