Karim – Page 2 – Not Your Average Engineer

November 19, 2004November 15, 2021

Gabes

Gabes and the Chenini oasis are the old stomping grounds of my professor, Karim. He grew up in the oasis. Most of his family still lives in the area and he and his brother have a business based out of Gabes. We stayed the night in Gabes, visited his family’s patch of oasis, saw the cave house that Karim was born in, had a great lunchtime feast courtesy of Karim and his brother’s business, had Jeff shot, and got a nice cake courtesy of the hotel and the secret police who just wanted the night off. Mike ended up making them take him downtown to a store that sold beer and wine to bring back beverages for part of the group. The secret police (who by this point were anything but a secret to us) were happy to oblige a simple beer-run request rather than having us do a pub crawl of Gabes. In very much non-tourist zones such as Gabes, such things are frowned upon.

Jeff getting ready to take it like a man. He was still doing pretty poorly from whatever illness he picked up. The doctor gave him a big penicillin shot in the posterior region. Jeff said it reminded him of his navy days.

Karim’s family’s plot of oasis.

The whole lamb that was roasted in our honor. There were many local and regional dignitaries in attendance including our secret police escort. The food was quite fine, although a bit grotesque for some.

Our bus driver, Mongi, takes a leg of lamb. Giovanna doesn’t look particularly pleased with this turn of events.

Jeff was still feeling pretty lousy. If only we had some palm fronds and grapes, he could have been miserable in style!

The cave dwelling where it all began for Karim. Karim lived with his family in this cave for the first few years of his life before they moved into an above-ground house in Chenini Nouvelle. Aside from all of the dust and creepy-crawlies, I think I would prefer to live in a cave in this climate! Warm in the winter and cool in the summer. You can’t go wrong!

Pomegranates are very tasty. They’re a favorite of mine after having been in Tunisia. Nothing quenches your thirst or hunger quite like a pomegranate.

We visited an NGO in the oasis. This NGO makes compost and fertilizer for farmers out of farm waste. While we were at the facility, my mother called from America to discuss our eventually aborted plans to go on vacation to Libya. Maybe some other time!

This is another NGO facility. Here, they are preserving heritage plants from the oasis so there is a core stock available to the oasis farmers. GMO food is the reason this place exists. They don’t want GMO crops in the oasis. We visited right at sunset.

As we went back out to the bus, a herd of sheep came along. Karim went over and said hi to the Sheppard. It turns out that the kid herding the sheep is a nephew or cousin or somehow related to Karim. It seems that no matter where I’ve been in Tunisia, there’s a relative or friend of Karim’s there!

The sheep were very cute. Anne decided that she wanted a picture with them.

We took tea in the oasis that night next to the Roman aqueduct arch that the bus ladder hit a few days before.

Next we visited the local university and dropped in on a few business classes.

Finally, we pulled back into the hotel in Gabes. It had been a long day.

The hotel and our secret police friends gave us a cake welcoming us to Gabes. It was very tasty!

The next morning we went across the street from the hotel to visit Karim and his brother’s business offices. Karim’s office received a thorough examination from our group including the darling photo of him and his grade school class.

The taxi lineup at the taxi stand across the street from the main souk in Gabes. I read in the paper a few months after our visit that it caught fire and burned down sometime at the beginning of January 2005. I don’t know what would have burned other than the merchandise as the whole place was solid concrete and red brick blocks!

The unfinished minaret of the big mosque next to the souk which is reminiscent of a spaceport. No aliens were detected, aside from us, during our stay in Gabes.

Mongi, our driver and one of his buddies or perhaps one of our secret police escorts.

Someone finally realized that I was sitting on top of the bus taking pictures of the town and passersby.

October 25, 2004November 15, 2021

Dinner at Hammam Lif

We started the evening by sitting at a Cafe in Hammam Lif. We waited across the street from the old, shuttered casino. During earlier times, the gambling was high-class and high-rolling. Now days, the gambling and entertainment district of Hammam Lif lies dormant, supporting a few cafes and other small business. Perhaps one day the glitz and glamor of the past shall return.

On the roof of the Halila house taking in the view of Hammam Lif.

Mike and our hostess.

September 21, 2004November 15, 2021

Dougga

As the name of the ruin, Dougga, suggests, this city was founded long before Rome’s takeover of Tunisia. The city was situated high up on a hillside above the valleys, yet another indication of non-Roman origin. From my readings, it appears Romans liked having their cities on flatter ground to allow for the standard Roman town plan. The Romans adapted to the inclined townsite quite well. As early as the fourth century BCE, people were describing Dougga as being “of impressive size.” During the second century BC, it had become the seat of the Numidian king Massinissa, whose support of Rome during the Third Punic War gained the town much importance. From the second century CE, under Roman administration, it enjoyed a period of great prosperity. At the town’s peak, ten thousand people called Dougga home. As an indication of Dougga’s importance, aerial photography has revealed no less than ten additional town sites within a ring of just six square kilometers of Dougga.

Later on, the Byzantines built huge fortifications, still very evident, around the town. After their departure, the town fell into ruin but the local inhabitants continued to live among the fallen arcades and decaying buildings until the end of the nineteenth century when excavating archeologists forced them down the hill into the purpose-built down of Nouvelle Dougga. Since excavation stopped, a few people have moved back into the ruins. They are mostly vultures who wait to pick off tourists for an expensive trip around the ruins. We did encounter one woman though who lived just outside the main ruins who had lived there for maybe 70 years. She told Karim how she wasn’t married and didn’t want to be even at 76 years because guys were stinky and whatnot. She talked his ear off with many comical stories. Karim gave her the gift of a couple of Gabes pomegranates. she seemed quite pleased.

The theater is a very impressive and well preserved complex as can be seen from my pictures. We never found the perfect resonance point. Instead, it appears the place was designed so the sound would be about equal all the way across the stage. It certainly wasn’t a place to give a play in a whisper, but with only a slightly elevated voice, the entire theater could easily hear the production. At one point, the entire structure was covered by a wooden and, most likely, cloth roof, as is made evident through large anchor points in the floor of the theater. it appears that it would have been quite the impressive structure at its height. even now, it’d be a great place for a concert or a play.

The gymnasium complex. There were hot, cold, steam, massage, and other such rooms, along with the typical roman physical fitness equipment. To get into the gymnasium, we had to walk through some tunnels running under the ruins of some houses.

One of the guards of Dougga. We gave him a couple of dinar so we could take his picture. He seemed very shocked with the idea that someone would give him money. Karim told him who we were and what we were doing. The kid seemed very happy.

A Libico-Punic mausoleum.

Kellen in front of some cacti. The fruit is very tasty, however, very sharp. Lucas still had a thorn in his hand a month after getting stabbed by a sticker. It took him another month before he cut it out of his palm.