Yarhamuk-Allah

That's what they say to you if you sneeze in a taxi in Tunisia. "May Allah have mercy on you." 

I had written the story of our experience with TP while on duty with the Red Cross at our city's fair but lost it so I'll have to start again. It was my first time working such an event and I'd never seen people so drunk they could not actually stand up - several people had to be carried to our tent by their friends! I was happy to have some very thankful patients - one with a glass injury and one with a wasp sting on the mouth (there were lots of wasp stings to the mouth because the wasps were enjoying everyone's beers). It was a pretty exciting night for me, at one point we had to go search for someone's teeth with flashlights at the stage where people were dancing. Someone's *real* teeth, cuz they got in a fight. Since no one stopped dancing to let us search, we found no teeth. (I don't think people can have pieces of their teeth reattached so that seems pretty silly to me that we had to look. Perhaps it was a sentimental gold tooth *shrug*) 

Anyway since I wrote that blog draft, the TP story came to a satisfying end, just 2 days ago.

I have an update from Ani, she wrote me asking if I'd gotten her last two emails and repeating she still wants me as a friend. I wrote back and said it's not a good idea but I hope she'll say hi if she sees me in town, and that I stll pray for her happiness. I don't think she can have successful relationships so this prayer is for that. 

I forgot to mention something that happened in Hawaii in March. I tried to buy some food at the ABC Store and I lay out my coins on the counter. The employee called her boss, thinking I was using counterfeit money. He looked at the coins and reassured here that 1$ coins are a thing: ) 

 

 

 

 

Ani, 2 years later

Do you remember Ani? The borderline personality disorder lady I rode with twice weekly for years? Until 2 years ago when she said she couldn't be my friend anymore because I wouldn't let her ride Mag without me being present? 

She rode her bike by my car last week and I got an email that night.

She misses me, she's so, so sorry about how she hurt me, and she wants me to give her another chance. 

I thought about my reply for days and came up with this, "I hope you forgive me, too, for how I wronged you (that I ever let her think she could ever ride Mag alone, my bad!). However you were correct that we shouldn't be friends."

The next morning I got two emails from her, both desperate. "I want to start our friendship over from the beginning. You have been a great friend to me. I miss you very much. God bless you." 

(The God thing is heavy handed because when she broke our friendship, she actually used the words, "You are crazy, only God can help you.") 

The next mail said "Please be my friend. I love you."

(This was all in English, word for word.) 

I'm sitting here not sure how to respond except for giving her the phrase, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." Cuz I am totally unwilling to let any of that crap happen every again. 

Do you remember the hamster incident? The Equitana incident? The Rudi mare and her own mare Mira running off, leaving me, the time Mag got away from me and she just kept riding, not stopping, the time another rider's horse was terrified of my donkey and Ani just rode on by, without stopping, she never stopped. The time the trainer said "go from a trot to a walk" and she couldn't, she didn't even stop posting, because she didn't understand that might help the horse slow down? She never could get her horses to slow down, or walk, or stop. She was a passenger. One time she took us into a freaking Treibjagt (see Game of Thrones, episode one) where hunters and dogs surrounded us making loud noises chasing boars, I've never been so frightened in my life. And she is German, so she should know what a Treibjagt is. It was like riding with a child, and I was the one with the green horse. 

I think I have removed the most awful of our experiences from my blog, but some of them are still there. 

When a person with a mental disorder, on medication for that disorder, calls you crazy, you wonder.

No. I wish I could be so honest as to say I wish I'd never met you in the first place. 

It hurts me that she is begging for my friendship back, but I have to wonder, what changed? It has been two full years. Why now? I think she has exhausted her very last horsey contact and needs me to replace her. I'm convinced it is impossible for her to keep friendships due to her disorder. And then I drove my car by...

Two weeks ago we went through a huge ordeal with TP. My husband was pushed to the edge, he is certain that horse people are nuts. Yes, TP was always nuts. 

I have TP to my East, and Ani to my West, both 5 minutes from here. I'm surrounded by crazy people. 

The TP story is really good.......it involves her walking our entire pasture twice in the night.....more later.

Tunisia, end

I keep having dreams about the ocean, about getting hit by a big unexpected wave. In Tunisia it was a very warm ocean, so it was funny when I went under twice! After the Mediterranean we went into the pool and then for the first time, sat outside and it wasn't too warm, finally, we were wet. 

