Ravi & David's Big Adventure

The weekend is the right time to go exploring in Tunisia. This Saturday found me and a fellow AMIDEASTer at the ancient ruins of Carthage in northern Tunis. Ravi is, like me, a long term intern. He has been in country only a week longer than I and is taking over the reigns of the American Corner. This is a small library which also plays host to weekly movie nights, topical discussions on U.S. matters in English, and liaisons with the U.S. Embassy to coordinate special functions to increase cultural awareness of the U.S. Ravi is an extremely bright guy from the East Coast who shares a deep interest in Middle East history and politics and plans on going to one the elite U.S. universities for his MBA. He also happens to have parents who immigrated from Eastern India in the 70s and has traveled rather extensively throughout the South Asian and North African regions and makes for a phenomenal travel companion as you can imagine. Plus, I thoroughly enjoy ribbing him about his ability to "blend in" to the environment. I happen to stick out like Pee Wee Herman at a cardiology panel discussion. C'est la vie.

The day consisted of a grand tour of myriad Roman ruins. Apparently the Phoenicians had been in the area for nearly a thousand years or so. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage ) Having founded the City of Carthage in the 9th c. BC, the Romans eventually took it over and built the usual super cool Roman amphitheatres, and fortresses and such. What we see there today is the barest skeleton of what the Romans had built. There are also several museums that showcase an assortment of artifacts, pottery, art, and even corporeal remains of this civilization. The Roman ruins here are not as delicately protected and meticulously labeled as in other places, so a fair amount is left to the imagination to those of us without extensive backgrounds on the period. So I took lots of pictures and Ravi and I conjectured wildly as to what exactly we were admiring at any given time. This was actually sort of a fun way to visit ruins as my eyes usually glaze over anyway after about an hour of reading captions.

We went from 10 to 4 walking, training, and walking some more and were fairly beat. So we made our way to the beach for the grand finale, kicked some sand around, and had a bite to eat. Of course, I had the obligatory espresso and a meaty shwarma sandwich filled with veggies and spiciness. The day was far from over however. Ravi had used his connections with the U.S. Embassy and got us on the list for a festive embassy football match party - the U.S.vs Ghana game as many of you no doubt have seen or heard about by now. We taxied over to the what would be my first time ever in any embassy and the facade of this one was as blank, drab, and sterile as one could be. Though possibly the largest embassy I have seen in Tunis, it is also the lowest key. Basically, the three hours consisted of a burger BBQ, beer, big-screen football, and lovely discourse with very interesting folk from all over the world - some embassy personnel but most outsiders like Ravi and I who had some connection. Surprisingly, many of the Americans present were pulling for Ghana - I was not however. Many of these guys and gals had served in western Africa at some point and felt connected to this small but proud country and hoped that this tiny victory over the U.S. might somehow mean more to them than it would to the mighty and plundering U.S. I understand the sentiment, but knowing how sad and feeble the U.S. team has been for so long, I was on the home team side and wanted to see the father of a smiling, beautiful family present from Guinea-Bissau and blowing a vuvuzela while wearing a green Ghana football jersey to just pipe down. This was not to be as the U.S. would succumb to the superior team from the small African nation. As a result, I lost a bet of one dinar to Kitty - an American who has lived in more countries than I have ever seen. She was gracious in victory - even buying me a bottle of water. The lone vuvuzela trumpeted in victory. It was a lot of fun and a pleasant introduction to the home embassy. We are scheduled to return Monday for a more formal visit and country briefing. Though, I must admit, I think I will prefer the visits which include a cash bar and grill.  So enjoy the pictures and stay tuned. I have a very busy week including a day trip to Sousse to check out an apartment, an evening with Lee, our AMIDEAST country director, the embassy return visit, and of course, tonight, couscous with my new Tunisian friend, Ibrahim and his family.  A tout a l'heure!