MEsummer2008

Back Home Again!

2008-06-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

"A real journey is not about seeing new places,  but in seeing with new eyes."
 Marcel Proust

Yes and no to Proust's sentiment: I learn in the process of seeing and experiencing new places; and that learning allows me to continually see with new eyes. I'm back home in familiar haunts and languages. I won't say much else, except that my main plan for July is to write, spend time with Nadia and help plan Terri's wedding. If I go anywhere else, I'll add to this blog. Else, this is it. Thank you for coming along with me on this summer adventure and for all of your enthusiasm. I leave you with pictures I've taken recently while on jaunts here in California.

One of my favorite bookstores, in Santana Row.

The majestic Pacific Ocean from up on the hill in Point Reyes.

The Lone Cypress in 17 Mile Drive, Monterey.

Gellyfish at the Monterey Bay Acquarium.

Tomales Bay.

Sky and sand at the beach near Tomales Bay.

El Capitan in Yosemite; after experiencing it, you can't ever see your kitchen granite counters in the same way again.

The Vatican and Pantheon

2008-06-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

Tuesday night 10 June

My noteworthy accomplishment for today: I climbed up and down the 571 one-person width steps of the Cupola in the Saint Peter Basilica in the Vatican. Who needs a stairmaster? Below is the inside of the Cupola.
From up above you can see unparalleled views of Rome! The Vatican piazza can hold more than 60,000 people.
The Vatican from Via Crescenzio. So many veiled women!
Vatican guards wear funky garb... It's a feast for the eyes and soul (and maybe sensory overkill too); every wall and ceiling is covered in beauty. The picture below is of a small tile I saw in one hallway.
At the Vatican Museum there is one room filled with colorful maps illustrated with appropriate produce and activities:
And here's disturbing art: intricately made tapestries depicting the massacre of babies. Well, let me explain: "the massacre of the innocents" is recorded in the Bible (Matthew 2:16-18) and described as infanticide by Herod the Great. According to Matthew, the only one to record this incident, after the Magi announced that a new "King of the Jews" would be born, King Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in Bethlehem in order to prevent anyone from dethroning him. The numerous tapestries, murals and pictures at the Vatican depicting this supposed event are beyond disturbing.

And of course, I saw the Pieta. Below, the stairs inside the Vatican Museum.
I saw the awesome Sistine Chapel; you can't take pictures, but I bought a postcard and took a picture of the detail showing Adam and god (not that you haven't seen this before!).
It's a constant: in every city the darkest color skin people do the menial jobs; here, right outside the Vatican Museum, men from sub-Saharan countries try to make a living by selling bags, sunglasses, trinkets, cold water... whatever tourists will buy.

*************************

The Pantheon is impressive too. It's a huge structure built in 27 BCE and rebuilt in 126 AD. It was built as a house of workship and Christians took it over and turned into a basilica. It's still a church. Below is the altar. What's amazing about it is the size of the dome! And it's open, so that when it rains water enters the building but is quickly detoured through 22 tiny and unobtrusive holes located in strategic places on the floor. But size alone can put any thoughtful human being into her rightful place in the universe.
There's some art on the walls. Below is a mural depiction of the annunciation/"Annunciazione" by Melozzo da Forli, completed at the beginning of the 16th century. And below is Juliet's funeral/"I funerali di Giulietta" done in 1888 by Scipione Vannnutelli.

Too much else to tell/show you, but it'll have to wait until I get home and have a little time.

Keats and more

2008-06-11T12:47:00.001-07:00

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness...

from John Keats' poem "Endymion"

When I was in grammar school I fell in love with the poetry of John Keats, one of the most famous English Romantics. And then one summer while in college when I was very sad, I buried myself in his work. I started doctoral studies intending to become a scholar of the Romantics, but to tell the truth there were too many such scholars, and the urgency of cultural and literacy studies seemed more purposeful to me. Nonetheless, I remained in love. Today I saw the house where Keats died of tuberculosis at age 25 in the year 1821! The Keats-Shelley House is to the right of the Spanish Steps; it has been privately owned since 1907 and contains a large library on the Romantics and memorabilia mostly belonging to Keats. Here is the side of the house and his two bedroom windows.
When he looked out these windows, he would have seen the Spanish Steps. Here's a picture I took today, and below it is a picture from a postcard. Keats was too sick to get out of bed. Occasionally, Severn helped him walk to the adjoining room, where Severn slept. But if Keats could have walked around, and if he could have climbed the Spanish Steps to the entrance of the basilica, this, below, is something like what he would have seen. At the time of Keats' death, the Vatican law required that when a person died of tuberculosis all of his belongings had to be burned, so, only the rented piano that Keats used was spared. This bed is probably like the one he used to have, the one he died on. This particular bed dates from around 1820 and is made of Italian walnut. It's called a barca a letto (a boat bed); the upholstery is typical of the period. From early on Keats knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life; he wanted to be a poet. In 1816 he wrote in "Sleep and Poetry":

"O for ten years, that I may overwhelm
Myself in poesy; so I may do the deed
That my own soul has to itself decreed."

This oil on canvas portrait of John Keats, below, is a copy of one painted in 1822 by his friend, Joseph Severn. Severn wrote: "After the death of Keats the impression was so painful on my mind that I made an effort to call up the most pleasant remembrance in this picture." In some other place Severn also wrote: "This was the time he [Keats] first fell ill & had written the Ode to the Nightingale (1819). On the morning of my visit to Hampstead I found him sitting with the two chairs as I have painted him & was struck with the first real symptoms of sadness in Keats so finely expressed in that Poem." After Keats' death, Severn painted a number of idealized portraits.
This oil on canvas portrait of Keats, below, was made by Richard Westfall in 1813. Keats wrote about it: "I happen to know this portrait was not a flatterer, but dark and stern... even as black as the mood in which my mind was scorching last July when I sat for it. All the others of me--like most portraits whatsoever--are, of course, more agreeable than nature." This third portrait, painted around 1819, is by Joseph Severn.
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

from "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (and check out the urn he drew).
This is John Keats' handwriting, below! It's an excerpt of his poem "Lamia" composed in 1819. He took the subject from a story he found in one of his favorite books, Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. In the story Hermes gives human form to a serpent, who as a beautiful woman then ensnares the young philosopher, Lycius. After Keats' death, the manuscript of this poem was cut into strips (like you see in this picture) and given to his friends.
This too, below, is his handwriting; it's a letter to his sister, Fanny. He wrote it a week before leaving England. He wrote: "At any rate it will be a relief to quit this cold, wet, uncertain climate."
Keats had two younger brothers and a sister, but she's rarely mentioned. Since she was much younger, they didn't spend too much time together, but while he was sick and dying in Rome, she wrote to him every single day. This oil on canvas portrait of Fanny Llanos (Keats) by Juan Llanos (yes, a Spaniard, her husband), depicts her in old age. After John died, in 1826 when Fanny was twenty-three, she married Valentin Maria Llanos, who had met John in Rome just three days before his death. Fanny and Valentin settled in Spain in 1833. In the spring of 1861 Fanny visited Rome and saw the house on Piazza di Spagna where, forty years earlier, her brother died. She met Joseph Severn who wrote: "For a long time we remained without being able to speak... 'twas like a brother and sister who had parted in early life meeting after forty years. How singular that we should meet in the very place where Keats died."

Fanny went to Keats' grave and planted two bay trees. Keats' youngest brother, Tom, died of tuberculosis at age 19; Keats nursed him through his last days, and that's not long after both their parents died. His other brother emigrated to the United States where he too died, at age 42, of tuberculosis. I guess that sort of relentless tragedy is partly what appealed to me about Keats--and the fact that he kept on going! No matter the loss, he kept on writing and living. He was lucky too; until visiting this house in Rome I didn't know the details of how his friend, Joseph Severn, took care of him while he died, and then took care of his business afterward. That's a good friend.