It was my first time seeing Muslim women in the water completely covered in clothing. 

The common area was aired out every morning meaning it was extremely hot by breakfast time. I understand the importance of airing out every morning (it's my routine at home) because our hotel room STANK. It had a leaky mini fridge that was broken, and the wood underneath it was moldy. We couldn't air out our room because we wouldn't have been able to be in there with the door open. I remember vividly the sensation of waking up in the morning and the first thing I realize is that smell, overpowering mustiness. We finally got the fridge fixed but that room will never smell right again. 

The sidewalks were not designed for pedestrian use, or any use, due to trees blocking them, forcing you to walk in traffic. No problem, it was actually kind of funny how we kept having to dive in and out of the street. There were a lot of wild cats. Poor things, so skinny! 

Kitty at our hotel entrance.

One evening watching people come out after the heat of the day, I saw crowds on the sidewalks eating ice cream and there were horses waiting for tourists, the horses were as skinny as the cats: ( But no dogs. I never saw a pet dog. I saw one dog trotting along the freeway in traffic, with a purpose, and another dog lying on a sidewalk in the shade, looking dead. I'm told that dogs are still considered unclean by older Muslims but the younger generation is starting to want them. 

It neededn't be mentioned that the hotel had no Bibles in the rooms. 

J, looking toward the ocean, about to be forced off the sidewalk again by a huge flowering tree.

The holiday of Eid al-Adha had just passed, where Muslims around the world sacrifice whatever animal they can afford, and have a family feast. They also save the skins/organs? of the animal and hang the parts on their balconies. Not sure what they are for. The holiday is symbolic of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. According to custom, 1/3 of the meat must be shared with people too poor to buy their own sacrificial animal.
 

Every single bathroom I visited in Tunisia, including in our hotel, has a little hose for washing your privates after you use the toilet. I was fascinated by this, but didn't use it because it's a hotel and I don't want to know where that thing has been. 

Geocaching with pirate ship.

I only had one slice of watermelon cuz it all had seeds and I was totally satisfied with my 8-10 glasses of watermelon juice per day. The fruit I enjoyed every day was honeydew. They were so lucious, so perfectly ripe, they were like nothing I'd eaten before. I also drank a lot of honeydew juice on the days it was offered next ot the watermelon machine. Exquisite! 

KITTY CAT! This is  a well-fed, friendly, collared hotel cat! My cousin, his wife, and J are in the background making plans. I had ordered some orange juice from the bar for them, no one noticed. 

My cousin's wife's way of dealing cards. I love it. Check out how serious the conversation is between J and my cousin. Wow. Below, it continues:

So many gorgeous goods. There was a shop selling purses and I kind of need one cuz my REI purse from Vermont (!really) is dying after 15 years and I went into a handbag shop. All I saw was something kind of similar to mine, but with plastic fake leather for the body/strap of the handbag. The embroidery on the front was lovely, and I said so. And the seller WOULD NOT let me go. In the end I got away, but heard his voice yelling, in English, "I WILL GIVE YOU THIS  PURSE FOR ONLY ONE EURO!"  *lol* 

My cousin's wife found someone at our hotel buffet with a Michigan State shirt on, and wanted to know if she was affiliated with her college. Um, no, sadly. Why do people wear shirts of universities they know nothing about? I have to say, it is very common in Germany to find people wearing American shirts, like NASA, and you know they have never been to NASA. Also, why is NASA a cool thing?

M&Ms at the Tunis airport. 20 bucks!

On return, I tested positive for Corona. 

A few days later, depsite masks, J also tested positive.

He also went to the doctor for a certificate of illness/recovery, because in Europe the proof of recovery is important (for some reason). 

We just got a bill in the mail - 150Euros for his proof of recovery. Why do we have to pay for this? I refused, I would not submit to another larynx text (pain) and I do not believe a prrof of recovery is important. 

We'll see who is right, in the future. 

For now, we're happy to have seen a new continent, and learned so much, and with such wonderful guides, and I look back on those waves wiping me out with fondness.

The call to prayer and a rare encounter

I was at the grocery store yesterday and a lady my age with blond hair was having trouble understanding the checker and was having trouble  identifying her Euro coins to pay with, flipping them over to see the value as I do after all these years. 

