Cars pass by my window and beep.
Beep beep beep beeeeeep beeeep beepbeep beep beep.
And so on and so forth.
I eagerly look out my window hoping for some real drama.
-like the president and his ten black official cars with two police on motorcycles.
No, this is not an episode of a bad Tunisian soap opera.
Just weddings.
Wedding after wedding after wedding.
Which is strange considering the high divorce rate here.
I once heard a saying in Tunisie that translates to something like: summer in banquet hall (for wedding), autumn in the justice room (for divorce).
It sounds a lot better in Tunisie.
Despite that, people still fall in love and some choose to get married because of that.
Some others may get married for other reasons.
Some see their future and see it with someone, committed.
Some see their future and see it with someone, unsure where to tread with them in tow.
Some want tradition while others beg for modernization.
Some couples see that through time they change.
Some accept that fact and live with it.
Some are annoyed and leave for independence or something new.
Life is all about changing and unfolding oneself in order to find identity.
We long to belong to what we identify with.
If it is someone you feel you can identify with, good for you.
Keep it and nurture it.
Meanwhile, Mimi is perched by my window.
She still thinks the cars are beeping because they’re aggressive drivers.
…
On Monday we were given a lecture on mass media in the Arab world.
We sat in the lecture room with the lights turned off and the slide show pointing at the white wall.
Dr. Azzouz led us through the slides focusing only on a handful of countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia.
Through each country, we focused on the major sources of media (television, newspaper, movies, radio, magazines and internet) and how it is throughout each country.
Egypt is, by far, the leader of mass media throughout the Arab world with the largest publishing and broadcasting network.
In essence, Egypt is the center of the Arab world, complete with freedom of media, which is guaranteed by their constitution.
Egypt is also the most densely populated of any country in that region, housing 70 million, all of which are close to the Nile delta.
Egypt has eight daily newspapers, four FM stations and their own satellite.
Moving along to Kuwait.
Kuwait is the most developed country in the Arab world as it has the 5th largest oil reserve in the world.
It also is the most vocal and transparent media in the Arab world and is ranked second in freedom of press, after Israel.
They have 13 television stations and 17 newspaper companies.
Lebanon is not far behind.
Lebanon has 14 television channels, nine daily newspapers and many radio stations.
Lebanon is one of two media hubs in the Arab world.
And last but not least, Tunisia.
Tunisia has nine daily newspapers (four in French, five in Arabic)
They also have six radio stations, along with two private television stations.
So what is it about mass media that we discussed?
Censorship.
How free is the press and how willing will one go to express what they want to express?
In comparison to a more conservative country, Saudi Arabia for example, these countries are doing quite well with their freedom of press.
Tunisia blocked Youtube for political purposes.
But this begs us to question how free is their freedom of media?
Many of the radio and television stations are international.
Representation.
So how does a country represent itself to a wider, international audience?
How do they represent Islam today?
Do they modernize Islam or Islamize modernization?
There are so many questions.
Despite the freedom of press, everything is censored when someone in the industry is thinking about who will read/hear/see what is said.
People have to please people with their words.
Words are never publicly free or freely expressed.
It’s just a rosy illusion.
….
On Wednesday I made a discovery about language.
Year after year I sat in a wooden desk in high school.
Shuffling my feet under my desk as I sat under bad lighting in German class.
I spent four years of high school learning German, which was spent slouching over a thick textbook.
I looked at each page, hoping to be motivated.
Never did.
Today is proof as the only thing I remember how to say is, “goodbye” and “bless you.”
That’ll get me far.
Then I learned Spanish for a semester in college.
I can’t say I retained a lot other than the two main “estar” and “ser” verbs.
Then I went to Peru and Ecuador for three months.
That experience was baffling and humbling at the same time.
The Spanish I learned through those months is still retained (I am so lucky!) as it dug itself deep into my brain. I remember it differently now though and I still have a long way to go to be comfortable with it.
I remembered things because I was put on the spot.
Objects became more personal as I had put emotion into the words describing the objects.
Ultimately feeling an emotion is finding identity within something.
(We are taught in psychology that when emotion is mixed with something we’re learning or living through, that we retain it in our memories far longer than without emotion.)
The reason that I was able to retain Spanish (unlike German) was because I could identify with it.
Because I was living there, I felt a part of it.
With a sense of belonging somewhere it is only natural to want to learn the language.
Now flashback to high school German.
I could have been highly motivated if some Germans called out from the textbook saying, “come on over here, we’ve been waiting for you!”
But they didn’t and I didn’t see myself if their culture or their language so I ceased in identifying with them which affected my motivation and drive to pursue it in college.
As for Arabic, our technique in class is to learn vocabulary.
Before we learn how to structure a sentence we learn words.
This is new to me, but I like it.
We use a program that gives us random words like “door,” “house” and “chicken” (chicken was the first word I remembered in Arabic because it sounds so beautiful).
There is a picture, which describes the word being displayed on the slide and finally a woman pronounces it.
It all takes time and a lot of repetition.
So when you’re trying to think of one of the words in a sentence, the image of that word will come to mind and so will the word.
Voila!
But when living here, there are the words and phrases you learn just from walking day to day.
Naturally you pick up on how to greet people or how to understand what they are saying based off of hearing it over and over and over.
I can walk down the street and figure out what to say in Tunisie to the boys who think that I am Italian or Eastern European.
Who knew I knew their language?
Yeah, who’s sweet-talking now?
…
Today I had lunch with my mom, sister and grandparents.
It was like Ramadan, but with the sun.
This time the TV wasn’t on, just the radio on top of the refrigerator.
The woman who’s singing keeps saying “Enti, enti, enti.”
Flies are buzzing around our heads.
We sit around the kitchen table and my mom hands me the forks and knives.
She pronounces “knife” with the k.
I can’t remember where to place the utensils so I put them both to the right of the plate.
Mimi corrects me: fork on left, knife on right.
Oh that’s right, I laugh.
We drink mint soda.
Eh, I think it is an acquired taste.
My mom dishes the food out on my plate, I feel like a five year old.
During the meal (like every meal), I never understand what is being said, so I patiently sit looking at my fish.
Everyone talks for a little while, about a variety of things.
I understand just a couple words.
They were saying something about the president and money.
Then my grandfather mutters something and the room goes quiet.
No one understands him.
My mom scoots his chair closer to the table and changes the subject.
“That is my favorite fish.”
I ask her what the name of the fish is.
She pronounces it.
I repeat what she says.
She says it again and adds that it sounds like….
She can’t think of the word in English.
Mimi makes the animal noise.
I still don’t know.
Everyone stares at each other around the table, wondering who will be the first to remember the word.
Out of nowhere, my grandfather says, “Wolf.”
He saves the day.
…
I wouldn’t say manners here are strict or that much different from the West.
During our excursion last week, professor taught us that you must ALWAYS fill the other person’s glass before yours.
If not, well, bad luck to you.
You may eat before someone else, but never pour your glass of water unless you have already filled someone else’s glass with water.
I hope my host family will forgive me for my lack of knowledge about that.
…
For now Mimi is calling me for dinner.
Her jacket squeaks as it is made from a weird material.
It looks like a puffed up leather jacket.
She looks like Michael Jackson.
I will never get over the fashion I sometimes see people wearing.
Countless boys and men wear shirts that are pink, blue, green and orange with black, bold print that says “Wild for the night.”
If only they knew what it meant.
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