Keats' death mask, made by Severn. I didn't get to see his grave in the Protestant cemetery, but here's a picture that's on display in the House. He wanted the grave marker to say only "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water," but unfortunately his wishes were not respected and other text was added. Severn is buried to the right of Keats' grave.
**********************************************************************************
President George W. Bush in Roma for 2 days!
Wednesday and Thursday

And because of him, I had to walk an extra hour to get to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (pictured below). He and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi were meeting at the Villa Madama, right near the museum. Thousands of police officers were out en masse; streets were closed; buses and tram routes deviated; commercial flights banned over the city; protestors watched carefully. People out on the streets were very angry, because they think Berlusconi colluded with Bush and sent troops to Iraq against their wishes. Although almost all those troops are back in Italy, there are about 2,000 still in Afghanistan. They're also pissed because both leaders are now discussing how to force Iran to abandon what they think is an effort to make nuclear weapons. (Italy is one of Iran's top foreign investors.) There were anti-war activists and demonstrators marching in opposition to President Bush's visit and PM Berlusconi's warm welcome. Needless to say, the chaos was not fun for me. But I finally made it to the museum, and lucky for me it was open extra late because it was the first night of an exhibit by Mario Schifano, a multi-media artist. I should go to sleep. More later.

Colosseum, scenes from the city

2008-06-10T14:45:00.001-07:00

Water is the blood in the body that is Rome. The impressive Colosseum from inside. It is indeed an unrivalled architectural wonder from the outside too. It's true that Italians have a knack for decorating and presenting the most mundane in exquisite ways. Surely, everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen people in dire need, but there are certain images that are emblazoned in my memory. From Rome, I’ll always carry two. At the top of the Spanish Steps, the entrance to the guilded Trinity Basilica: a woman supplicant, layers of grungy smelly clothes patched on to her frail body, legs folded under her, torso bent as in yoga’s child’s pose, forehead touching the cement step, but elbows bent upward wrapped tightly concealing her face, creviced hands, long blackened-nailed fingers clasped erectly over her head in prayer; in front, a small soiled basket with one Euro. How could she sit there for so long in that one unmoving position? Was she embarrassed? Was she hiding her face to maintain her integrity? Was she hurting? What had she done when she was young? Where did she sleep? Did she have anyone to love her? From inside the warmth of the Leonardo Express headed toward the airport, just as emerging daylight began to reveal gentle rain: an apparently unused and in much need of repair station; rows and rows of covered bodies lying neatly perpendicular on strips of cardboard against the wall, as if the collateral of war waiting to be shipped home; some, all dark-skin men, groggily stooping, or seating on their tiny piece of filthy cement, smoking for breakfast, exchanging clothes, washing faces out of bottled water—for the entire length of the station. Immigrants? Lonely? Hungry? Peddling all day and late into the night, perhaps some cheap trinkets, to hoards of tourists? Loved ones in distant Chinese, African and Latin American hut homes? Sons and daughters waiting for the monthly hard-earned dribble of money that will keep them alive? Even after accumulating quite a retinue of such memorable scenes, I’m usually uncomfortable, unsure of how to feel. I am, however, certain of one thing: the relative wealth I am fortunate to have is not an entitlement; it is, absolutely, a responsibility and a command to notice, remember and do something about inequity in the world. The back of the huge Villa Borghese where inside the varied collection of art is almost as stunning as the Sistine Chapel. Below, one of the pieces in their vast collection: "Madonna con Bambino" by Pompeo Batoni, ca. 1742.

I arrived in Roma, Italia

2008-06-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening 8 June

I admit that I take too many pictures of clouds, especially when I'm in planes. But they're so pretty and fluffy. These I captured as I neared Rome.
First sight of Italy, approaching Leonardo da Vinci airport in Roma.
From the airport I took the train into Termini, the transportation focal point in Rome. It's where all the buses, trams and trains begin and end. It's a half hour ride into Termini. I noticed that the ground is covered in red poppies. Later, while walking the city, I took this picture.
My hotel is located right near Termini. Right near my hotel there is a big showy fountain at Piazza della Repubblica, and right next to it is Santa Maria degil Angeli. I walked to this basilica and was stunned to hear Central American Spanish being spoken on my first foray. Apparently, the right side of the outside of the church is a gathering place for these immigrants. They meet to catch up on news, to exchange information. Most were men smoking and talking, and the few women were digging through bags of clothes, which I imagine they were exchanging.
When I arrive in a city for the first time I like to walk it. That's how I become intimate with it, how I enjoy its surprises and nooks and crannies. Walking Rome can be demanding, because so much of it is noisy and dirty, but at bends the unexpected is usually very pleasing. For example, there are many old decorated bridges crossing Fiume Tevere.
And there are fountains in just about every piazza; Fontana di Trevi is the fanciest of them all. When I stopped by it the day was already ending and people were settling in around the area's many outdoor cafes. It's a huge fountain, ornate, in the Baroque style. It was completed in 1762 and inaugurated by Pope Xlement XIII. The surrounding square is small, and it makes the fountain seem especially dramatic, particularly the large statue of Neptune in the center.
I really like the gorgeous fountain that sits at the bottom of the Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps. It's a Barcassia done by Piero Bernini as ordered by Pope Urban VII in 1629, and accordingly it's adorned with the papal coat of arms. It's supposed to be a reproduction of a royal boat which ran aground.
Via Vittorio Veneto is very very pretty: there are lots of trees, thus though traffic is heavy, the noise is muffled. The sidewalks are wide and lined with beautifully draped (and some glass-enclosed) restaurants furnished in elegant upholstered chairs and lavished with flowers. There are also many upscale hotels on this street.
It's amazing to me that as you walk Rome at any turn you'll find structures that are hundreds of years old. This wall is near Villa Borghese at the beginning on lovely Via Vittorio Veneto.
This is interesting: there are gas stations--one or two pumps--on the edge of sidewalks, so cars just side in and fill up.
Buses vary in size and color, but the most common ones are red and long.
There are also trams (which look almost exactly like those in Tunis). Lots of taxis, cars, bicycles, horse-drawn carriages and of course a gazillion pedestrians and motor bikes.
And the subway... deep in the bowels of Roma... a bit shabbier than the one in New York, but fast and functional. Sometimes, almost all these modes of transportation collide.

Sousse

2008-06-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Mary, her boyfriend, Mahmoud, and I rented a car and drove to Sousse, just beyond Nabeul. It's a beautiful city with wide open streets (less dirty than Tunis) and loads of construction going on, see below. Sousse is Tunisia's third largest city (after Tunis and Sfax). The majority of people live in la ville nouvelle, a grid-city built by the French--and its grand Art Deco buildings definitely reflect French culture. On the way there, through the two hour drive, I got to see the "country side," meaning lots of olive groves and vineyards. (Tunisia produces huge amounts of wine, little of it is exported.)

Olive trees on the way to Sousse.
Very often you can see manicured buildings in the middle of nowhere; they're the offices for the national police. According to Mahmoud, any Tunisian on the street will tell you that a government priority is to keep the country safe... by having lots and lots of police and military personnel.
I like Sousse more than Tunis. It's right on the sea and it has a long pretty Corniche. As you can see in these scenes, it's a city in the making.
Mahmoud told me that the reason it's cleaner and better organized is that the city gets more money because President Ben Ali is from Sousse. Today was a day for meeting friends. In Sousse we met Nafissa at her house. She served us coffee and lots of hospitality. (This picture's for you M. V.)
And then we met Deborah and her two nephews-in-law; all of us went to the beach and then to late dinner at Sol Kantaoui, Tunisia's "riviera." It's a resort complex along a marina packed with ultra modern yachts. The harbor is dotted with cafes, restaurants and shops, and of course is full of tourists. We arrived just as the huge fountain lit up and started to move along with blaring classical music. Right near, there was a camel, and many were just leaving the golf course or returning from paragliding.

Mary and Mahmoud.