She was wearing bright red pants with bright red matching Keen sandals. The exact sandals I had on, in black, falling apart after all these years. 

Then the lady made another mistake, she only gave the checker her Pfand receipt (bottle deposit) after her transaction was finished, so that was awkward. I was just dying to speak with her, thinking she might be American and could tell me where I can replace my 10 year old falling apart Keen sandals cuz I've tried twice on Amazon and they never fit anymore, and Keen itself told me "Come to a local shop and try them on, we've altered our sizing lately." Local shop, in Germany? 

So when it as my turn to check out, and the blond lady had stepped aside and started sorting all her groceries into her two-wheeled grocery cart, I said, in German "excuse me." Then in English, cuz she didn't respond, "excuse me." 

Now in Germany you do not talk in line, and you especially do not STOP the line by talking to a stranger. 

So I was slamming my food into my cart the entire time without hesitation. I had a big line behind me and they were super interested in what the heck I was doing, talking in line.

I pointed to my sandals and said in German "Where did you find these sandals?"

Again in English. 

I think she recognized that I had the same Keens on that she did, but she spoke neither German nor English. 

She pointed to herself and said, "Ukraine."

OK then. 

I smiled at her and the checker, who is new at our Aldi, said, "Where are you from?"  

By this time the entire line was peering at me disdainfully, that I might hold up their day.

I said, "America." 

She said, "That's so wonderful, it's so much prettier there, isn't it?"

I said, "Yes." as I shuffled things into my cart willy nilly, trying to escape the wrath of the line.

But I'm good. I kept up, as she told me she's always wanted to see New York, and people should travel whenever they can, life is short.

I was thinking, what a freak, talking to me in the line. *lol* 

Cuz in Germany you don't do this. 

So I agreed with her, mentioned that I'd just seen Afrika for the first time, and she's right.

I scanned may card and I believe the line had to wait less than 10 extra seconds due to the two separate communications that do not happen here in a German grocery line!

Aldi employees are not allowed to chat, they are in danger of losing their job if they don't scan something like 100 items per minute. We have managed to make friends with 2 Aldi employees, but we cannot know their names. One of them treasures an American quarter I gave her, she's from Italy, where people are nicer, and the other is about to retire and when she does, my heart will break, because she was the most reliable source of friendliness at a German grocery store. She doesn't know my name either, but always has a little smile for us, and I can get her to engage, after all these years.

As I drove away, I saw the Ukraine lady pushing her two-wheeled grocery cart up the street, and thought about how impossible it would be to live in Germany and speak neither German nor English. 

Just, "Ukraine?" and then she will get our sympathy.

***

The call to prayer happens 5 times daily in Tunisia, not sure about other Muslim nations. It is a reminder to pray, and separate from the world for a moment. I find it wonderful, a public sign of the devout. 

My cousin and his wife took me onto their balcony to hear it, and J made a joke but I'm sorry the camera did not quite catch it. It was something after Rachel said, "It's a real guy, you know." And J said, "Into a speaker, broadcasting, and before that..." I don't remember the joke but if you make it that far in the video you'll hear giggling. 

This also shows the city of Nabuel, Tunisia, from above. Neverending blue sky. (I never learned how to say our city's name of Nabuel.)

And Jonah sat in the shade of the plant, and was thankful, until it went away......and Jonah complained to God again, "Why me?" 

We often sought the shade of one or two branches of one tree. It's the closest I've been to the holy land, and when you look at the Mediterranean, all the stories of the New Testament come to you. Then you look for shade: ) 

 

Tunisia July 2022

Re: my last post, JenK you got it. Women have had the right to vote in Tunisia since 1958, they can have abortions since 1973, they can run for office, but women are not allowed in cafes or restaurants. 

 ***

Finally Africa! I'm 5 for 7 on continents of Earth. While the Maghreb (northern states of Africa) is quite close to Germany, I had no opportunity until now to see it. 

My cousin and his wife are missionaries there, and they invited us. It's illegal to be a Christian missionary in Tunisia, a Muslim country. I was wondering why we never went to a restaurant on our visit. Now I know.

There were newborn twins on the plane, the father sat near us and it turns out a baby can eat almost continuously for 2 hours! That dude kissed his baby so many times with his scratchy beard, it was adorable.

