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!"

Summer Time

Two men meeting. "I hear you got married, are you happy?" "Yes, we got a contract." "A contract?"  "I make all the big decisions and my wife the minor ones." "Like what?" "Who should be the next president, should Trump be impeached, should we remain a democracy ?" "And your wife?" " Which house shall we buy, what is the right education for our children, which is the right job for me." - It is getting pretty hot. The water is  turned off every night, from 10 p.m. until 5 or 6 a.m. (doesn't effect hotels), then we receive approx. 3 or 4 buckets full of milky coloured water, bad for  the washing machine, coffee machine, toilet flush (adds sand to the system), wonder what poor folks do who can't afford mineral water. Some people were surprised to learn that one should read the values on the mineral water bottles (e.g. Nitrate should not be above 5). Wonder why the water supply is turned off , to make citizens aware of the value of water? Can't be a real saving, as that milky coloured water is only of limited value, unless saved for cleaning - but can and will house wives who love to use lots of water for cleaning, collect this in large drums? As usual it will take time to change the ignorants' mentality, who are accustomed to also ignore new laws and regulations, whenever there is no one there to enforce them (like not dropping wrappings/garbage where ever they like, not phoning while driving, etc.). Children need to be taught at school to respect and value nature/ their country. They learn quickly, if presented the right way enjoy doing so and hopefully pass on their newly gained knowledge to their families. Every brick counts to built a better society. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. Young men feel great riding their motorbike - but must it be tuned to create the utmost noise and air pollution? The black cloud stinks, according to the WHO 7 million people die world wide each year because of the air pollution. Sometimes I wonder, are we living at a petrol station, a racing track, the final station of taxis (9 of 10 stop right in front of our house, engine running - taxi drivers must be thinking we live like sardines there, at least 50 in one room), or may be a market place. At least 3 fishmongers try to sell their product, others fruit, vegetable, plastic items, etc. A new neighbour supplies folks around here with his loud music, luckily everybody has got the same taste (?) I miss The Sound of Silence (the new version presented by Disturbed expresses pretty well how we feel from time to time). - A Tunisian working in France has an extra floor added to his house. Seems to be a new fashion, built a little sky scrapper for the bigger and bigger getting family or to rent. The contractor spoils with the liquid cement the ceiling, walls and tiles of the house and terrace next door.
A woman from the neighbourhood informs him that this doesn't matter. The owner doesn't live there, he's got several houses and doesn't care what state they are in. Sounds interesting, she must know him well! But actually none of this is true, the owner has only one house, was flabbergasted and furious.....and apart from: "Hello, how are you," never exchanged any conversation with that woman. Why would she talk such chicken shit? Envy, wanting to show off? One can meet very strange folks. As Einstein once put it: Most stress derives from the daily contact with idiots. Unfortunately one can find them in every country.

Postscript My Lovely Pussycats

Like us cats don't like bitter medicine. In Europe I used to mix it with liver sausage, which is not on the market here, therefore I use soft cheese instead. By the way cats love it. When you have more than one cat you can apply another trick in addition. I also give this cheese to other cats and pretend they are all getting the same. When a cat changes its behaviour it might be sick. Not eating can be an indication that the cat needs a dentist. Gloria had to have 2 teeth removed and I also had her operated. She's given birth to lovely baby cats at least 3 times, the first lot (4) were okay, almost all others died, and she gave milk to 2 orphan little ones. Lately she seemed to be exhausted. She is such a loving amazing little angel. I dare say if all human mothers have as much love for their children as Gloria, we would have a better world. Unlike my cat Amira, Gloria still cares for her older kittens. Amira's daughter Sandy is difficult/disturbed, I put this down to her previously so well caring mum suddenly beating her. (When Amira fell pregnant again she changed, not being aware of her condition we had her operated). Some folks believe we brought cats here from Europe. Take coal to Newport, bring owls to Athens? As a matter of fact I never saw more beautiful cats than here. I only wish folks would appreciate cats more and teach their children to open their eyes to these gorgeous little fur angels. Children who are taught to love will receive love in return.

My lovely Pussycats etc.

