Early February, it feels like spring here.

February 1st, 2007

So much has happened since my last entry. I’ll try to recap. I am currently sitting in the salon of Kareem’s family because, after spending almost every day with them anyway, I have decided to spend my last month or so living in their family. This way, I eat really well, learn more Tunisian Arabic, spend time with the family (whom I really like, especially Nahed, the sister), can take hot showers (!!!) and in general feel safer. So it’s my first night with everything here, but I’m feeling good about it – hopefully it will be a good experience in its contribution to my ‘cultural awareness’ of the Tunisian mentality and lifestyles.

Quick note: I am currently watching a sports show in Arabic (which I often do with this family) which is discussing tennis – and they just mentioned Cincinnati 2 or 3 times – because of the competition that is held there.

I need to take a moment in any case to clarify just how kind this family has been to me: when I was sick, they called me and asked me why I hadn’t come (I wanted to just sleep & I didn’t want to infect them) since they could take better care of me. They feed me too much – always; if I was staying here for any longer I would surely gain 20 pounds and have to ship all of my carefully-packed clothes home and purchase new ones. After dinner (couscous, lasagna-type dishes, chicken, soups, to name a few aspects of some of the meals), we almost always have sweet, hot mint tea (which I love) and biscuits, or a delicious dessert that seems to be made with some type of chocolate pudding topped by cream, which then is decorated with chopped nuts (pistachios) and tiny, hard shiny balls that seem to be filled with sugar (and so to me resemble sprinkles). They do all that they can to put me at ease, which I really appreciate, and I can easily say that I feel more comfortable with this family than I have with any other.


February 4th, 2007

Today is Sunday, and I basically spent the entire day laying around in the house – it’s interesting to see what people do: most of the day is spent laying around watching TV and chatting, while lunch occurs around 1 or so and dinner around 8. They drink tea in the afternoon around five – sugary mint tea or bitter tea with peanuts. Honestly, watching so many sports gets a little bit boring – I finished a book today (they keep telling me, how come you’re carrying your book with you, it’s the weekend!) and then fell asleep. An interesting fact I was thinking about today is that my family probably doesn’t have any literature that means something ‘native’ to them – is in a type of maternal tongue – other than the Qur’an; surely there is very little, if any, literature in Tunisian Arabic, and Classical Arabic – what some literature is written in – isn’t a ‘native’ language to them; in fact, apparently all of the children except for Ramsey were awful at classical Arabic while they were in school. French is a relatively native language to them, but it’s not the language of anger, love, family life, etc. – Tunisian Arabic is used in the home of my family and I heard about five words of French during my entire couple of hours at a soccer game last weekend.

So in any case, today I got up late (around 11 AM!, which I normally hate doing), had breakfast, watched some TV, & went for a walk/run with Nahed (during which we discussed wedding festivities here). As for weddings, the partying lasts for a week and can cost just as much as it does in the US; Ramsey, for example, explained - baffled – that just renting the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) costs about 5,000 dinars (Nahed later told me that the average monthly salary of a Tunisian is about 200 dinars). The first night, there is apparently a huge party with the two families and friends of the families and bride and groom. Then, I guess the next day (not sure), the groom comes to pick the bride up at her house, after which they travel to the Municipal hall (or such) to get married. The Mosque is not involved after the families gather there to sign the wedding contract. The bride changes outfits three or four times throughout the week, and Nahed’s mother actually wore a traditional dress of gold she borrowed for her wedding (I saw the pictures), a dress which, if purchased, would cost about 20-30,000 dinars.

Afterwards I had lunch – a really delicious homemade pasta with tomato sauce (rather light, not heavily put on like we do in US) and chicken (with the bone in it and the skin still on, like always). Then I spent the afternoon finishing The Historian, finally, and watching soccer and handball games. Around 6h30, I wanted to go out and walk because I don’t like having limited movement and being inside for too long; in fact, I just proposed that I walk down the street to the market vendor there to buy a Tunisiana card to recharge my cell phone. My host father, however, didn’t want me to, so he insisted on going with me.

Although I was irritated to not go by myself, I appreciated his gesture and we had an interesting conversation about the five prayers Muslims do everyday: one in the morning, one at lunch time, one between lunch time and the setting of the sun, one around 5h30, and one after the setting of the sun. Before each prayer, he washes his face, mouth, nose, ears, his arms up to just before his elbows, and his feet; then he is clean enough to be before God. Interestingly, women who are having their periods are considered too dirty to do the prayer or go to the Mosque (he didn’t tell me this, I learned this somewhere else).