Cow truck.

 

Did you know Luke Skywalker's home planet was filmed in Tunisia? You can travel to the Star Wars sets that are preserved, but we couldn't. It's not advisable to go deep into the desert this time of year. It's 130 degrees F! That's cuz of the binary suns *lol*

J was surprised I wanted to go to Africa in the hottest part of the year. I laughed, "It's gonna be hotter in Germany. We're gonna repeat our escape from Seattle's heat wave in California again!" Indeed, we did (well, one day).  

Our hotel had mostly French and Arabic channels, but thankfully they had 5 German stations. This is the news coming from Cologne, in our area of Germany, where the newscasters tried to get creative to avoid the heat. 

We stayed in a fancy resort on the beach with 4 swimming pools (and no hot tubs, imagine why not?). My husband bought the "all inclusive" package that included three buffet meals per day and free beverages, including alcohol. I've never stayed anywhere where they bring you a bottle of your choice of wine automatically when you sit down. And it's COLD! And you can take it back to your room!

But it was rough, the humidity. It was too hot to sit on the beach in the shade and drink free cocktails. We spent most of our time hiding. I'd never been to a place where the locals actually hide from the weather during the day, and come out at night. 

This is our hotel balcony door. The steam is on the *outside* of the glass! Our AC worked sufficiently.
 

We had a lovely garden-side view (the ocean was probably too expensive, and definitely too much partying noise). I never went out on this balcony, it was suffocating out there.

There are activities directors prowling around trying to get you to sign up for a horsey ride or camel ride. Omar greeted us in German (they assumed we understood German and were correct, how strange!). He was nice but this is how I was able to get him to back off. I said, "Look, I'm not here in July by choice. I'm not going outside for any reason unless necessary. If the weather changes, come back to us and we'll go somehwere with you." It worked. I think the fact that he never saw us outside the building also helped quiet him down. He kept his communication to a friendly "Guten Morgen" every day. 

We were targeted by taxis, which was actually really cool. I've never had taxis hunt me down, based on my skin color, and we certainly did need rides when we did go out. Did you know there are no driving rules, at all, in Tunisia? I was so scared, the lines on the highway/traffic circles are not even suggestions, they're not there. People use their cars to threaten other cars, almost touching them. Pedestrians scoot between the cars and people shout out their windows at them. There is no such thing as a child seat, and we saw a lot of motorcyles/mopeds with, for example,  a dude and his two kids hanging on, one kid standing in front, one in back, shoes dangling on the pavement, no helmets of course. Also, there are no seat belts, so we just held on and literally prayed. Most of the taxis were beyond their useful lifespan but somehow managed it down the road without much suspensions. One taxi driver handed me the plastic handle to open my window, I had to affix it myself, how funny! The good thing was every taxi driver was so unexpectedly friendly. I missed that so much.There are almost zero friendly taxi drivers in Germany.

This was in a traffic circle, one of those complex ones with multiple lanes. That is a little girl and little boy on the moped. I wonder how often the little boy loses a sandal going around a turn.

Bougainvillea, just like Hawaii. Gorgeous, and in all colors, like weeds, everywhere.

Our hotel.

Too hot, no one was enjoying this indoor/outdoor restaurant.

J's face shows his disappointment at learning that the beaches in Tunisia are often cut off by private property, so you cannot just stroll along them to find geocaches. Oh well, it was too hot anyway.

My cousin's wife is clever at identifying safe-looking taxi drivers. One of them was not and he was a little agressive despite our shaking our heads. Finally I yelled at him, "You look like a criminal, go away!" I sincerely hope I didn't embarrass my cousin's wife, on the chance that he understood English.

I'd never seen such litter, not even in Rome. I was warned by my cousin but I have never seen trash being washed up on the seashore by the waves. I was struck with the thought, how long do you have to go back in time until you find a trash-free Tunisia. Obviously before the development of plastic. I wonder....

 

I have to tell you about the food. I had been warned on Trip Advisor and Wikipedia to not expect fancy food, or food with seasonings. "Loveless food" is what is said about it. Every table had a salt and pepper shaker for people who like seasonings. However to be fair there is a wonderful chili paste called Harissa, famous in Maghreb that you can put on everything for some flavor. My cousin's wife bought me three tubes of it on our last day. The hotel cannot be blamed, they serve such a mix of Europeans and a lot of Russians, they have to be careful. And even Trip Advisor said that no one gets sick here.