Nabeul

2008-06-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

Friday 9:30 PM
Today I walked a while to take two trains and then a two-hour bus ride to get to a town called Nabeul, the ceramic center of Tunisia--ceramics very much influenced by Andalusian immigrants! Every Friday there is a huge buzzing market. I strolled the very long souq at Rues Farhat Hached and el-Arbi Zarrouk: it was filled with throngs and throngs of people from everywhere. Look at this picture of such a colorful display of dishes!
More text tomorrow... now I'm about to curl in with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr's 1938 film Algiers.
*********************************
Wow, that movie's filled with stereotypes! I'm sure I must have watched it before, probably when I was a kid, but I just don't remember it. Hedy Lamarr's character is a bit of a vamp, and Charles Boyer's rather empty-headed. And the kasbah is represented as a dark evil place. The Algerians, needless to say, are represented as one-dimensional buffoons who lurk and deceive and there are strange versions of Andalusian gypsy women who get mistreated and react like kicked dogs who lick their masters. Disturbing.
Anyway, here are some pictures...
The bus station on Habib Thameur. I took the "confort" bus, slightly more expensive (about $4.00 from Tunis), but airconditioned, clean and uncrowded.
This bowl of oranges sculpture sits right in the middle of the street.
Right next to the bowl of oranges, in the middle of the street, there is also a pretty little house (I don't know what it's for).
One of the many mosques in this city of 57,000 people; Tunisia is developing into a country of cyclists:

Jews in Tunisia, "to read" List

2008-06-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

One of the things that interests me about the Middle East is its relationship with Jews. Since visiting Morocco so very long ago, then Egypt and Turkey just recently, and now Kuwait and Tunisia, I've been particularly fascinated by the expulsion of Jews from these lands (which is so similar to their expulsion from Spain in 1492; in the educational portal I discuss below, I learned that many of the Jews expelled from Spain were well received in Tunisia); so, I've been reading mostly memoirs like André Aciman's Out of Egypt: A Memoir, keeping my eyes open as I discover Tunis, and just culling information. I'm especially interested in the ways Jewish women are depicted in "home grown" films, postcards and other visuals. I want to share some of the things I'm learning, and some of the visuals I've been gathering.

Jewish women in the Tunis cemetery. Watercolored postcard published by Garrigues.
Tunisian Jewish women, postcard c. 1910. Beth Hatefutsoth-Visual Documentation Center, Courtesy of Abraham Attal, Israel. Girls' Festival/Esther & Judith
In Tunisia, Jews celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah (which coincides with the first night of Tevet) as the Girls' Festival; in French it's called La Fete des Filles. Because of the holiday's timing, it is also called the Daughters' Rosh Hodesh or, in French, Roch Hodeceh el Bnat. The Girls' Festival is held in memory of the Jewish heroines Esther and Judith who during the month of Tevet acted in ways that impacted their entire Jewish communities. As inscribed in the Scroll of Esther (and as celebrated on Purim), around 470 BCE Esther saved the Jews of Persia from death, by (although hiding her true identity as a Jew) being bold enough to approach the king and ask him to foil the plot to destroy all Jews there. And, as inscribed in the Apocrypha, around 600 BCE Judith saved Jerusalem from capture by the Babylonians by walking into the enemy camp, tricking the Babylonian general, Holofernes, and cutting off his head with a sword.

Jewish woman in Tunis. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. On the night of the Girls' Festival, Tunisian girls receive gifts of special pastries. For example, they receive "Yoyos," which are donuts, and "makrouds," which are semolina pastries filled with dates and fried and dipped in a light orange flavored syrup. They also get "debla" that are made of fluffy dough that's fried and dipped in light orange flavored syrup; debla look like delicate ribbons. And of course, girls get "baklava," which are baked layers of nuts, dates and cinnamon in between thin sheets of filo dough moistened with honey syrup.

Jews walking. Published by Römmler and Jonas.
Jewish woman at home. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. The pointed bonnet is called a “duka” of “takayda.” The name for women’s generic bonnets is “shkufiyya” or “jufiyya.”
I find the depictions by photographers Lehnert and Landrock really interesting. Lehnert and Landrock lived in Tunis for a while.

Hospital for Jews in Tunis/Hôpital d'Israëlites. Published by E.L.D.
There's a documentary film about the mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries and Iran called "The Forgotten Refugees" produced and directed (in 2005) by Michael Grynszpan. I think the film is owned by the David Project, a non-profit organization. The film explores mainly the history of Jews in Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Iraq, but the organization has a useful educational portal that provides a lot of information about Jews in Tunisia.

Jewish women walking. Published by Lehnert and Landrock.
And, a color version. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. According to the educational portal, Jews arrived in Tunisia following the destruction of Jesuralen's First Temple in 586 BCE. The historian Herodotus, wrote that Jews arrived in Tunisia on Phoenician ships. The writings of Saint Augustine refer to Jews in Utica and Toseur. Jews lived all over Tunisia, but were concentrated in certain areas. An intellectual community lived in Carthage, where there was also a Jewish cemetery.

Jewish woman wearing a red dress. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. In 1945 there were about 105,000 Jews in Tunisia. Subsequently, most emigrated to Israel, many to France. Djerba Island, the "Jerusalem of North Africa," is the most active Jewish community in the Arab world. In the portal it says,

"Although in its heyday in the early 1950s the island boasted thousands of Jewish residents and nearly 50 synagogues, today 11 synagogues and 900 Jews still remain in the two main Jewish quarters, known as Hara Kebira ["Big Quarter"] and Hara Sghira ["Little Quarter"]. Djerba is home to Tunisia’s only Jewish school for girls and the last yeshiva (Jewish study house) in the Arab world. The community is the subject of a documentary, a book-long study called The Last Arab Jews [by Udovitch and Valensi, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1985], and appears prominently in a new book called Scattered among the Nations."

Two Jewish women facing each other, Tunisia, between ca. 1900 and 1923. Frank and Frances Carpenter Colleciton, US Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs Division. I learned elswhere that in 1961, President Bourguiba's press conference in New York (which to me is clearly prophetic) was received as a verbal attack on Israel; he said:

"Israel constitutes a colonial problem of a new kind; not domination over one people by another, but still worse, the sub- stitution of one people for another. The people who were in the country now find themselves in the situation that the Jews were in during the war when they were ill-treated and persecuted by the Nazis. They are in concentration camps close to their country. . . . This is a problem for which no solution has been found, and it cannot be solved on points of detail. So long as there is no agreement between the Arabs and the Jews and they come from Europe or Central Europe the existence of Israel is precarious. I think that if the international bodies are not in a position to find a just and suitable solution to this problem, then sooner or later, if not today or tomorrow, then the day after, in a year or ten years, there will be armed struggle in Palestine."

Jewish women walking. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. There were several other issues that prompted Jewish flight out of Tunisia after the 1950s: in the early 1960s President Bourguiba strengthened ties with the Arab League. Postal communication between Tunisia and Israel was disrupted. There was a lot of friction caused between Tunisia and France when they argued over the territory of Bizerte in 1961; since there were about 15,000 Jews with French citizenship living in Tunisia, many of those French Jews were accused of supporting France, not Tunisia, in the fight over Bizerte. A section of the hara (the centuries-old Jewish quarter of Tunis) was demolished in the spring of 1961 to make room for much-needed roads in the heart of the city. And, though not directed at Jews specifically, there were new laws enacted which restricted the merchant class; since most Jews were merchants, the community began to feel highly ambivalent about living in Tunisia. Jewish flight began in earnest.

Jewish woman wearing blue dress/pants. Published by Garrigues. In the early 1960s there were 300 synagouges and most Jews lived in Tunis; other Tunisian cities with high Jewish populations include Sfax, Sousse and Djerba. Despite their massive flight out of Tunisia, many Jews on Djerba Island have refused to leave. Apparently, they feel tied to the ancient El Ghriba, the oldest of the synagougues, whose foundation supposedly contains a stone from the Temple of Solomon; also, it houses the world's oldest Sefer Torah (handwritten holy scriptures). The synagogue is located in Hara Seghira (also known as Er-Riadh), southwest of Houmt Souk, the capital of Djerba.

Interior view of the El Ghriba. Djerba, Tunisia, 1981. Photo by Jan Parik. Beth Hatefutsoth - Visual Documentation Center.
El Ghriba was build by cohanim, Jewish immigrants who arrived on Djerba after the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem in 586 BEC--that's 2,000 years ago!

Jewish woman wearing a wedding dress. Published by Lehnert and Landrock. Jews also lived in Kairouan. Early Muslim conquerors founded the city of Kairouan, which became an internationally known center of Jewish learning, but by 1057 when Egypt conquered the area Jews were banished from Kairouan. Jews returned to the city when the French colonized the country in 1881. In mid 20th century, when Tunisia was occupied, the Nazis began building a gas chamber in Kairouan.

