We’ve just completed our first visit to Tunisia and wanted to share our initial impression from trips through this small country during our month’s visit—that it’s a land of much variety. Both contrasts and similarities abound within Tunisia and with other countries such as ours, United States.
We left the Tunis airport, with our relatives who live in Tunis, on a multilane highway. Tunisia’s multi-lanes and shoulders and right-of-way are wide enough, but not nearly as wide as America’s. One reason the highways are narrower could be that Tunisia’s growing abundance of vehicles are not as large as America’s cars, SUVs, and trucks. Popular makes in Tunisia are primarily European, and include Puegot, Opel, certain Ford models, Isuzu, Fiat, Aldi, and BMW. We notice highway and store sign languages of Arabic and French (with an occasional one in English). A similarity exists with where we live in the south-central U.S. where the multilanguage signs are becoming commonplace; the difference is that ours are in English and Spanish. Speaking bilingually is more common in Tunisia, where many can speak French and Arabic. And at the beach resorts, much of the hotel staff could also speak to us in English. The Arabic dialect which Tunisians speak, like our English, has changed a lot over the years, but in contrast, the Arabic words used in writing in Tunisia haven’t. The written language is more standard and classical. Its almost like residents need to learn 2 different Arabic languages—a written and a spoken—in addition to the French they often learn in school. Driving along the streets, we noticed similarities in the way people dress. The younger people usually wear the latest Western styles. But they dress more warmly. In May, many are still wearing jackets or sweatshirts and there isn’t much interest in air conditioning. Tunisians believe cool or windy air is unhealthy. Normally, shorts are never worn, especially by women. Adults usually try to dress nicely and in current styles, while some older people wear the traditional robes and headcoverings. In contrast, at the beach resorts we visited in Hammamet and Sousse, we found shorts and swimsuits to be the typical garb. Of course, most of the beach tourists are Europeans. Looking out the car window, we noticed dozens of little stores—what we might call convenience or snack stores back home—widely advertising Coke and Nestle but few other American products. Also, at opposite extremes, there are a few new supermarkets like Monoprix and a few of the old traditional open air markets. We saw lots of small cafes with the good homemade Tunisian food like couscous. But no McDonald’s or Taco Bell or any other franchise eating places; just one building with a Pizza Hut sign but it had closed. We traveled to historic ruins going back about 2000 years in comparison with the major U.S. historic sites which go back only about 300 years. Many of the impressive structures we visited were built by and during the reign of the Romans, such as the 35000-seat coliseum at El Jem as well as Dougga’s forum, area capitol, temples, and public baths. The people we saw along the trip were friendly and helpful to tourists, even though some have close traditional family ties and some travel little. Officially Tunisia is tied in with the African continent to the south, but it seems more similar practically, both in history and current interests, to the Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and European communities of nations. On our drives, we found all these similarities and differences very interesting. We didn’t stay long enough to know the reasons for a lot of them. But hopefully, by reading more articles on this website, we can learn some of the answers.
