New Culture, Different Ways
For an American in Tunisia.
By NANNY MURRELL
S THE boat pulled into Tunis, parts of the Middle East and Af- and children. The older men were
we leaned over the rails and re- rica. in Algeria, either fighting or dead.
turned the waves and cheers of As I remember, this interna- We were greeted by all.
the many cotton-skirted or veiled tional conglomeration made the Later, one of the boys below
women, the men and the children first evening somewhat tense, whistled and the women went in-
partly because of the Algerian to another room; only the sound
h situation. Yet, during the two of their voices could be heard. Our
There were very few remaining weeks which we spent in the capi- host's friends entered and after
fourth class passengers as the Iia tal city,.national boundaries were awhile his mother came from the
jority had been French soldiers somewhat lessened, room and gave us kus-kus (a na
veho left the boat in Algeria. tive dish) to eat and tea to drink
Those, like myself, bound forrHE WORK camp in Tunis in-
workcamps in Tunisia were met volved white washing a hospi- LL THROUGH the evening I
and taken to the College Tech- pital in the morning. The after- could hear drum sounds and
nique Nationale where we were to noons and evenings passed with singing from the other room, but
stay for the first two weeks. lectures, discussions and visits none of the women came back to
I had been sent to Tunisia by covering briefly, various phases of talk with us.
the An rican Friends Servic the political, economic and social We were greefed, however, with
Committee which sponsors, among life of Tunisia, a barrage of questions from the
other things, work camps in the Perhaps one of the strancst children. When tle time came to
United States and throughout the things to me as a foreigner was go, the boys left first. The women
world. The camps in Tunisia, how- the position of the women. then came out to say goodbye,
ever, were run by the Service Civile During the first two week per- and we left with our friend.
Internationale (SCI), another or- iod, a journalist from L'Action, a He explained later that the wo- poor
ganization in the workeeaop move- leading paper in Tunis, spoke on men could not be seen by men th y
ment. the role of the woman in the so- other than the family. It is like them
ciety. Although Bourguiba has this in many Tunisian families. Th
SOMEHOW. I am not sure what said that the women are to be works
one expects when going to an- equal with the men, and that theyTN TUNIS, there are many parts eighe
other country where the culture do not have to wear veils, the of the city which are modern
is in many ways unlike his own. legislative change moved more and new, but also sections where y
Yet, Tunis, a city of white build- quickly than the change in spirit. there is great poverty,.s
ings, crowded souks, mosques, For the young, the change was A professor spoke to us of Tn- we w
churches, Arabs and Europeans, less difficult, but it seems that it nisia's economic problems, dren
was a constant source of excite- would be hard for a woman in her Tunisia, an agricultural coun- us as
ment. forties or fifties to remose a veil try, suffers greatly from lack of Bu
The work camp itself was in- she has sorn smee maturity, water. During the whole summer the s
ternational in every sense of the . it did not rain, and it was not lss
word. There were approximately A SECOND incident concernng strange to see in the country men sense
forty people. Almost a third were the women's situation in Tu- watering the fields with a camel dren
Tunisians, and Algerian refugees, nisia occurred later. which pulled a leather water bag a kin
The others were from various parts , An Algerian refugee in the group from a well. The water would spill their
of Europe, the States, and other invited a girl from Norway, my- from the bag into troughs that At
self and some of his other friends ran throughout the field - a slow
to his house. We followed him and inadequate method of irriga- more
Nanny Murrell, who spent through nearly dark streets to his heard
last sumnier in Tunisia, is a home. As the Norwegian and I The professor who spoke to us aga in
senior in the College of Liter- climbed the steps his friends said that industrialization was Lat
ature, Science and the Arts. waited below. needed in Tunisia. He also pointed summ
The house was filled with woment out how the trade still conforms he A
to that of 'a colonial structure. at a
He added that over half of the hadl
population was under nineteen was
!lL r VOUr G -,Syears, and there is a high mor- ment.
tality rate among children. acteri
I e
Raise your ego" AFTER A brief and short verbal see s
aise y introduction to Tunisia, the side.
group was off to other work camps, could
Some went to another town to altar
help build houses. I left to work in this,l
ren I anie' a children's village in El Oudi- wasa
uane, about 75 miles east of Tunis.
There are six or seven of these N
T.V.-F.M. villages which are run by the gov- to
ernment in Tunisia. Here orphans, round
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Market Day in a Tuisian Village
ildren whose parents are too Hebrew round, a Negro play party
to support them liveuuntil song, and Allouette.
ar'e old enoougie to sutpport
selves. 'OR THE first time, I met people
e boys in the village where I I did not know, who welcomed
ed ranged from about five to strangers without expecting any-
en years, thing in return.
They wanted you to come and
FIRST impression was a visit with them, and you ate with
trange, rather shocked one as them what little they had. And
ere greeted by narching chil- the Bedouin lady with long red
in double rows who saluted braids and bandana said to me
they passed. (with my short braids and ban-
t, as I worked there during dana): you . .. me . .. same.
ummer, the marching seemed Here again, one finds the
and less fearful, and in a strangeness of being a foreign
I think it gave these chil- woman in a country where the po-
who had few material things, sition of the woman is very differ-
nd of ideal and feeling for ent from your own.
country. When I visited one of the fami-
El Oudiane one felt more sed lies, the wife served her husband,
the nationalistic spirit, the other guests and me. Then she
the atioalitic piri. Iretired to a corner.
I Bourguiba's praises sung
and agan.PEHAPS ONE of the most re-
er, toward the end of the warding experiences of the
er, when we were taken to summer, was the trip which the
dgerian frontier. we stopped director of the village took to the
children's village. This one Algerian frontier. It made pos-
been a French town which sible spending the night in an-
now owned by the govern- other children's village.
On a little hill stood a char- We visited the small town Sakiet
istic French chapel, which had been bombed by the
ntered and was surprised to French in the spring. Thirty-three
mall rows of beds on either airplanes had come on market
And at the far end there day. To imagine this, one must see
be seen the place where an market day, usually Sunday in Tu-
had been located. And above nisia.
like in all places in Tunisia, In the towns, people come from
i picture of Bourguiba. all over the countryside, by don-
key, by camel and on foot to sell
L OUDIANE, it was not hard their produce and animals. There-
meet the people from sur- fore, the towns are more crowded
ling areas. than usual, for market day is a
e first day, as I wandered by special day.
If, I met a Bedouin lady who At the end of the town was a
ed in the laundry at the vil- muddy stream. Someone told me
She got a small child to that across it, was Algeria. A
late, and with his broken faint red glow could be seen in
h and mine, I understood the Algerian hills. The man who
'I was to have coffee with we were with said that over there
were Algerians trying to escape.
sn another child beckoned to They had been trapped by French
nd the afternoon passed vis- soldiers who set fires around them.
various families. One soon If they ran out, they were shot.
es that "No" is not an an- It happens every evening, he
to Tunisian hospitality, and said.
though one's stomach is filled
various new kinds of food, WE LEFT Sakiet and drove to
oes on eating. the refugee camp nearby-
hough I had only been at El hoping to be able to talk to a few
ane one day, everyone some- people.
knew that I was the American The flag of the Croissante Rouge
ith the guitar, and at their flew high over many camp-like
st I played and sang Ameri- tents. Families lived in these all
elk songs for them. year round, and winters in the
er I was able to teach some west are quite cold.
e songs to the children. A (OoneUded on Next Page)
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