Jewish woman reclining. Published by Lehnert and Landrock.
Jewish woman reclining. Published by ND.
Here's one postcard that makes me feel a little uncomfortable (because of the text): A young Jewish woman and her "negro"/Jeune fille juive et son "nègre." Published by Edition de la Librairie et papeterie du Phénix. These two next pictures are of a woman wearing a sifsari. I saw her at the souq in Nabeul. You don't see many women covered in sifsaris; I wanted to take her picture because the sifsari looks so much like the covering Tunisian Jewish women wore at the beginning of the 20th century. Later, I learned that both Muslim and Jews wore the same covering. I trailed this woman but I was too embarrassed to intrude and ask her to allow me to take her picture up close. (I wanted to photograph the front of the sifsari, the folds, the way it's arranged.) Jews in Tunisia were interned in camps beginning July 1942. First the French Vichy government and its dependent protectorate authorities in Tunisia were instigated by the Nazis to intern Jews. Then, when the Germans occupied Tunisia in November 1942, the German authorities became solely responsible for how the Jews were treated. Camps were fenced in and tightly guarded; no one could leave. Hygienic, medical and living conditions were extremely inadequate.

On 14 June 2006 something really interesting happened: members of the Claims Conference Negotiating Committee met with German officials and pressed for expanding the eligibility criteria for the Article 2 Fund, and Tunisians imprisoned by the Nazis in internment camps in Tunisia became (I think) eligible to receive ongoing compensation payments from the Germans. Article 2 Fund payments are 270 Euros (about $350 dollars) per month.

Photo by AFP/Getty Images. Tunisian Jewish women pray at El Ghriba in Djerba 6 May 2007. Tunisia's Jewish community marked that week to remember the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that desecrated the ancient synagogue and killed 21 people--14 of them German tourists. More than 5000 Jewish pilgrims, including 1000 Israelis, attended events on the island of Djerba from 4 to 6 May 2007.

*********************************************

My "to Read-Screen"/Literature-Films by Tunisians
List in Progress...

al-Farsi, Mustafa. al-Munʿaraj/The curve. 1969. (Born 1931.)

al-Madani, Izzidin. (Born 1938. Drama.)

al-Tabayniyy, Natila. Shayʾun fi Nafsika/Something within yourself. 1970. (Born 1949.)

al-Shabbi, Abu al-Qasim. (Poet 1909 - 1934.)

Azzouz, Hind. Fi al-Darb alTawil/On the long road. 1969. (Born 1926; wrote in Arabic.)

Béchir, Zoubeida. (Born 1938; wrote in Arabic.)

Béji, Hélé. L'oeil du jour (The eye of day). 1985. (Born 1948; wrote in Arabic.)

Ben Mami, Laila. Sawmaʿa Tahtariq/The burning hermitage. 1968.

Ben Saleh, Mohammad al-Hadi. Sifr al-Naqla wa al-Tasawwur/The book of transfer and imagination. 1988. (Born 1945.)

Ben Shaikh, Abdel Qader. Wa Nasibi min al-Ufuq/My share of the horizon. 1970.

Bouraoui, Hédi. La Composée. 2001. (Tunisian Canadian American. Born 1932.)

---. La Femme d'entre les lignes. 2002.

el-Houssi, Majid. (Tunisian Italian.)

Ghachem, Moncef. (Born 1947.)

Hahn, Cynthia T. "The Tunisian Women's Movement: A Socio-Historical Commentary." In Women's Movements and Gender Debates in the Middle East and North Africa. Indiana University Press, 2006.

Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces, 1995 film directed by Ferid Boughedir.

Laskier, Michael M. North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. New York: New York University Press, 1994.

Memmi, Albert. Agar/Strangers. (Tunisian Jewish.)

---. Decolonization and the Decolonized. 2006.

---. Jews and Arabs.

---. La statue de sel/The Pillar of Salt. 1953.

---. Le Desert/The Desert.

---. Le Scorpion/The Scorpion.

---. Portrait of a Jew.

---. The Colonizer and the Colonized. 1957.

Man of Ashes. 1986 film directed by Nouri Bouzid.

Misbahi, Hassouna. Kitab al-Tih/The book of the maze. 1997. (Born 1950.)

Mortimer, Mildred, ed. Maghrebian Mosaic. A Literature in Transition. Boulder CO: Lynne Reinner, 2001.

Nalouti, Aroussia. Tamas/Tengance. 1995. (Born 1950.)

Naluti, Arusiyya. (Born 1950; wrote in Arabic.)

Satin Rouge. 2002 film directed by Raja Amari.

Schely-Newman, Esther. Our Lives Are but Stories: Narratives of Tunisian-Israeli Women (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology). Wayne State University, 2002.
This book discusses stories about migration told by four Jewish Israeli women from agricultural communities in Tunisia.

Silences of the Palace. 1994 film directed by Moufida Tlatli.

Slim, Fatima. (Born 1942.)

Thamer, Nadjia. (Born 1926; wrote in Arabic.)

Tlili, Mustafa. (Tunisian American.)

Musée du Bardo, Bellagi, around Tunis

2008-06-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've yet to see one Starbucks anywhere near Tunis... and that's okay with me. (Though I finally saw a United Colors of Benetton, which is owned by Italians.) Early this morning I walked to the TGM station in La Marsa from where you can see blue-green water in between the buildings. I paid less than a dollar for the first class car, below, which to me didn't seem all that different from the second class cars. (The seats in first class are cushioned.) Here's another tram:
At the end of the TGM line, at the Tunis Marine station in Tunis proper, I took another train, the métro léger (it's like a tramp) to Bardo stop, walked a few blocks, passed the 17th century palace now occupied by the Tunisian National Assembly, and after an hour and a half finally reached the suburb of Bardo west of Tunis and the Musée National du Bardo (front entrance below) where there is an extraordinary collection of Roman mosaics from Tunisia's finest ancient palaces. These are tiny colorful pieces assembled to depict all kinds of scenes on the floors and walls of elegant wealthy houses. Ships, like below, would carry the materials needed to make the mosaics, as well as other things such as marble for floors, columns, and other decorations and furniture. When politics and power changed geographic locations, those same ships carried those treasures back to Rome and Athens. The pieces gathered in the Bardo Museum are a fraction of what actually existed in Tunisian palaces around two thousand years ago. The city of Bardo, built in the 15th century, became the residence of the Tunis court in the 18th century, and thus was also the political, intellectual and religious center of the country. In 1882 the beys' residence became the National Museum. Today it ranks, along with the Egyptian Museum, as the best in north Africa. Tiny pieces of stones were used to depict grand themes in literature. Above is a scene from Homer's Odyssey where Odysseus ties himself to the mast to avoid being lured by sirens as they sail past their island. And in the Virgil Room there is a beautiful mosaic that was found in Sousse in the third century AD, below. It depicts Virgil with the Muses Clio ("History") and Melpomene ("Trajedy") inspiring him to write the Aeneid. Lines 8 and 9 from Book I are written on the papyrus scroll Virgil is holding: "Musa mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso, quidve" (meaning something like, "Muse, tell me the reasons that offended the divinity"). In another room there is a huge mosaic dated 372 AD. It depicts Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth.
There are also various depictions of women:

And in a small room, behind glass, there is a collection of Judaica, including this Torah.
A few days ago Mary and I went to an art gallery to pick up paintings she bought, and today while at the Bardo I realized that the artist, Jelenka Galic Bellagi, is basing her work on the ancient art of Tunisian mosaics. She uses small square pieces, the size of a miniature tile, but bigger than a traditional mosaic, about an inch square, and rather than assemble one scene, she depicts individual things in each mosaic. In one "painting" that I really like she depicts one fish in each square, but those fish relate to one another, they're not separated by the boundaries of each tile. In fact, you can see one fish eating the other. She calls that painting "War." I looked her up and learned that she calls herself a ceramisist. According to a website, she was born in 1950 in Croatia. She also paints with oil and watercolors and has exhibited throughout Europe. Mary bought this very beautiful oil on canvas piece, above, "Tunis, la fin d'un jour"/Tunis, the end of the day. Even in oil she echoes the tiny mosaic pieces you see in the two thousand year old grand installations at the Bardo. And, below, here's a detail of a ceramic tableu, "Le Guépard," that I like.

In the Ville Nouvelle, the more modern part of the city built by the French, there are wide tree-lined avenues and grand buildings. There is large Catholic Cathedral, Saint Paul the Apostle, below.

And there is this towering monument:
And of course, there's a mall, not far from the souq; it's called the Palmaryum.