Over the years I learned a lot about cats' behaviour. The way their mother treats them influences the kittens, they of cause also have their father's gens but he normally isn't around to educate the little ones. A gentle quite cat usually has kittens just like her, as a rule all looking different (not the same father), but 1 much like mummy. The standard number in Tunisia is 4, I've also seen 6, but 3 already dead at birth. The mother eats the afterbirth, it provides her with the necessary nutrition. Some cats (and dogs) eat their dead little ones, others don't. May be a protection by nature in order not to attract other animals, or because of the same reason as they eat the afterbirth. I must admit it took me a while to get used to the idea. The cats in my house are operated (birth control), this also means no stress while on heat. I had 3 cats about to give birth in front of my entrance door and thus was forced to give them shelter and food (which they already received before) etc. One Persian cat and her 2 babies died the next day. I knew the owners, who shocked me by just not caring, stating: She was old and had many kittens. The vet advised me 7 years is regarded as old here. Many little ones die before they are 2 weeks old, in addition several get run over by cars, which remains a horrible sight for me. When this happens in the neighborhood kids usually inform me, according to their language I live in the cats' house. I can pick up some of the street cats without getting scratched, stroke them, clean their nose and ears but Amira and her daughters (Bijou, Sandy, Soleigh) are different.

They are difficult patients. When I tried to put Soleigh into the transport box she got frightened and attacked me. Her brother, Tiger, wanted to protect me and attacked her to my surprise. By the way, Amira was a great caring mum until she fell pregnant again (she was my first female cat, we didn't know at the time and had her operated), then she started to beat her kittens. (Did she want them to make space for the new generation?) Sandy panics a lot and is not exactly friendly with other cats. In addition she doesn't feel comfortable with my husband, she only trusts and likes me. - Some times folks asked me for a cat. Could they come inside, inspect my cats and choose  one? I haven't got an exhibition of cats. Besides their ideal is a kitten too young to be separated from their mum and it should be checked by the vet and be absolutely flawless. I have 2 cats (Tareqqa and Myriam) with only one eye (Myriam was badly injured after an accident when I took her and got her broken jaw etc. operated), one without a tail, Honey, several had injuries e.g. Lilly a big bump on her head, a wound on her thigh, now healed. Why should an animal be flawless when we are not?  Needless to say some folks are different, they just want a gentle cat. By the way, a 🐈 can help you to relax and while purring reduces her human friend's too high blood pressure if necessary.

Postcript Not all are the same

The Colombian national football team leader is very sad, so a fairy offered him one free wish. "I wish we could be exchanged against the Tunisian team." The fairy asked: "But why, you played better in the world cup." Reply: " Some guys want to kill us because we can't win the cup. In Tunisia it is different, they celebrate you for every goal!" - In a documentary (My Tunisia, Aljazeera English) the father of a young talented football player says: 'We breath football, it is our escape from stress." Yes, all the male kids, teens, etc. are football crazy. They play every spare minute until midnight, at least where I live. There should be a lot of talented players, but unfortunately they lack discipline, team spirit, respect, have their very own rules, ignore the traffic and don't care if they damage the walls of surrounding houses, or cause other damages, they are the kings of the road. Pity there aren't more football fields available for them, school yards etc. could also be used. I've been told these children cause too much damage and leave the place dirty. That could be overcome by having an adult trainer on site who could at the same time teach them what their parents don't, the right behaviour, self-control, fair play and not to leave their markings (rubbish) behind. An easy way to get these kids off the streets where they would otherwise only learn bad language, not to respect anyone, yell, climb and run, how to become a hooligan. For those families  with little income it would mean an alternative to existing football clubs whose fee poor families can't meet. It is not so easy to judge how much income some families have. There are all these expensive new cars, lots of motorbikes, (bicycles are rare unlike Holland, Germany, etc. where citizens in my opinion are more health-orientated), expensive mobile phones, some kids all dressed up like professional players and there are the other cases, the obviously less fortunate. - Though it is already rather hot, I noticed less young men riding their motorbike topless. I guess they are "real men" as such their skin is enough protection in case of an accident, easily caused by a flying football, the interesting driving style of several male and female drivers, multi-tasking driving (phoning, car drivers having exiting conversations, hands up in the air, etc.). - It was discovered that 60,000 university graduates have left the country, in view of 62% unemployment among them quite understandable (other countries call it a brain-drain and get worried) nevertheless, this high rate of unemployment is rather strange (an indication that knowing the right persons and being able and willing to pay for being selected as "the best candidate" counts more than qualification?) and must be a real discouragement for those still attending school. Why bother if education gets you nowhere? I keep hearing  we must change our mentality. I would put it differently, we must educate the ignorant, make them see the beauty of this country and their responsibility towards their children (if you neglect them, they owe you nothing when you are old and needy), the importance of protecting nature, empathy with animals that are also Allah's creation. If you want to be respected you must act in a civilised way, an elbow society is not attractive for anyone. It is nice to have money, but it isn't everything. Friendly words, a smile can go a long way. Do you really need to get paid for every thing you do?