Eid Moslem Holiday

Lots of sheep in the neighbourhood. Aid holiday coming up, celebration of the story from the Genesis 22 (https://genius.com), that part of the Bible that Jews, Christians and Muslims share, in different ways. For the Muslims I would say it is as important as Christmas for Christians. It is a custom to buy a sheep (if somehow possible), feed and walk it for approx. one week, let the children play with it. I may be wrong, but I am under the impression that often children see the sheep more like their future delicious meal than like a living animal. I am glad I was never forced to eat such a

temporary new family member. Already at a very young age I even refused to eat fish that my father had caught and brought home alive. And yes I stopped eating meat, not because I didn't like the taste of it, but because I love animals. If meat would grow on trees or bushes, I would have continued, and yes, I don't want to criticise religious customs. - Anyhow, I would like to use the occasion to suggest listening to the song: "The Story of Isaac", lyrics (and sung) by Leonhard Cohen. It is telling the story from Isaac's perspective. What this song is about, Leonhard Cohen explained like this: "It's about those who would sacrifice one generation on behalf of another......... and just at the last moment, before he was about to sacrifice Isaac, an angel held the hand of the father. But today the children are being sacrificed and no one raises a hand to end the sacrifice."

Continued Strange or Normal

I learnt from Erdogan that Turks keep money underneath their pillow. Tunisians as well? I lifted my husband's pillow, but there was nothing, not even a millim, (30 Millim are approx 1Eurocent) I am disappointed!
I needed a medical specialist and once more discovered that the stated consulting hours are not identical with the working hours of the doctor in question (unless he/she also works in a hospital, etc. not uncommon). When the lady at the reception also turns up late this may be an indication that you can expect a delay. The psychiatrist next door had more patients anyhow. The receptionist kept visiting her colleague there, helping out? She is lucky to have a very tolerate boss. Altogether receptionists appears to be tasked with less duties here than in e.g. Germany. While there dentists try to save teeth (after all we are not in the same position as sharks, when they loose teeth new grow again), dentists in hospitals don't make fillings for folks with low or no income, they pull out the tooth, the cheapest, but in the long run not the best solution. I hope the health system can be improved in the near future and more be done for the misfortune. On the other hand in the USA as far as I know the health insurance usually doesn't include the dentist and thus quite a few folks can't afford to see one. So you end up with either a gap in your teeth or on your savings. -  I mentioned before (under a different topic) that the town authorities tried to make the area near the grammar school, opposite the Mosque, look more attractive, planted some bushes and small trees, the very special folks around here managed to break off two tree trunks with roughly 12 cm in diameter, feels more like home to them with the addition of litter nearby. The kids and youngsters from the neighbourhood within walking distance are amazing. They don't get tired at night, do a lot of talking without a full stop or a comma, even though they never touch a book unless they have to, most of the time it's more yelling than talking actually - so it's obvious they didn't invent a mobile phone, a drum would do them fine! They appear to be a lot on the move, running without a reason, don't like to keep their hands still, hyperactive in fact, impulsively, quickly get aggressive and anxious, have difficulties paying attention. This might well be an indication of quite a few around here suffering from ADHS or ADD, an attention deficit disorder. The cause can be stress, environmental factors, brain chemistry, heredity, neglectance.  And yes, they need help, it is not good enough to say: "They are children".  Children don't need to be like that and they are not happy like that. So before you dress up nicely and go for a pleasant walk, check if your children are okay, don't just open the door and leave the rest to the street. Your boy may be happy with a football, but is this really all he needs? 

Strange or normal?

A fortune teller told an elderly lady: "I see a handsome young man carrying you on his arms and reading all your wishes from your lips. So relax and be happy." The elderly lady replied: "Oh thank you. Can you also see whether my health insurance pays for this? "

With so many unemployed you'd think service must be excellent here, but no, if you need a tradesman to carry out some repairs in your house, forget about "the customer is king" as the saying goes in middle of Europe, you are in Africa, feel more like a beggar. "Servicewueste" you can take literally here (of course there are exemptions, but too few). The tradesman will never say: sorry, I can't make it until.... Instead he usually pretends that he'll turn up at an agreed time (there are very few exceptions) but actually you can be pretty sure he will neither meet the time nor the date.  If you try to phone him, you will hear that message on tape that he isn't available, when you eventually reach him, he will give you another time that he also won't meet (I call it rendez-vous Arab). By the way, if you don't want to see him again, give him an advanced payment. Many a true words spoken in yest.  Just imagine in central Europe, a working couple arranges an appointment and one of them takes time off work in order to be present and possibly monitor the tradesman's performance (I strongly advice the later here). Taking leave because you are waiting for the tradesman? You may need a whole month or even more. The guy who wanted to carry out our last order turned up at 22.00 hrs, intending to work until midnight or stop when he's tired and promise to return within the next few days. Noisy works late at night? Not a problem, as far as I know there aren't any restrictions, some seem to even love it loud, not only children who are experts in creating noise. 

Noise avoidance is all too often not practised, not even following a celebration until early morning. Expats returning from Europe seem to arrive with a different mentality, though some men eventually change their attitude towards women and their duties around the house, (become rather conservative), difficult for European wives and in contrast to how a modern Tunisian woman sees her part in life. There is too much self-centred attitude. - In Germany Yugoslavian restaurants flourished with the cooks,the waiters, the owners coming from different parts of the country, Serbs, Bosnians, etc all working together until Yugoslavia fell apart and they started to hate each other. Then these restaurants disappeared. Doesn't this show the advantage of working together, accept diversity? Me-first, bad feelings like hate, envy, malicious joy, aggression don't provide us with a good life. If we instead see us as part of the community and try to contribute towards a tolerate society, educate the ignorant, teach respect, empathy, not accept corruption (the basis of a lot of evil), we can all contribute towards a great Tunisia.

Just an Anecdote

Somewhere in Africa. Two men talking. "Whenever I write to authorities, I never receive an answer." "Why do you write to them?" "Sometimes applying for a permission, asking for support, or just making suggestions to improve matters, after all I love my country." "You never get a reply?" "No, not even a confirmation that my letter arrived, some I even handed in personally at the reception, so they can't get lost in transit." "Yes, the post office is pretty unreliable. But anyhow, I think I know why all your letters are ignored. As you are aware, we have family clans with long crime tradition, mafia style structures. Now several sons decided to break with this family tradition and pursue an honest career. Thus the families got together an

d gave their approval. It was decided that some shall become lawyers, doctors, etc. The others should fill governmental posts. So these clans made offers that authorities can't refuse and in order to prove their honest intentions even paid a few thousand Dinars on top of the usual bribe. It now turned out that several of the persons elected by those families are actually illiterate. In order to hide the deficiency they pretend to read their mail (sometimes upside down) and then put it in the bin." "What can I do? Should I phone instead?" "You can try...... Good luck!"