I arrived in Tunis

2008-06-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

From the plane; approaching the airport in Tunis. Monday 2 June, 10:00 AM:
Even at 3:00 AM when I left Kuwait it was inhospitably hot. I had a short layover in Doha, Qatar where already it felt as if you could breathe easier. And now in Tunis it's simply a delight. I'm wearing a light cotton sweater in the evenings. The ocean breeze feels good on my skin, and the songs of birds and russling leaves are soothing. There are flowers everywhere: riots of red geraniums, jasmine perfuming my walks, spectacular jaracanda trees dressed in deep purple, multicolored bougainvillea draping most walls and wrought-iron balconies, hibiscus in myriad blue pots... dazzling sensuality after a week of sizzling drought in beige and scarce green.
I'm staying at Mary's house, above, in La Marsa, on the northern part of Tunis. La Marsa was once the Ottoman beys' summer base. It's an exclusive beachside suburb with grand white villas. Last night we walked to the palm-lined Le Corniche, below, and throngs were out and about promenading, sitting in outdoor cafes and patisseries, talking and listening to music: palpabale life out and open and accessible. We dined at a vegetarian restaurant overlooking the Gulf of Tunis, then strolled home and drank hot cups of ginger and lemon tea. Tunis is urban; it's home to 90% of the 10 million-plus population of the country (almost 15% is unemployed!). It was born in 732 AD and became the seat of Tunisian power in the 9th century. In the 19th century the French colonized the country until Tunisia forged independence on 20 March 1956. But it's been a unique "independence": the first "president," Habib Bourgiba, remained in power until 1987 when at age 83 a team of doctors declared him physically and mentally incapable of carrying out his duties. Since then, Ben Ali has served as president. Both have fought fiercely to establish and maintain a secular government, and to give women equal rights. In fact, although they're free to do so, the government has been critical of women wearing head scarves. I get a huge kick out of (re)learning such cultural history while being in the country; it makes books come truly alive!

Below, the beach beyond the Corniche in La Marsa.

More later. I just wanted to let you know that I arrived.

************************************
Monday evening...
Niiiiice day: Mary and I walked a lot. First we went to Carthage, founded in 814 BCE. I couldn't believe I was actually walking the streets of such a historical and literary city! Virgil's Dido (remember his Aeneid?) came alive to me again today, and Hannibal, that great military genius who lived in Carthage. Epic. We took a taxi to the Musée de Carthage, which is housed in the former French cathedral seminary, and we saw 5th century AD mosaics and Roman sculptures and fragments of buildings and everyday objects. Above, Mary at the Roman Villas.
Then, we walked to the Roman Villas, the remains of a palm-filled complex of houses where affluent Romans lived. After a late lunch break at a Lebanese restaurant on the Corniche, we kept walking all the way to Sidi Bou Saïd, a hilltop cobbled streets village that glimpses at the azure coast. I took one too many pictures of doors, for example above, and I'll only be able to share a few, because the internet connection is poor, especially at night, and it takes forever to upload. Anyway, I enjoyed this village tremendously; it reminds me of Spain, since the houses are painted in gleaming white, and the window grills are invaribly trimmed in cobalt blue, sometimes with an accent of yellow. Geraniums and bougainvillea drape almost every wall. Tonight while reading Lonely Planet's book on Tunisia, I learned that Sidi Bou Saïd's distinctive architecture is inspired by the influx of Spanish Muslims that arrived in the 16th century. We sat for a very long time at the Café Sidi Chabaane in the center of the village. The café is really a series of layered terraces carved into the steep cliff overlooking the blue-green sea, juttings of Tunis and a marina packed with yachts. Each terrace has railings and bench seats where people gather to sip thé á la menthe (mint tea) and thé au pignon (tea with floating pine nuts)--and to relax. Some sniffed what I later realized are jasmine buttoneers. When the vendor stopped by our bench, I couldn't resist. Mary caught me enjoying, below. Then on the way back down we saw an old man making these fragrant buttoneers, below. (I really like this picture; I think I'll enlarge and frame it.)
Just as you leave/enter the city, there's a beautiful fountain. In the center there are jasmine bouquets.
Below: as we were leaving Sidi Bou Saïd, we saw a woman wearing the traditional sifsari, a long white outer garment with loose folds that covers the head and entire body. It is commonly worn over Western-style clothing.
Hibiscus... for you.

Al Jahra

2008-05-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

Since it could possibly be one of the sites for the community college, today we went to Al Jahra, an oasis town that used to be agricultural and is located about 20 miles northwest from Kuwait City and 75 miles from the Iraq border.
On the way there we saw this multipurpose stadium; it looks like a flying saucer.
And we saw more mosques than in Kuwait City.

Once in the town we noticed that there were many more covered women than in the city.

Water tanks are stacked on top of many buildings.
We visited the Al Qasr Al-Ahmar, that is, the Red Palace fort. The Red Palace fort was ordered to be constructed in the early 1900s by the Amir, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, who is known today as Mubarak Al-Kabir (Mubarak the Great).
It was to be used primarily as a strategically located fort that would protect the agricultural village of Jahra from invasion. On October 10, 1920, Jahra was attacked by an army which was led by Faisal Al-Daweesh of Saudi Arabia. Four hundred Saudi men took over Al Jahra.
Amir Sheikh Salem Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah (the son of Mubarak the Great who built the fort) led about 2,000 Kuwaiti fighters in the battle.
On October 11, Sheikh Ahmad, who had been safeguarding Kuwait City, sent another 600 armed fighters on boats to help those besieged at the Red Palace.
There was a battle and Al-Daweesh and his men left Al Jahra.
Today, the Red Palace is a source of pride in that it symbolizes patriotism and fortitude; it is one of the few things that made it intactly through the destruction of the invasion in 1990.

******************************************************************
The WVMCCD-Kuwait team:
John, Phil, Raj, Stan, Dulce Maria, Cindy, Lance Our week of work is winding down; after a break we'll return to campus and continue to plan for this productive venture with our partner in Kuwait. Although I will continue to blog about my own travels through Tunisia and Italy, this is the last posting I'll make about our work here in Kuwait. Thank you for reading and for sharing our excitement.

AMIDEAST, Relaxing

2008-05-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

Date Palm

Today we met with Maureen Aldakheel, the Kuwait Country Director of AMIDEAST, an NGO founded (in 1951 by educators, theologians and writers led by columnist Dorothy Thompson) to strengthen "mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa." Among other things, they do institutional development, educational advising and test administration and support. This organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has field offices in Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen.

The hotel where we're staying faces the Persian Gulf, and today we had some down time, so the four of us ran to the beach.

Below, Cindy, Lance and John headed toward the sand.
Not far from the hotel there is the Corniche, below (but since it's way too hot during the day, you can stroll it only at night)

Weekends here happen on Fridays and Saturdays. Almost everything closes for the sabbath, including most museums. I really wanted to see Sadu House, a house that predates the oil era and a museum where supposedly there is a collection of beautiful traditional Bedouin weaving, but it was closed this Friday. One other museum was open, the one established to house archeological findings at Failaka Island (located near the city). Masouma, one of our hosts, took three of us to the Kuwait National Museum, which is in the former residence of Sheikh Al Jaber Al Sabah right on Gulf Street facing the Corniche. During the Iraqi invasion, the building was destroyed, the collection was set ablaze and many precious pieces were stolen. The museum is now being renovated. Because of that, we didn't get to see the collection of Islamic art. But we did get to see a really interesting collection of wood doors and other architectural pieces used in traditional building of houses. We could not take pictures of the actual pieces inside the museum, but I did take pictures of the doors facing the court yard. I think they're exquisite!

In one room we found very old photographs and two very lovely paintings, below, just sitting there waiting to be refurbished and set up in proper display spaces.

Below: this is not my picture, but I had to include it because it's just so pretty. (It's from the web.) And maybe because I'm thirsting for the sea. This is a dhow, the traditional Arab sailing vessel. (There's a huge replica of a dhow right next to our hotel; it's a restaurant.) Dhows sailed along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, usually carrying dates and fish.

Embassy, City Scenes

2008-05-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

We visited the American embassy to discuss this project (of creating a Kuwait American Community College) with the Counselor for Public Affairs. I took a picture of the side of the building, above, but in order to enter the embassy you have to give up all of your electronics. So, no pictures of that event for you. Our meeting was productive and the project continues to evolve. It's very exciting. A side note: as we consider delivering courses to US military personnel here in Kuwait, it's very interesting to learn about the history of US military presence in Kuwait. GlobalSecurity.org has useful information, including a list of camps, for instance, Camp Arifjan located south of Kuwait City and Camp Virginia, which I think is located in Al Jahra outside of the city.

