Hot Days and Tropical Nights

"Not all grey hair you see symbolizes wisdom." Ubuntu African Proverb. "No man is born to be wicked, but man makes man to be wicked." Nigerian Proverb. "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." Opral Winfrey.           Extreme heat during the day, even early in the morning already bright sunshine, feels like living in an oven, high air moisture levels in addition is not very helpful. Rather warm wind from the Sahara, called Chili, may be exotic for tourists, but it is not exactly refreshing. Animals are also feeling exhausted, my cats ly flat on the floor, we have to be careful where we walk, as the roof is less attractive for them now until the sun goes down. Catastrophic weather condition in many countries, man made clima change, leads to reduced harvest or even the complete loss and thus it is not surprising that 20 countries imposed export restrictions for major food commodities, e. g. rice, vegetable oil, cereals, etc. Before the war North Africa and the MiddleEast received 50 % of their cereals from Russia and Ukraine. This explains several empty shelves here. Once upon a time Tunisia exported cereals and wheat. People are complaining about too high petrol prices, but many are still letting their vehicle engines running idle for 10 to 20 minutes or more, kids and youngsters continue to ride motorbikes just for fun. Pity they are not aware that this is bad for the environment. We continue to find very young kittens in front of our house, unfortunately neither our income, our space, nor our energy is unlimited, besides, we haven't even got a garden. Further, our big feral family feels there shouldn't be any more additions. Sweet Mary demonstrates she doesn't like it. Accustomed to spend part time outside, but always sleeping indoors, she refuses to do so when new kittens arrive, even in front of our house, the usual "solution" for those who don't want to keep kittens. Madonna, a very special little treasure, just had 4 babies. Being unexperienced, she felt overwhelmed and after feeding them she used to take a rest on the bench. After 2 babies passed away, Madonna decided to spend now more time with her little onces. Hopefully they will survive. The father is either 'Ali ben Habib' or Schmusi, who both got a bit too late sterilized. Madonna doesn't trust/like humans, only cats. I am not allowed to touch her, but she will look at me and declare that she's hungry and deserves something delicious. I love the sweet darling. Well, not all cats are alike, makes living with these little treasures more interesting. Their life isn't easy, all too often. Sometimes even for those who are lucky to have a family, not always a lasting relationship, in spite of all the love and loyalty cats offer to possibly  ungrateful folks. In parts of Indonesia selling and eating of dogs' and presumably cats' meat is banned, thanks to animal protection organisations, horrified tourists, and people's fear to catch rabbies or some other illnesses. Nevertheless in other areas of Indonesia restaurants continue to have dogs' meat on their menue, even worse, they buy pets' meat from families that perhaps think their dog was growing too much over the years, considered to be no longer cute. Isn't it like betraying, selling and eating "a family member" ?  A nightmare, absolutely sickening, unbelievable what brainless, evil folks are capable of doing. In addition pets' meat is more expensive than that of strays, as they are usually better fed. So shameless persons without a conscience are sadly even rewarded. Though animals are also in other countries all too often not treated well, at least such practice is unimaginable and haram in any Moslim and Christian state among others. I judge folks according to how they treat animals and do wish life does likewise! - In Sousse town authorities promised to do a clean up of littered streets. They did a good job, in an area that had a lot of it, papers all along the pavement of a school, litter dumped around a rubbish container, all gone. Clean streets, happy to see this, in particular where the residents are very friendly and polite. I always felt they deserved a neat surrounding. Hopefully guys of all age are prepared to keep the streets clean and stop dropping their rubbish wherever they are. We found that young persons if addressed, often apologize and pick up the plastic bottle, wrapping of snack, or other stuff they throw where it doesn't belong. We are now waiting for rain, lower temperatures, the return of sugar and other items, less raising prices. By the way, sometimes an unexpected compliment, even for a stranger, can put a big smile on the face of fellow citizens. I love it.                                        

Photos above:  

Tareka and Carlo.                                                                                                                            Clean streets as requested by good citizens. 

Kitten found in front of my door (without the mother only survived 2 weeks) and 2 babies of Maradona. 

Sweet Myriam in a bag - not for sale, she just tried to find out whether she would fit.