From Day to Day

What do monkeys in the zoo say about their visitors? Thank heavens they are all behind bars!

Times are changing. Mail from and to Tunisia and Germany took one to two weeks - that was before the revolution. Now it's 2 weeks if you are very lucky, more likely 6 to 8 weeks, maybe 6 months or not at all, happened several times. So frustrating. If you need to go to an embassy you may discover that there a lot has changed as well. Without a prior appointment by phone (busy line, in addition e.g. that of the German embassy is only available for a couple of hours daily) you will be turned away. Expect less service and help than in the past. Getting a visa for Europe has become highly difficult, even with an invitation from a
resident there who meets all the stipulations (enough income, health insurance for the visitor, etc). I guess young men in particular are suspected of not wanting to return, thus misusing their visa. Even visiting relatives in Europe is now more difficult for Africans. Ever heard of the "door of no return" ? You can find it Africa, slaves who were forced to pass through never got a chance to return. Our society has become very fearful and mistrusting, having more sources for information available has added to it. News of a crime spreads faster, fake news also. While e.g. homicide was reduced by 63 % in Germany more folks are afraid of that nowadays. Many refugees trying to get to Europe by boat pay with their life. One in seven die in the sea. Zarzis (south of Tunisia) is one of the places where a large number of corpses are recovered/ washed ashore and buried on the cemetery of the unknown, really tough volunteer work (decomposed bodies of women, men and children) by amazing fishermen.  Chamesdine Marzoug started in 2005 to build the cemetery together with colleagues, 8 km from Zarzis on a 600 square metre plot of land, on their own expense, meanwhile supported by the town council, civil protection service, national guard and red crescent. A new cemetery of 2500 square meters is planned, named "The Garden of Africa", various donations made it possible to buy this plot of land. (They can do with additional donations)
It will have concrete grave stones, trees and flowers from the African continent and in addition it is planned to obtain DNA testing kids to help identification of the deceased.
The artist and fisherman L. Mohson, another amazing person in the South, created a museum with items found at the coast, washed ashore, including shoes of those drowned, thanks to Mr.  Mohsons some will not disappear without leaving a trace. Families of those trying to make it by a more, or all too often less sea-worthy boat to Europe are frequently not aware that they lost a family member for good, that he or she drowned in the sea. Terrible thought. Those who can just buy a ticket and fly to wherever they want, don't know how lucky they are. - There are now some solar street lights e.g. in Sousse and Kairouan, hopefully more of the old ones will be replaced by solar soon. Citizens of two towns, Sourh and Gasserine, are asked to spend a day together with the support of "Belladia" (town administration) in order to tidy up their town. This is meant to be only a start. Good to hear, a positive side effect will be that those participating (if not already) realize how much unnecessary pollution is done by carelessness, on the other hand see the beauty of a protected environment.