Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Exploring the Medina (meaning ‘city’) provided our humble group with the first taste of daily life in Tunisia. Though many of the vendors packed into the tight alley ways seem to be interested in communicating exclusively with tourists who will buy imported goods from their shops, there is a deeper community that exists here. When being escorted by Jamel, the town mayor, shop owners seemed to “take off their masks;” a much different side of life was revealed to us.

Upon seeing that our group was being accompanied by Jamel, we were greeted with contagious smiles and well wishes. As customary here, Jamel did not withhold from giving hugs and kisses to many of the shop keepers that we passed by.

One of my favorite shops, which seemed nearly identical in its inventory to every other shop in the Medina, was a ceramics shop. I was invited into the shop in English by a man who stood at the entrance. My classmates Austin and Lizzie and I were impressed enough to go inside - for me, I was intrigued by the man’s language skills enough that I decided I was interested.

At the core of my investigations here in the bustling shopping area was the goal of finding insight into the people who live and work here. More than coming away with any kind of cheap trinket or souvenir, I was interested in meeting the people who actually owned and operated these shops. I wanted to hear their stories. It follows that I saw the English invitation to go into this ceramics shop as a great opportunity to meet and speak to a shop owner without the language barriers that seemed to exist elsewhere.

At the end of this crowded shop sat a man. He greeted us succinctly: “bonjour, assleyma, hola, hello.” This was the work of a masterful linguist - an effort to efficiently diagnose the language of his customers in order to communicate with them during sales pitches. I felt very satisfied when I proceeded to speak with the man in near perfect Spanish. The man told me that he learned 5 languages in order to run his shop. It was an amazing display of the economic opportunities afforded to multi-linguists. Being impressed with the man, and ultimately being grateful for the opportunity to practice my own Spanish skills, I bought a small, ceramic bowl from the man for 10 dinar.