As for what I’ve been up to since I last wrote, let me give a quick recap:

Since spending most of my time with the family of Kareem, I’ve moved in with them. Kareem is also ridiculously nice to me, driving me places and waiting for me to take me home when it’s completely unnecessary, such as earlier this week, when he drove me to Berges du Lac for lunch with Hatam, Shannon, and Madame Aziza (who is a bit crazy) and waited for me to go a (canceled) conference with Larry in the medina at Dar El Behi (which in any case was a beautiful home, and Larry and I took a small tour and had delicious stuffed dates and some tea). Kareem has also told me he really respects me and that I’ve changed the way his mother (Issia) views Americans, so I really do feel good with them (although occasionally bored, haha). Right now, everyone is home and we are watching Star Academy (second round in Lebanon), and of course they are all laughing and making fun of the contestants. Of course each time that anyone pays too much attention to me or says something that I don’t understand, I blush (including my ears, which I hate). In addition, I can't make fun of people courageous enough to sing in front of a panel of judges, bright lights, on TV - I couldn't do it, so you know, I can't make fun.

To note: This commercial for Ford just came on that I really like, and it features some men and women in Saudi Arabia (my host family told me) – the men in white robes and the women in black dresses and a scarf wrapped around their head (though their features are exposed). I love this commercial (and its companions) because they are all directed at men – the men are driving (the women sit in the back) and the kids (who sit in the very back) are all boys. Hah. Why? Because in Saudi Arabia it’s against the law for women to drive (of course this is considered to be crazy in many other parts of the Arab world, as my Arabic prof at Georgetown told me last year – ‘the Saudis are crazy and what they do ruins it for the rest of the Arab world’).

Anyway, so what have I been up to? I went to a soccer game last weekend between the Club Africain and some other team; the score was zero to zero, but the intensity of the crowd, the singing, the swearing in Arabic, the prostrations to the sky were fascinating to me (it’s really a religious experience). I have also eaten sheep’s head, fish (which was whole, I had to pull out the skin) Jerbian couscous (at Madame Aziza’s, during which she asked me to call the ambassador and try to get a visa to the States for her so that she can visit her sick son), and gone to the Esthetician (with Asma) to get my eyebrows done – from the pictures, this woman is amazing, but she took off too much of me I think, I’m not sure why.

At work, I’ve finished cataloguing the first part of the library. I listened to a girl named Christine, whose finishing up her Anthro master’s at the University of Vienna, talk about her research – which involved case studies of ‘resistance’ to the presented images of women. Another older woman, Lilla, who apparently is a big sociologist here and who is married to an American, was an ‘honored guest’ at the small talk at CEMAT, and she was critical of the representativeness of the study (see notes taken). In any case, she knew whom Christine had interviewed, because the sole details about their living arrangements (living with a foreigner whom she is not married to) are so particular (and they also descend from the ancient aristocracy). Lilla said something really interesting: you have to study all women within the categories of their generation in Tunisia. She separated three generations, those before 1975 (a rupture apparently occurred in ’75), and then women of today she said are a new generation (“issue de la lutte contre le patriarcat et le colonialisme). Urging Christine to study Tunisian law for a better analysis in her thesis, Lilla added, “Law is the psychology of a people.”

A movie to see is apparently Satin Rouge, which caused a huge stir and a lot of debates for and against. Lilla discussed how this film confirms poor images of ‘bad’ women belly dancers, for example, are bad. She said, “Les films révolutionnaires se collent toujours à l’imaginaire sociale.” (Jan. 31st, 2007 CEMAT)

Lilla also talked about the issue of globalization as affecting what people are wearing: everyone wants to wear what’s ‘hot,’ and “c’est honteux de porter quelque chose que quelqu’un d’autre a déjà porté” (it’s shameful to wear something that someone else has already worn) – even if the ‘other person’ is your sister.

We also discussed the problems of alcoholism and wife beating (which are often linked, though interestingly those Muslims who pray are not supposed to drink alcohol), which are featured in the “Faits divers” in a local French newspaper.

John, a University prof teaching here on the Fulbright, also asked interesting questions, like, ‘If images of women were supposed to represent reality, what would these images look like?’ Often, Feminists have written against realism (I think that’s kind of crazy, since realism can incorporate such a great number of images that plurality can just be implied).

As for other interesting happenings, I introduced Shannon to Kareem following the speech, and she seems to feel much more comfortable meeting people (her timidity in early January was so great that she physically shook when she met me!). Madame Aziza then interrogated Riyad at the Center about his life, and then Kareem on the phone (when she called me to invite me for dinner, and I couldn’t understand her – she only speaks Tunisian Arabic – I gave the phone to Kareem) – and then the next day, hilariously, we ran into her in the street! I heard a quite voice saying, ‘Laura, Laura..’ as Kareem and I were walking to eat lunch.

I’m still going to Arabic classes on Tuesdays (which I am also driven pratically directly too), and I went with Larry to get his carte de séjour after the expected ridiculous amount of running around, getting forms not listed as necessary and other such craziness. Overall, I’ve been good. : ) I have Arabic class again on Tuesday, and Larry won't be there, which means I'll be all by myself - but oh well. If nothing else, I'll copy verb lists out of my "L'Arabe Tunisien" pocket book that I purchased in Paris, which has turned out to be more helpful than anything else.
bises.