Below is the Liberation Tower, the symbol of Kuwait's freedom and resurgence. It's one of the tallest telecomunications towers in the world, taller than the Eiffel Tower. It was inaugurated on 10 March 1996. Inside there's a revolving observation level and a restaurant.
In this short entry I'd like to simply show you the sights as I've seen them, mostly from the van as we drive by, and also up close in places we've stopped.
Below, a set of the many desalination/water towers you see all over the city.
Following are pictures of the many different types of residential and office buildings you can see in the city.

Zooming by... lots of construction.

Below, the Stock Exchange

Mosques

Article, GUST, ACK, Music, The Avenues

2008-05-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of construction going on all over Kuwait; here, a mosque being built.
Today, Wednesday 28 May, there was a very interesting article in the "National" section of the Kuwait Times: "American style education reform in Kuwait and the Gulf" by Sherin Deghady. Deghady explains that the six members of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman) are experiencing a huge boom in private sector higher education: the GCC is "seeing exponential growth in the number of private institutions." That's partly because the population has risen dramatically since the 1960s; 64 percent is under the age of 16, and during the last six years laws have changed to allow the establishment of private universities and colleges: "the demand for higher education has grown fast and has not yet been fully met." All of the GCC nations are pouring billions of dollars into expanding their private higher education institutions. That big push most often includes creating affiliates and partnerships with American, Australian, Canadian and British universities.

Below, private villas being built across from GUST.
To date, there are 15 American universities operating in the GCC:
"Many US experts see this global drive as having a direct benefit, where these programs can actually ease friction between countries and cultures. At the same time, others agree that overseas programs can help American universities raise their profiles, and eventually attract top research talents."
Those 15 universities include Cornell University that has set up a medical school in Qatar. In Saudi Arabia, rather than open new private institutions, the push is for improving existing public universities. To meet that aim, in 2005 King Abdul Aziz University (KAU)established collaboration with Virginia Tech. Additionally, Deghady writes, "King Abdallah bin Abdulaziz is setting up a new, $2.7 billion public university--King Abdallah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)--where 'minds and the ideas of enlightened men and women' are shared without 'discrimination'. And, for the first time, men and women will study in the same classrooms." In Saudi Arabia 30 percent of the population is under the age of 30.

Below, as seen through the window of a conference room at GUST, the building built for a United Nations office, but the location is not secured enough, so the building is unoccupied.
Qatar and the UAE aim to become the "regional base for world-class higher education." In Qatar five major American universities have opened campuses: Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University and Georgetown University; a sixth is on the way: Northwestern University. The UAE is seeing a lot of change: George Mason is already set up; Abu Dhabi will soon have New York University and University of Washington campuses; Dubai is expecting Michigan State University and Rochester Institute of Technology, and they've had the American University in Dubai since 1995. Below, developing area around GUST.
In Oman, Al-Mazoon College of Management and Applied Sciences in Muscat established an affiliation with the University of Missouri Science and Technology (formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla) in 1999; according to MS&T's website, its "role has been to provide assistance in establishing the appropriate curriculum for each of the degree programs offered, develop course syllabi and textbook selection, provide library resources, provide faculty hiring guidelines, and provide help with many other tasks relating to the establishment and operation of a new college."

*********************************************************
Here is a list of all the universities in Kuwait.
Almost all of them are licensed by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education's Private Universities Council (PUC).

* American University of Kuwait

* American University of the Middle East
AUME is a private two-year career college affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana.

* Arab Open University
AOU partners with The Open University (the UK's distance learning university) and is headquartered in Kuwait but has branches in Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; like GUST, it is a Cisco Certified Academy Center.

* Australian College of Kuwait

* Gulf University of Science and Technology

* Kuwait-Maastricht Business School
KMBS is the first private university to offer an MBA in Kuwait; it is the counterpart in Kuwait of Maastricht School of Management (MSM), Netherlands.

* Kuwait University
****************************************************************
GUST

A couple of days ago I told you about American University of Kuwait, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with Darmouth College. Today we visited Gulf University for Science and Technology, the first private university in Kuwait, opened in 2002. GUST has signed an MOU with the University of Missouri at St. Louis; for an agreed upon yearly fee, UM's their Center for International Studies is assisting GUST with developing academic programs, curriculum, staff and faculty recruitment, organization and structure, as well as providing quality assurance and advice regarding academic, student services, curriculum and course review processess. Essentially, UM functions as consultants and overseers in GUST's development. GUST is an impressive four-year liberal arts university: the buildings are spacious, and the administrators and faculty diverse and highly credentialed; GUST held its first commencement ceremony in June 2007 and conferred diplomas on 400 students. Currently, it serves about 2,000 students. Below, Starbucks at GUST.

Australian College of Kuwait
Today we also visited ACK, the first private vocational education college in Kuwait. We met with several people and Mr. Abdullah Abdul Mohsen Al Sharhan, the Chairman and founder of the college. ACK is also truly impressive; it partners with several Australian universities and Institutes in order to provide technical training, especially in maritine studies and aviation.
ACK is wired to the max! Every innovative tech can be seen on the campus. There was a job fair going on... inside a huge air-conditioned tent (remember that the temp goes up to about 105 degrees F!). ACK and Boeing have a vocational training project that exposes students to hands-on practice with specialized aviation and avionics equipment and aerospace technology. Boeing has provided ACK with a hangar with workshops and a 737-200 airplane that is used as a training platform for aviation maintenance programs.
Below, Dr. Hartley in the cafeteria (called the canteen).

Music
One of our hosts, Masouma, told me about this Kuwaiti singer, Nabil Shoail. Click on each parts of his name to see him perform two of his songs, or just find him on Youtube.com.

The Mall
We ate lunch at The Avenues Mall, a huge white structure with loads of stores including Ikea and Carrefour, the supermarket, 10 cinemas, 35 restaurants and cafes, including Starbucks. It opened in 2007.

PAAET, City Streets, Souq & Mall

2008-05-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

URGH! My suitcase is still missing and it's 7:00PM.

Today we visited the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), an educational institution established in 1982; this huge institution serves more than 30,000 students, two-thirds of them females, and it's built on the government's effort, beginning in the 1950s, to train workers so that the country could meet the demands of producing and exporting oil. PAAET's function is to supervise and coordinate various vocational training centers. It includes 4 colleges (specializing in Basic Education, Business Studies, Technological Studies and Health Sciences) and numerous institutes (specializing in Telecommunications and Navigation, Electricity and Water, and Industry).

We visited the Department of Chemical Engineering Technology and toured several of their modern labs.

Here are a few more photos, street scenes from Kuwait City.

The Souq
A few of us strolled through the heart of downtown's Souq Al Mubarakiya, one of the biggest traditional markets in Kuwait City. This open-air, high ceilinged-covered souq consists of labyrinthic passageways lined with stalls and shops (each specializing in some particular goods) where you can buy just about anything. There used to be about 20 interconnecting souqs, but many of them were destroyed during the war in 1990. My favorite is the gold souq where jewelry made of 21 or 22 carat gold can be found. Supposedly, this is a generally safe place to buy jewelry, since the price is determined by the per gram weight value of gold, and since the government inspects the shops.

.

Nivea skin whitening cream in bulk!
The Mall
There are malls everywhere. They're modern facilities with spacious walkways and attractive displays that you'd find in any major city. So far, I've spent time in two of them. I like Marina Mall in Salmiya, where we ate lunch yesterday; it's one of the largest in the city.

Of course, I had to take a picture of the Starbucks in this mall.

AUK & AAG

2008-05-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Kuwait!

