Leblebi, My home stay, and a Birthday Party

Yesterday was the most beautiful day. In the morning I walk about ten minutes from my house (dar) to the bus stop. I pass two tiny coffee shops on the corner, several fruit souks (shops), a mechanical repair shop with twenty or thirty year-old cars dusty and contorted in the corners, and a construction site on the main drag that stretched from Sidi Bou Said all the way to Tunis. The bus stop is just across the street from the construction site and I get to watch closely as I wait for the bus to Sidi Bou where my classes are at the SIT office. This morning I watched three men and boys, were they boys or where they men, sitting in the claws of a bulldozer being lifted from level to level after the man in the cab had dumped his load of red-orange dirt beside the structure. All of the words for construction and building of any kind are in Italian because most immigrants from Italy came as cheap laborers. When I pass below them, all bundled up in a jacket borrowed from my home-stay sister and wool scarf and sunglasses, I get stares from thirty feet up. It’s taken a week to even start to get used to the constant staring and the changes in socially acceptable physical distance (proxemics). On the bus, I feel like eyes are glued to me. Mounir, our academic director and teacher has assured us that this looking and “scrutinizing” is perfectly normal and that Tunisians do it to each other all the time. We are simply a little more interesting.
Yesterday was a lot of firsts. We had some free time in the afternoon so many of us went into Tunis for lunch. We were advised by Mounir to try Leblebi, a Tunisian specialty during the winter. We ignored the fact that it was the warmest, sunniest day since the day we arrived and headed towards the restaurant. The place turned out to be a hole-in-the-wall sort of place, very popular with the locals, and already crowed when the eight of us arrived. We crowded in and got in line where we were first handed a hand-made clay bowl with a fist-sized piece of baguette and pushed towards the another man who put a ladle of chickpeas and sauce, a smaller spoon of harissa-rich sauce, and a pinch of cumin in. Next, another man on the other side of the room put a dash of olive oil and cracked an egg into the bowl and added some other miscellaneous ingredients. Everything was really quick and pretty much cooked in the bowl. We did as the locals and mixed everything into a delicious mush. It really did warm me up to my core and “stuck to my bones.” I felt like I’d be full for days but walking around the city for the next hour assured me I’d eventually be hungry by dinnertime.
Last night was one of the most enjoyable evenings so far. Lots of the families hosting students in La Marsa (my neighborhood) are related or good friends and seem to spend a fair bit of time together. Yesterday was Bradley Toney’s birthday so his family decided to throw him a sort of surprise party and invite five or six of the other students who were living nearby. I was surprised when I got home to hear from my mother that she knew there was a party going on and that she wanted us to go. We ate a quick dinner, picked up my host sister (Lemya), and went over to Colleen’s house where she was putting the finishing touches on a birthday cake for Toney. Back in North Carolina, Colleen works in a cake shop and gets to work on creative masterpieces like hamburger-shaped cakes, etc. Her frosting job was excellent given the tools she had to work with. Colleen’s family speaks excellent French, as does Colleen, so they seem to be getting along nicely. Eventually we all hopped in the car again and went over the Toney’s where there were already many people to greet and kiss (two or four times). We hung around together chatting and catching up while other families and students arrived. Toney was so appreciative of gifts and good wishes he was receiving. After a few minutes, Toney’s family cranked up the radio full blast in the hall with hip hop from the US. They seem to think that we all love pop music from the US and we suspect that they associate Toney, who is African American with hip hop and rap. Anyway, it was pretty hilarious because Toney started dancing to make them happy and his host grandmother got up and started doing the twist. It was probably one of the most hilarious experiences thus far and was well documented in pictures.
The mix of people was really interesting linguistically and ethnically speaking. My host mother looks very Arab while some of the other host families, many of whom are related as I mentioned, are definitely of African ancestry and seem to speak more French (just a preliminary observation). A tiny electronic plastic candle that played happy birthday in obnoxious shrill pitches was placed in the middle of Colleen’s cake and a few more candles were lit while the group sang a haphazard happy birthday in Arabic complete with clapping. I was able to make an audio recording though it’s hard to tell what was really going on because it was so loud. We drank soda in what we’d call wine glasses (they must simply have a different name here) and later, mint tea in tiny delicate glasses. I have never felt so comfortable laughing and joking with friends I have know for a week, and families that I have only met a few days ago. They have all been so welcoming, considerate, and caring. Toney opened his gifts from the families, mostly various decorative things to put on stands or hang, and thanked them profusely. So far, I’ve found that more things don’t warrant a “thank you” Yaishek in Tunisia. One of my friends got laughed at for thanking her mother for a banana. Most of my thankyou’s that seem to spill from my mouth, especially when other words just aren’t there, are never met with a response of mush mushkla (no problem).
Well, It’s almost time for lunch and my Arabic class (I’ve got three hours this afternoon). Our goal is to learn and start to master the alphabet this week, which seems a daunting task especially since so far we have only gotten through four letters and six vowels. At least we have all of the vowels out of the way.

I will try to write again soon!