Making Ends Meet

Teacher: "What would you like to be when you are grown up?" 1st Student: " Street vendor, just like my dad." 2nd Student: " A lawyer, just like my dad." 3rd Student: " A doctor, just like my dad." 4th student: "A burglar." Teacher: " I beg you pardon?" Student : " Well, just like my dad!"  -  A taxi stops in front of our door. Visitors? No, folks around here according to an unwritten law ask their taxi driver to always stop in front of our house (then they disappear in all 4 directions.) While the passengers slowly get their money out, wait for change, remove their bags and luggage, the driver of course keeps the engine running. For unknown reasons this seems to be yet another unwritten law, let your car/ motorcycle engine run idle, even while doing a bit of shopping (e.g. something to drink or some bred).  Air pollution by the way caused 50.000 deaths in Great Britain and it is against EU law to let the vehicle engine run idle. Air pollution effects the lungs, heart, etc and experts discovered it reduces the intelligence of children when pregnant women were exposed to a lot of air pollution, it also increases the risk of dementia. Luckily Tunisians are immune to all that  including  cancer etc. Why I have started to cough a lot I don't understand. By the way, we watched a mother with 2 children getting out of a taxi. As one of her sons likes to frequently yell at ear-splitting level alongside our house, we thought this is a chance to address the problem, only to be advised that this can't be, as her son (6 years old) attends school from morning until evening 6 days a week. Poor boy, sounds like a 48 hours school week while other children fairly often are send home after an hour or two or have no lessons, while teachers are yet again on strike. - Prises keep rising, various products 3 or 4 times last year and again in 2019, altogether between 30 and 50%. This concerns local as well as imported goods. Some have more or less already disappeared from the shelving's. Looks like not the buyers but the wholesalers decide what you can take home. I remember a time when poor folks not only couldn't afford to buy meat, even eggs rarely landed on their table (it was when Ben Ali was still dictator), now egg prices are said to be rising again, at least bred remains cheap. Hopefully lessons from history are learnt here (bred and games for the people, as the Romans knew already). Strange, the instruction leaflet for medicine produced in Germany (e.g. Micardis) is in Arabic and French while another one made in Tunisia (e.g. Triatec) is in English and French, a long list of possible side effects (several of severe nature).  I presume folks who require medicine here can read English and/ or French well enough not to require information in Arabic! Anyhow this reminds me of a pharmacist who stated he would prefer if no leaflet was provided for the patients, it only confuses them and they may feel inclined not to take their medicine. Frankly I prefer to judge myself whether I rather live with my illness or with possible grave lasting so-called side effects. The said pharmacist by the way recommended to buy 3 month's supply of Triatec (maybe difficult to obtain at a later date....). When his customer objected, "not sure it agrees with me, haven't tried it yet", he advised: "it is a good product with hardly any side effects."- My husband was approached several times by men he only knew from sight, stating that they come from the same town as he does, they need money for an expensive operation, if he would contribute with at least 100 Dinar, a peanut sum for him..... Sounds interesting, wonder where they get their information from, must ask my husband where he keeps his hidden treasures. If you don't know whom to support, don't know any poor persons, here you can find guys willing to help you. In the meantime discovering that I am forced to spend more and more on food, medicine and vet/ dental treatment doesn't make me rich (contrary to what some believe), but I cannot let those gorgeous little darlings down. They reward me with their trust, respect and love, so precious. In order to make ends meet maybe I can eat less bred?