Mutilation of watermelon for aesthetic purposes is never OK. I hope some employee got to take them home and enjoy them.

Couscous is the national dish, I believe, and it was very refreshing with tons of parsley, ice cold.

I only learned after I was home again, that alcohol is not a thing in Tunisia. Only in tourist areas.

My purple armband meant I got wine offered to me, and as much bottled water as we wanted. I was worried we'd run out of water because tap water is suspect in Tunisia, in fact they recommend a Typhoid immunization before visiting. I brushed my teeth with bottled water. But I appreciated the free bottled water so much!

Lemon juice and my amazing watermelon juice. I joked that they should just roll the machine to my table.

We called this "the grey matter." Name on the sign below. Same word in all languages!

J eating dubious sausages and an omelette from the egg bar, and my breakfast of honeydew, a cooked egg, cold potatoes without salt, and eggplant. And watermelon juice!
 

I'd never been to such an extensive buffet, not even in Vegas. Every day, so many choices. But there was a problem. Almost nothing was labeled. I don't waste food and I didn't want to take food I had no idea about, and not eat it. So I stayed with food I could identify. This means I didn't enjoy the lovely salad bar, ever, because I had no clue about the dressings. I never ate any of the cheese bar, cuz what are they? I never had the cold cuts, no idea, even though I know all that meat was Halal/Kosher. There was a gigantic bread section with croissants, bagettes, so many pastries, but I was afraid to try them.

There was some seafood but mostly it was not edible by us. Since the food had no label, J accidentally got a pasta casserole and found an entire octopus in there. He is not into seafood at all so that was quite a shock. I was thrilled to see a dish with shrimp, but when I tasted it, they had ruined the shrimp. It had been cooked to the consistency of sand. Finally one day there was fish on the grill (they had a grill, pizza bar, crepe bar, egg bar, and pasta bar every day). I don't know what fish that was, and I don't normally appreciate having the head of the fish still on, but it was fresh grilled and wonderful. There is nothing better than a fresh caught fish from the grill.

Every day there were local foods in huge Tunisian pots, and they were quite good. Mostly bell peppers, eggplant, chicken legs, in a dark sauce. 

Every night J had ice cream, and the pistachio is an African specialty, it tasted like freshly ground pistachio nuts. 

Every day I ate big slices of honeydew and they were the sweetest honeydews I'd eaten. They even served honeydew juice! 

And then there was the freshly pressed watermelon juice. Only available at breakfast, but offered in one of those chilled juice machines where you can see the juice inside. It was red, the label was French, I had no idea what it was but when I took my first sip I was overwhelmed. Watermelon is my favorite food on the planet, and I didn't even know you can have it fresh squeezed. I drank 11 glasses that first day, and every day after, between 8 and 10. I eventually learned to bring a larger glass cuz I got sick of refilling mine. Along the streets were trucks overflowing with watermelons, my version of heaven on earth.

I'd never been to a buffet where there are employees constantly buzzing around cleaning up after people, mostly mopping if anyone spilled some drops of coffee. And the employees got to know us the first day and one of them, Mohammed,  was absolutely thrilled that I could write my name in Arabic, and my name is somewhat Arabic/Hebrew so it was a surprise for him. 

One day I had to try the donut bar. Someone was making fresh deep-fried french donuts, what they call Beignet in France. People kept going there and getting multiples, not only one donut, so I got brave and took one, fresh out of the oil. 

I took a bite and was totally surprised by the lack of flavor. It was a delightful texture, kind of sticky, you could pull it apart and it would stretch before tearing. It was wonderfully hot. But the taste, it tasted like deep fryer. I later learned that usually they are served with powdered sugar. That would be nice. I'm happy I got the chance to eat a real french donut. Cuz I'm probably never going back to France.

 

See what I mean about the lack of labeling? Those pretty little dishes were so carefully prepared, and I have no idea what they are. OK the big one looks like feta...I think that bird thing is a honeydew.

I loved being greeted in three different languages, sometimes on the same day. Bonjour, Hello, and Guten Tag. I don't think anyone spoke Arabic to us. 

Next up, a trip to the local Nabeul market, getting into the Mediterranean (for the first time, fully!)....