I'm here with colleagues exploring a possible affiliation between the college district I teach in and a Kuwaiti educational organization that is interested in opening a community college in Kuwait City. Although this very American model of higher education has been exported throughout Latin America, New Zealand and most recently the Middle East, right now there are no community colleges in Kuwait. Should this affiliation work out, it would be mutually beneficial in numerous ways. For one, it would create far greater opportunities for students and faculty to learn about each other's cultures. We'll be here for a week. My aim in blogging is to give you a glimpse of what we're experiencing.
Before I tell you about our very interesting full day of activities, I'd like to give you some basic information about this highly industrialized nation. As you can see in these first three pictures, yesterday there was a sandstorm, so Kuwait City is enveloped in a haze, but I understand that (given pollution) it's usually cloudy anyway. By 10:00 AM today it was already past 100 degrees F.
Kuwait is a tiny cosmopolitan sovereign country on the coast of the Persian Gulf. It is enclosed by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west. (My Kuwait Airways flight flew right over Iraq. At 35,000 high, it was difficult to see much, but I must admit that it felt a little strange to be flying, as if all were normal, over a war.) Today there are about 3.5 million people in Kuwait; they're governed by a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. Kuwait is the fourth richest country in the world per capita: it has the world's fifth largest oil reserves (so logically real estate is very expensive); oil was first exploited in the 1930s when the country was still a colony of the UK, and them more aggressively after it became independent in 1961. Pearls used to provide Kuwait's major source of income, but today petroleum and petroleum products account for almost 80% of the government's income.

On 2 August 1990, Kuwait was invaded and annexed by Iraq. The occupation lasted until 26 February 1991 when the US intervened and removed the Iraqis. (Kuwait paid the US-led coalition forces US $17 billions dollars for liberating the country.) Before retreating, the Iraqi army destroyed much of the infrastructure and set fire to almost 700 oil wells; it took over 9 months to put out the fires. Consequently, the country is still in rebuilding mode and the environment is visibly affected, which is especially sad when you consider that Kuwait has been a major center for spice trading, particularly between India and Europe, since the early 1600s. Today, Kuwait is the largest exported of oil in the Persian Gulf.

Kuwaitis are highly literate--82.9 percent. Public schooling is free and compulsory from age 5 to 18, but private schools are extremely popular, especially those patterned after American, British and Australian models. Private K-12 schools are extremely popular and abundant. (The Kuwaiti educational organization our district is working with owns 5 such schools: one American style K-12 school, one English style K-12 school, 2 Arabic schools [opened over 30 years ago, they now serve over 5,000 students] and New Zone, an adult learning center.) Kuwait University, established in 1966, is the only public university; it serves 24,000 students, and within the next 10 years it plans to serve 40,000. The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), formed in 1982, is a sort of community college (or vocational school) in that it exists to train and supply the skilled manpower needed in the country. (Our delegation will visit PAAET.) There are numerous private colleges and universities, many of them sponsored by or affiliated with organizations in the west (most deliver instruction in English), and the number continues to increase, which makes sense since Kuwait has the highest birth rate in the world. The government either completely funds or heavily subsidizes students in higher education.

Our delegation started working early on this Monday morning. First, we visited with Dr. Carol Ross-Black, the Dean of Student Affairs at the American
University of Kuwait, and we toured the campus. AUK is a private co-educational liberal arts institution where all instruction is conducted in English; it is accredited by the Council of Private Universities of the Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education, and it is affiliated with Darmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. That affiliate relationship entails having a signed memoramdum of understanding that allows AUK to consult and cooperate with Darmouth on curriculum development, administrative matters, and participation in student bridge programs, as well as a series of seminars and conferences meant to advance the understanding of liberal arts and business education in Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf region. That affiliate relationship is partly what interests us, since it's a model for what could be done to bring the community college to Kuwait--plus there's also the possibility of arranging articulation agreements such as the ones our district has with numerous universities in the States. Below you see John, Lance, Cindy, Raj and Dr. Ross-Black in the AUK library. Below is Dr. Ross-Black in the AUK Student Success Center. AUK opened in 2004 and is currently seeking US accreditation; it plans to move to a bigger new campus in a couple of years. Right now, there are more than 1,500 including its first graduating class. Below is Dr. Ross-Black with a graduating student, a stellar young woman who plans to become an administrator in higher education.
AUK's Mission Statement:
The American University of Kuwait is a liberal arts institution based on the American model of higher education. It is dedicated to providing students with knowledge, self-awareness, and personal growth experiences that can enhance critical thinking, effective communication, and respect for diversity. AUK seeks to create leaders and life-long learners who aspire to the highest standards of moral and ethical responsibility in their societies.

As we toured the AUK campus we came upon a "protest wall," above, where students had graffitied all sorts of comments, written in English and Arabic, opposing gender seggregation, a hot national topic and one of the two top reasons Parliament was dissolved a couple of months ago. Some of the reasons inscribed are quite funny: e.g., "what is peanut butter without jelly?" and "men and women are queally unfortunate." Gender seggregation essentially means that governmental policy requires men and women be taught in either separate buildings or separate classrooms. In private schools that policy doesn't seem to be enforced, and in fact males and females congregate freely, as can be seen in the picture of men and veiled and unveiled women in the AUK tech lab.

At AUK gender seggregation in the classroom is accomplished by dividing the room with a short mobile wall, as seen in the picture below with John and Raj on the left and Dr. Ross-Black on the right.

Of course, I had to take a photo of Starbucks, one of several eateries on the AUK campus.

After our tour of AUK, we ate lunch at Casper and Gambini's (right next to TGIF's) at the marina on the other side of town (2 pictures below).

After lunch, we visited one of the schools owned by Al Jeel Al Jadded, our host. The American Academy for Girls is a European and American accredited pre-K-12 school that opened in 1996 and now serves almost 900 females; all instruction (except Arabic language) is conducted in English, and the curriculum is American style. We toured the 3 school buildings, and met with the Superintendent, the Principals of the elementary and high schools, and with a group of impressive students in the high school. In the 3 pictures below you see students in their elementary school classrooms and high school girls in the gym.

The five high school girls we talked with said that they'd be very interested in attending a community college, but only if it met these requirements: that there are
--courses that lead to degrees in law, engineering, architecture, science and health;
--teachers who are well trained and come from diverse places outside of Kuwait;
--teachers who really enjoy teaching;
--language courses, especially in Spanish and French;
--ESL, Composition and Creative Writing classes;
and that there is a
--strong athletic program that includes basketball, volleyball and soccer;
--cadre of counselors willing to spend time guiding students, and that the
--curriculum taught completely in English, except Arabic language classes;
--degree accredited and transferable to universities in and out of Kuwait;
as well as
--scholarships available more abundantly, and
--transportation to and from the school.

I end this posting with a picture of a sticker I saw in one of the American teacher's file cabinet.

I arrived in Kuwait, Bill in MC

2008-05-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hello from Kuwait City!
Today is Monday at 7:00 AM. (I have to reset the clock on my laptop, will do so later tonight when I have more time to write a longer message.)
A 24 hour trip, but I arrived last night feeling fine. My one suitcase remained in Paris (a wish for shopping?), and it won't be delivered until Wednesday, so at the airport in Kuwait I had to buy toothpaste, toopthbrush, and I was so thrilled to find the cream I use (which I get from New Zealand; I hadn't seen it anywhere else), and I now have two new outfits.

So, now in this quick posting I just wanted to tell you that I left Miles City on Thursday and on Saturday President Bill Clinton spoke in the high school auditorium. George went and took these pictures with his mobile phone.

Here's what George wrote to me in an email.
"The Saturday Bill Clinton event was excellent. It was a full crowd [about 1,000 people--there are only 8,000 people in the entire Miles City].
He gave a very nice speech - about fifty minutes with no notes. It
was especially interesting because of the breadth of what he covered
and the huge number of statistics and numbers that he had at his
command and was able to quickly rattle off. It was well organized,
easy to follow, personalized to the audience and at times adroitly
phrased to avoid any local sensitivities while at other times directly
addressing issues that might be of a local concern. He claims that
Hillary's rural support and success has been the best of all the
candidates and rattled off a number of supporting statistics."

Pythons... but not at the ranch

2008-05-21T00:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in the local newspaper, the Miles City Star, there was a short boxed announcement that caught my eyes. It read: "Search on for loose pythons, call police if sighted." Pythons!? Yep, the police are still looking for two of them that were reported missing on the 18th. The article said: "Both snakes are 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 feet long. One is a pregnant female and she will be looking for a warm place to lay her eggs." Unbelievable. I'm afraid I did not sleep peacefully.

