AFRICA! Our Fourth Continent of the Adventure.

As much as we have loved having our own apartment in Naples, Tommy’s grandmother (Laurie McQuarrie) has come to visit us, and we are taking her around the Mediterranean. So one morning, we said goodbye to our little apartment and took the subway to the port where we picked up Laurie at her hotel. We had a bit of time before we need to get on our ship, so it gave Tommy and me a chance to finally see the exhibits at the Galleria d’Italian that we had been wanting to see for a long time. Specifically, for one of the Honors courses I teach, I wanted to see the Jago “David.” This is a statue modeled after Michaelangelo’s “David” but reimagined as if David were female. It is currently being carved in a block of marble the same size as the actual David, but at this point there is a smaller model on display. It is a piece of art that is getting a lot of traction for its recognition of the uphill battle faced by many women. As a bonus, this same museum is showing a rare Andy Warhol exhibit that includes some pieces that have only been in the public three times. We were so excited to be able to get to the museum because it had been closed when we tried to get to it earlier in the week.

After our museum trip, we collected our luggage and headed to our ship to get settled in for our voyage. In an unusual move for us, we have decided to use a Mediterranean cruise ship as something of a giant water taxi/hotel to get around to the places we want to see. We are starting off by heading to Sicily for a short amount of sight-seeing. We were actually supposed to be working at the U.S. Military Base in Sicily, but this is another one of those cases where schedule confusion and related issues has forced us to postpone. Sicily is very scenic (we loved seeing the ripe oranges and lemons on the trees) and we look forward to working here. But for now, it is just a stop on the way to our real first destination…. AFRICA!!

We were so excited to arrive in Tunis and finally step foot on a new continent. For those of you counting, we left North America and headed to Europe for our first set of work assignments. After Europe we traveled east to Asia to work in Ankara. We then headed back to Europe before heading to Africa. It is hard to believe that Tommy is experiencing four continents in one trip! And, while our time with Laurie in Africa is short and limited to Tunisia, in about a month Sarah, Tommy, and I head back to Africa to see Morrocco! A country I have wanted to visit since my favorite movie, Almost Famous, came out.

As history buffs and really interested in connections to Greece, we spent a good deal of our time in Tunisia visiting Carthage and learning more about the Phoenicians. I personally was really taken by how little has changed in terms of how politicians use falsehoods and half-truths to justify their immoral actions. As an example, we visited the burial site of a number of children who sadly died of natural causes but had their deaths reported as murder by the Romans. The Romans had been looking for a reason to justify destroying the people of Carthage and realized that by saying the people of Carthage were child killers they could get the support they needed for wipe them out. We could not help but think of “they are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats…”

The ruins of Carthage and the historical Phoenician sites were very educational, and I think Tommy was really taken with them. But we also took some time just to see the beauty of Northern Africa. We visited stunning Sidi Bou Said were the buildings are located up on a small mountain overlooking the sea and are required to be white with blue windows and trim. And just like in Turkey, as a predominantly Muslim country there were a lot of community-cared-for cats! I should probably note that despite the clear Muslim influence, everyone was very quick to tell us that Tunisia has true separation of church and state (pretty sure a dig a Trump and Christian Nationalism). I noticed this too in Turkey where we were reminded repeatedly about Ataturk’s belief in separation of government and religion and importance of giving rights to women. Again, they drew a parallel to American politics because the current Turkish leadership has been rolling back rights, consolidating power, and pushing Muslim dominance (as we reported when Hagia Sophia was made a mosque despite world-wide protests of its universal importance). In very open ways they warned us the path taken by the Turkish president is one Trump is following.

Nevertheless, Tunisia, like Turkey, has been a really important place to visit in terms of broadening our horizons and opening our minds to things and people different than us. We hope that Morocco will be similar, but one of the Africans we have met on our journey warned us that we need to get outside of North Africa and see Central Africa. And we will!