Tunis, Tunisia

I think that part of what makes me a good traveler is my proclivity to fall in love with places. I think Tunis would be an easy place for most people to fall in love with, possessing an irresistible vitality though its flaws are many. Fiery, feisty, smoky Tunis, where you’re screwed if you don’t speak French or Arabic, where you cannot escape dense clouds of cigarette smoke, whether in the airport, grocery store, or elevator, where the people are fierce and loyal and dare to dream of a better future at the expense of near-term stability. Tunisia was the cradle of the Arab Spring in 2012, throwing out their repressive dictator of a president who strong-handedly imposed secularism in a predominately Muslim country, but kept terrorist violence out. The country is now grappling with nascent democracy and the day I arrived had signed a new constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion and rights for women. The country is not as safe as it used to be and I hear the streets are dirtier. These things are never simple.

It seems that the Tunisian’s themselves embody this beguiling complexity. I had the pleasure of working with a gentle-souled, devout Muslim man who’s adopted a stray cat named Mish Mish who lives in and around the office, and a feisty hijab-wearing divorcee with a wicked sense of humor. Sometimes when people speak in a non-native language, they’re forced to say things simply, cutting to the heart of the matter, such as “I don’t want to be copy and paste, I want to be me.” Ah, don’t we all? Well said.

Tunisia is in North Africa, and is not the stereotypical place you think of when you think “Africa”. The capitol city Tunis is nestled on the Mediterranean Sea, with the accompanying climate, orange and olive trees. The men dress like they come from Sicily with slicked back hair and leather jackets, and the woman are a mix of scantily dressed Francophiles and devout Muslims. Many have duel French citizenship and spend their summers there. The radios of taxi drivers thump out techno music in the morning. Did I mention that they all smoke, everywhere? The incidence of lung cancer must be astronomical, unless all that olive oil has some super magical properties.

The city is beautiful. The well-heeled Sidi Bou Said sprawls down a cobblestoned hill overlooking the sea, suggestive of Santorini with immaculately white, terraced houses, but with distinctive blue doors and window gratings, mosques rising towards the sky, and the streets filled intermittently with the evocative call to prayer. The ancient Punic and Roman ruins of Carthage dot the landscape, their columns, aquifers, and amphitheaters still standing as sentinels over two millennia later. 

Tunis’ word is Fiery, because of the fire in its people. I’ll be watching this one closely, hoping it continues down the perilous road it’s sought to stability and freedom.