What's going on

Times have been busy here in Tunisia. Two weeks ago, AMIDEAST Tunisia hosted the board of directors of AMIDEAST in Tunis at Tunisia Palace. I got a chance to have lunch with them at La Salle a Manger and was very impressed - they're a really interesting group of people. In addition, most of AMIDEAST DC senior staff was out, attending the board of directors meeting and getting ready for the meeting of all the Country Directors of AMIDEAST in Yasmine Hammamet at the Sofitel.

I spent the weekend at the Sofitel - I gave a presentation on AIESEC (acronyms galore!) with Lee and we got a very positive response, most importantly from AMIDEAST's president. The country directors were a very cool crowd. There were of course the women who had married Arab men, as well as some other people who had a background in the region. Surprisingly, there was a huge Minnesota contingent there (I also hail from the land of 10,000 lakes)! The country directors of Morocco (who had taught at AMIDEAST Tunisia back in the day), Jordan, and the assistant director of Egypt are all from Minnesota.

The Sofitel was an exceptional hotel - the best consistent hotel buffet food I've ever had here and very nice rooms - and we had very nice dinners, including a night with couscous and belly dancing at the Barberousse in the old Hammamet medina. It was a great experience as well, being able to spend time with all of those fascinating people. The CD of Lebanon and I spent five hours haggling for carpets on Saturday and came away with some very cool stuff.

This past Sunday, I had dinner with Lee and the director of West Bank/Gaza. He did the Peace Corps in Tunisia in the mid-90s and this was his first time back to the country in 14 years. We ate at Le Carre Blanc in La Marsa and had exceptional seafood and steak. Steve is a very cool guy - it was great to hear his insights on how Tunisia has changed over the years. Where he worked, not a lot has - he was able to go to old neighborhoods and find the same families in the same houses.

Also, I saw an unbearably bad Tunisian movie this weekend - L'accident. Do not, I repeat, do not see this movie. Especially since the guy at the ticket counter lied about it having French subtitles.

Lately, my top priorities have been working on getting all the summer intern information squared away (we have 6 incoming) and hunting for jobs so that I can spend another year here. I figure another year out here will do me good - plus one of my biggest professional assets right now is my knowledge of Tunisia and how it operates.