Circumstances Can Change Plans

"It is the hell of the poor that created the paradise of the rich." Victor Hugo

We did a lot of travelling, not so much in Africa as it seemed to make sense to do so after settling in North Africa. Then lovely Amira arrived, not much later presented us four cute little bundles of joy, tomcat Tiger and his sisters Bijoux, Sandy and Soleigh. That was the start. When I discovered pretty three-coloured Honey near the refuse pit, I noticed that for unknown reasons her tail was missing and there was a scab mixed with tiny stones instead, which later on fell off, she started to bleed, a new scab developed, fell off, and so on. I thought it is time to act if she allows me to do so. I picked her up, she accepted this, great, Honey seemed to understand that I wanted to help her. Taking her in a transport box to a veterinarian clinic was so easy. They did a good job there and Honey become our tailless special darling. She likes to be outside on the road but eats and sleeps at home. When I call her she comes running, this is real love on both sides. Also when I don't see her and call her name, she's suddenly there. Honey doesn't seem to like us leaving the house, even when she herself is outside, she follows us for a bit and complains, sounds like "don't leave me...." Seeing homeless cats at the rubbish pit looking for food, I started to take some down there for them, when one woman suggested I feed them in front of my house. Thought it sounds like a good idea and the cats soon discovered my "cats' table. " They arrive punctual for breakfast early every morning (at a time when our local hooligans are still asleep).  This lead to folks asking us whether we would take one or two cats inside. Then kids also brought us kittens, unbelievable beautiful little sweeties and in addition wounded cats, victims of accidents or abuse. We ended up with neither time nor money for visiting other countries..... exploring Africa. Luckily our vet charges much less than those in central Europe (where I had three cats, but only one at a time) and she makes allowance for us offering shelter and helping so many cats. Several years before the revolution they cats we saw here were very skinny certainly not pedigree cats, no cats' food on supermarket shelves, I used to bring croquettes from Europe. Relatives and friends seeing photos of nowadays beauties stated they rarely saw so many gorgeous cats. Wonder where they all come from, being such darlings (most of the time) they must have come straight from heaven.

My Gorgeous Children and Fur Neighbours

"If everybody feels secure we are tolerate" Ken Loach. - When we first moved here, quite a few cats arrived at our doorstep, I felt they were introducing themselves as possible "tenants". One actually already greeted us from inside, looking out from a broken window. The house being in urgent need of renovations it appeared to be a bit early to make a decision on which pet should live  with us, though we had already made up our mind to form a family with two cats. Little did we know! With lovely Amira, tri-coloured, mainly white, it was love at first sight, for her and us. She got at least four times "engaged" and one could see the result when her sweet kittens arrived, all on the same day, amazing. This was in May 2013. Amira was a great loving mum with gentle children: Tiger (black, brown streamed, white bib, socks and tummy (fairly common marking among cats), Sandy yellow and white, Soleigh mainly white with some yellow spots, Bijoux tri-coloured, resembling her mother. All a bit bigger than most cats here and fairly strong while fit. One day in January 2019 Soleigh disappeared without a trace. We must assume that our little darlings is no longer alive, so sad. Last year Bijoux started to get sick, not very worrying at first but finally vets couldn't save her live. In the end she was just bones and fur and needed a lot of attention. We didn't want her to suffer unnecessarily, yet trips to the vet made her panic, a difficult decision, we decided to let her die at home if possible. Our tomcat Mallek stayed with her during the last days of her live right until the end. Who says animals don't know empathy? Amira had to be operated twice on account of a growth, size of a five Dinar coin .  She also is no longer as fit as she used to be, now approx. eight years old, times seven is supposed to give you an idea how this compares to human life expectancy. Thus now a middle-aged not very happy lady. From time to time she shouts a lot, wants us to be with her all the time (forget about toilet....,) wants to sit on my or my husband's lap, lately also on my shoulder, (does that make me a witch? Well, I luckily don't resemble Trump, who according to his own words is the witch presently hunted, going back in history, what was done with witches....?) then quite unexpectedly runs out, decides to jump off the roof onto the awning and into the street. After several days, or just a day or two she returns. Previously she didn't like the street at all, had enough after five minutes at the most. This morning I had to crawl underneath a car and drag my precious one out. She purrs while I give her a massage, poor little darling. A young man with a bulldog on a lead (thank heavens for that) passed by, three of my regular customers (visitors to my cats' table), a brown Persian cat, a black, light and dark brown one and another tri-coloured, brown, orange and white, were ready to fight. I got a shock, this would be too much for me to bear. Thank heavens the young man pulled his dog away and moved on. One day when one of my cats shouted a lot, I advised my little  treasure to stop this, what will the neighbours think.....? My brother suggested I inform them that he wasn't complaining about me but them! Suzy from time to time suffers from mistaken identity, plays the male part chasing Milka, Adele and Natasha and wants to mark her hunting area. In addition she scratches at the window when she wants to come indoors, while Lilly continues to "knock" at the door by banging the key attachment against the door. This she does quite impressively, one could think there is a guy at the other side. Our fur neighbours want to ensure that not too many turn up for free food, newcomers are frequently chased away. One lately came running, picked up a piece of sausage (folks here call it salami), ran away, returned for some more and so on, I made sure the little sweetie also got her share.

