For spring break I decided to go on the school-sponsored study trip through Tunisia. The trip's themes were Islam and democracy and the role of women in an Islamic culture. I am especially interested in Tunisia because it is the only Islamic country that offers equal legal rights for women. They were also the first Islamic country to ban polygamy. The country also runs with two languages: French and Arabic. Dates and olives are the two largest exports, and they trade primarily with Europe. Although freedom of opinion and expression is guaranteed by the Tunisian constitution, the government tightly controls the press and broadcasting. [See BBC profile] In addition, the presence of Carthage connects the area to Europe more dramatically than other North African or Middle Eastern countries.So the first morning of our break we flew from Rome to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. We went to the U.S. Embassy to meet the ambassador and have a question-and-answer session with a panel of State Department officials. We discussed things such as the role of the Tunisian president in their democratic process (he has been in power for 20 years and he won the last election by 95% of the votes) and the history of relations with the United States.
We went to check in at our hotel and enjoy a buffet dinner and then we all got back on the buses for a special evening activity. We went out to the seaside suburb of Sidi Bou Said to a 400-year-old Shisha bar. It was beautiful, and the group of 100 crowded into this lovely little place to drink tea and smoke the traditional shisha (known in the U.S. as hookah). The typical tea is green tea with mint leaves and almond flavoring and pignons (pine nuts), served boiling hot in little glasses a little bigger than a shot glass. Delicious, although impossible to hold for about 10 minutes until it cools down. Luckily, our hotel had a disco in the basement (interesting fact: The Green Mile, dubbed in German, was playing during all the techno music... weird), so everyone met there to end the day dancing!
Our breakfast the next day was the same food that we ended up having for breakfast every day this trip: fruit punch, corn flakes with hot milk and chocolate powder, and "3-minute boiled eggs" which I promptly smashed on the table thinking they were hard-boiled. Embarrassing.
On the second day we had lunch with 40 English-speaking Tunisian students from the University of Tunis. I sat next to a PhD candidate named AbdelWahed. We picked his brain throughout the meal although he didn't have too many questions for us since he had lived in Canada for two years. After lunch Abdel guided Mary and me through the Medina (markets) of Tunis helping us barter. I bought a beautiful embroidered blouse.That evening we had the opportunity to attend the local Catholic mass. There are 10 million Tunisians; 99% are Muslim and only about 200 are Catholic. The chapel was very simple and beautiful and the mass was in French. After mass we returned to the hotel for dinner. Since Tunisia was a French colony, many of those influences still remain in their cooking. Last night we had crepes for dessert, tonight we had little "honey balls" although I don't know what their true name is. They were heavenly.
