Beyond Borders

We wandered through the colorful Tunis medina, one of Tunisia’s largest marketplaces where vendors will bargain for your dinar, and trade you their camels. Nearly every salesman showered us with compliments as we bypassed their overstocked shops, recognizing us as a large group of Americans. There was no hiding the giddy tourists in us. This was Africa, after all, a world so distant, in culture and space, than our own. My eyes caught the baskets of spices, beautifully woven headscarves, little green henna mountains, and the long flowing multicolored kaftans. I could almost feel the dinar coins give a heavy sigh in my purse.

Along with riding camels on the golden sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, we were promised to meet Tunisian law students. They joined us now as we sat down in an ancient, white and jade mosque that had been converted into a restaurant. Two boys of tall stature and dark hair sat down across from my friend Sarah and me. They introduced themselves as Oussema and Iyadh. At first, there was awkwardness between us as we enjoyed a classic Tunisian egg-based appetizer they told us was called Tagine. But then we talked about our favorite TV shows. We had more in common than we had originally thought.

That night we decided to all hang out again in the city. We saw the graffiti left over from the revolution plastering the walls with colorful expressions of freedom, and the skyscrapers lining the Mediterranean Sea from a rooftop bar. From above it looked like any regular city, but the walls and people knew better. They were there for the riots, the cries for autonomy, and the massive swell of collaboration from those wanting to grow up in a better world.

When we left Tunis, the landscape changed into a desert wasteland. I had to look away when we all saw from the bus, a sheep hanging from a pole, its neck twisted, and wool, bloodstained. Compared to the city, the other towns in Tunisia were dirt poor, a sad sight to see for anyone from America where the amount of fast food triples what actual nutritious food they have here.

Tunisia had gained their independence a year ago when the youth finally revolted against the government, finding their voice through social media. They had accomplished so much by creating a successful revolution, while most teenage Americans publish what they eat for lunch. The boys asked if they could add us on Facebook. We had nodded enthusiastically, bonding us through an online culture we all shared.