Retrospective Make Tunisia Great

Scientists discovered that 2% of Neanderthals' Gene still exist in European, American and Asian population but not in African, even though the cradle of mankind stood in Africa!
Small birds with spotted feathers mainly live on olive trees which often turns out to be fateful for them. With the aid of stretched sheets they are caught and sold for consumption. Why we must eat small birds (in Europe e.g. quails) while they are on the decline and only provide minor amounts of meat, I can not understand. Can't we just enjoy their beauty and thank heavens for their very existence? The other day I viewed a man sitting on a chair, in front of him slightly hidden cages with these olive tree birds, a bucket, and without them making a sound, he swiftly took one after the other and slit their throats. I felt for him it was like cutting potatoes. It made me feel sad, like it always does when I see or hear of animals being killed. - One day hopefully more folks of all ages, starting with the young ones, will open their eyes, view a great nature worthy of protection. We will all profit and we owe this to the coming generations. As the First Nation in America put it: Mother Earth, she is only lend to us.

Make Tunisia Great

"For almost half of every year our ancestors ate no fruit, no green vegetables, and (since it was impossible for them to feed more than a few oxen, cows, swine, and poultry during the winter months) very little butter or fresh meat, and very few eggs." Aldous Huxley (The doors of perception and heaven and hell). The lack of vitamins caused physical and mental problems. - With raising prices several folks can't afford to buy meat, being a vegetarian I don't consider that quite as terrible as they do, but when it comes to not being able to obtain vital medication that is a different matter. Poor people can be entitled to get these e.g. through a hospital, providing they are not sold out, no longer on the market or in short supply. The other day an elderly gentleman was crying because his wife is very sick and he can't get her tablets. As in other countries corruption causes a big problem. If the supply is limited and those whose job it is to distribute this according to the regulations give preference to people who can pay a small bribe, a little extra, maybe a bottle of oil, eggs, etc. this still represents corruption and is harmful to those most needy. Sadly folks often don't understand that we can all contribute to a better Tunisia, each one according to his or her ability. There is a German saying: "Don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you." President Macron once said something to that effect that too many children prevent Africa from prospering, he received a lot of criticism for that. On a smaller scale I would say that if you neglect your children, leave them to roam the streets, then you have too many. Children used to represent the "rent" for the parents, the field workers for the farmer in poor countries and it made sense to have many as not all would survive their childhood. But times are changing. If you give your kids too much freedom, don't teach them how far they can go, this won't make them happy but leave them with a feeling that their parents don't care. Bad habits die hard. For a while the streets looked much cleaner but it appears to be difficult to motivate citizens not to just throw away their wrappings wherever they are. Kids view adults do this and act likewise. In my opinion pupils (nowadays usually called students) have too much spare time on their hand and don't know how to spend it. And of course there are the drop outs from school, who appear to think education is a waste of time, for the ignorant and disillusioned it may seem so. Why study if you can't find a job? Hopefully this will change. Lots of jobs could be created in the social sector, youth and street workers, instead of private lessons (often by teachers in employment), difficult for poor parents to cope with, why not keep students in school for extended hours doing supervised homework? School doesn't have to be boring (my students loved my lessons). There seems to be an underdeveloped awareness of the need to protect the environment. Men of all ages don't see a reason to switch off the engine when they stop in front of a small shop to do a bit of shopping, looks to me like an invitation to steal the motorbike or car, they don't think that far. In GB you have to pay a fine for letting your engine run idle, sounds like a good idea. That way one can reduce double pollution: extreme noise (motorbikes) and the unpleasant and unhealthy smell of Diesel and other petrol. - Classrooms are often not very inviting due to lack of funds. It doesn't always require a lot of money to achieve a small upgrading, why not try self help? Further I would suggest to take the class outside once or twice a month, and collect jointly senseless dumped rubbish. Seeing the amount of litter picked up ought to give the students a sense of what is wrong and needs to be altered. In a great country folks feel that they are all part of a community and if you love your country why not contribute more if you can? One of the Quran requests is to donate for the poor. The poor and misfortune could do with more support, not just a bit of charity. The value of profit should not be rated higher than healthy working conditions (thinking of the south in particular).