Well... let me tell you about going to the ranch on Monday. We almost didn't go because ominous clouds threatened rain, and when that happens the dirt roads become thick glue that swallow wheels in even huge trucks. Scotty drove. It takes over an hour to get from Miles City, past Forsyth, to the ranch. I enjoy going to the rach; I like seeing Scotty revel in his 91 years of memories: he knows the place as intimately as he knows every tiny fold and crevice on his own face. He loves the land, and the small house his father and mother built with their own hands way back in the early 1900s. (What a privilege it was for me to edit his book, I'm 'a-tellin' you: Homesteading the Little Porcupine, about growing up in this expansive ranch.)
I enjoy the wide endless sky, and the seeming emptyness. But when you look closely, this landscape is far from empty. There's sage brush everywhere, and showy weather resistant flowers peeking every time a drop of water falls, and cacti, and all sorts of bugs and creepy crawlies. And of course, there are deer and antelope roaming, and bushy tailed rabbits, skuns, and what's the name of that animal that burrows everywhere? Yeah, and snakes (but no pythons!). It's a demanding land, a land that doesn't yield much that's edible, but it's exquisitely striking nonetheless, breathtaking. It's a land that forges fortitude, interdependence, resourcefulness and honor, since without those character traits I can't imagine anyone surviving on it.

Scotty and George headed toward the cows.

When Scotty's parents homesteaded this ranch, they built an outhouse. (Can you imagine having to leave your cozy cabin in 50 below zero weather just to go to the bathroom?) About 90 years later that outhouse is still standing.

The outhouse doorknob... rustic, weathered, hitorical--imagine the hands that have touched that knob during all those years.
I've visited the ranch numerous times, but this was the first time I've seen the cattle cemetery--yes, the "resting" place for ranch animals, the place where bulls and cows (and whatever else dies) are dumped and desiccate. We saw a cow and a calf dead, skin and hair still there, but bodies definitely stiff and given the smell (if you stood downwind), surely dead for at least a week. The remains of one bull still had tough leather around its face, but the rest of the body was gone; only stark white bones (scattered by the wind, birds and itinerant animals) were left.
Ranch people are used to this life-death in-your-face co-existence. Death is part of life.
That attitude helps me to understand (maybe) why some people decorate their living room walls with bulls' skulls. Hmmm... not my cup of tea, despite possibly understanding, and admiring, that hearty attitude.

Art and women

2008-05-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

This water tower overlooks the community pool and tennis courts where Scotty still plays at least five days a week. It will soon be replaced by a larger more modern one being build less than a mile away.
We spent most of Sunday at the Custer County Art and Heritage Center, which is located in a really interesting place--the original brick and stone building, completed in 1910, that was the water treatment plant for over 60 years. The building, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is on the bank of the Yellowstone River in what used to be Fort Keogh Reservation. The area is packed with cottonwood trees. (While walking outside the building I remembered that a few summers ago, when Eleanor was still alive, we all attended a Shakespeare in the Park production and the trees shed cotton like crisp snow that magically covers everything in white.) The interior space in this building is really beautiful.
So... I was thinking about art all day and when we returned home I perused Eleanor's paintings and felt really sad.

Eleanor's blue Montana hill.
I miss Eleanor; it's been four years since she died. She didn't paint much in her later years, but when George and Linda were children, and before they were born, she finished a lot of oils, water colors and pencil drawings. I like these two in particular; I like the passion in her strokes and the vibrancy in the colors she combined. They remind me of her keen ability to notice her surroundings.

Eleanor's zinnias (her favorite flowers; she planted them every summer).
One thought led to another, and I remembered that the day before we'd met David Graham at the Bucking Horse Sale. David's a young artist who lives in Bozeman. He too seems to have a sure ability to notice and capture his surroundings in fine gloriously colored details. I like this one of his paintings, "Last Ride in Snow," and the poetic words he's composed.

"Life is full of changes. Living in Montana, the seasons constantly remind a person of that truth. These riders are scanning the horizon for stray cattle as the final, waning rays of evening sun provide one last show of brilliance. The warm days of fall are nearly over and any day now, snow could blanket the ground and bring a deep sleep upon the countryside. The seasons of life are a lot like that. No season lasts forever. Seasons of warmth and contentment give way to seasons of seemingly endless cold and starkness, and then growth and new life return once again. As the seasons change, these cowboys know that they will likely never be in this spot again, witnessing such a glorious sunset. But they know that the secret of enjoying each season is taking the time to savor the moment, commit it to memory, and carry that memory along into the next season of life."

At home, I spent the last of daylight digging up some of the ramblers (a sort of progeny) of bright yellow irises that Eleanor and Scotty planted over forty years ago. I already have a garden full of them in Saratoga, but I wanted to have more, and to send some to friends. As I dug, I thought about how painful it is to miss someone you love, and how soothing it is sometimes to simply hold on to whatever beauty that person created.

Miles City as seen from the Airport Restaurant up on the hill. That night, I read about one of Montana's illustrious women, someone whose legacy is undeniable. I'll leave you with some notes about Jeannette Rankin.

Women in Montana won the vote in 1914, six years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave all American women that privilege. Just three years after that, in 1917, Montana sent the first woman to serve Congress--Jeannette Rankin. (She was also the very first woman elected to a national legislature in any western democracy.) In her inaugural vote as a member of the House of Representatives she voted against US entry into World War I: she had the courage to say "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war." That kind of commitment was not unusual for her. After being re-elected to the House (in 1940), in 1941 she cast the lone vote against declaring war with Japan. The she said, "As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else. I vote NO." In 1968, at age eighty-eight, she marched at the head of the phalanx of nearly five thousand women protesting US involvment in Vietnam. I suspect that if she were alive today she'd also be protesting the war on Iraq and Afghanistan. Ms. Rankin worked determinedly in support of peace and women's issues. Today her legacy can be seen in various places and organizations, among them the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center in Missoula. I just learned that there's a play, written by Jeanmarie Simpson, about Rankin's life; it's titled A Single Woman. There's also a film adaptation, starring Jeanmarie Simpson, that is directed by Kamala Lopez-Dawson; it too is titled A Single Woman. It should be out soon in general cinemas.

Bucking Horse Sale

2008-05-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the 58th Miles City Bucking Horse Sale started with a really fun parade on Main Street. There were vintage cars, covered wagons, all manner of tractors and, of course, all sorts of horses, which logically paraded last. (Needless to say, in horse country like this one, it'd be an insult to strap on any kind of "diaper.") Both sides of the street were full to the brim with locals and many many out of towners from every nook and cranny. Officially, this weekend-long event started on Thursday night with a music concert;
on Friday cowboys began to confront broncs at the Eastern Montana Fair Grounds, and later there was bull riding and a street dance where 3 different bands played until very late. We missed all that, so the parade was the beginning for us. The three of us wore our hats; incredibly,mine's ten years old and out of fashion (see how tall it is?).

It's really interesting to see the changes happening in this small town of barely 8,000 people. In the relatively short time I've been visiting I've seen how it's becoming more and more trendy, like Bozeman, which is not necessarily a bad thing. For instance, Cafe Utza sells all the coffee combinations you'd find in any large city, and delicious chai, but you can also go to lunch at Cafe 600, an old fashioned family diner-type place.

And sensibilities and political stances are clearly changing: at the parade I saw several people giving out Hillary and Obama stickers, but I didn't see one person distributing anything in support of McCain. (Yeah, maybe I just missed it, but the point is that however slow, this traditionally staunch Republican community is clearly being recharged by a younger hipper infusion of ideas and commerce.)

At the end, we watched the bagpipers, the Miles City Caledonian Society Band (founded in 1908) go up and down the street as they celebrated spring and the near arrival of summer. This annual parade heralds the main activities for the weekend: the showcasing of horses auctioned to rodeo contractors, individuals and sadly (to me), as a perfectly strange woman explained, to the likes of Alpo. There are also horse races (a profitable part of the weekend, and not necessarily for those who bet), and different kinds of intermission-like shows such as synchronized riding.

To a city-bred woman like me, the Bucking Horse Sale is fascinating. The auction of each horse begins as soon as the gates are flung open and the cowboy begins struggling to stay mounted on the horse. The feistier the horse the more money he's worth.
The cowboy's aim is to show that he can ride an untamed bronc. A cowboy rides bareback or on saddle for a mere 8 seconds (which I'm sure feels like eternity to him) holding on to dear life with just one hand; the other hand must be visibly away from the horse, usually above the cowboy's head. The horse, an untamed fellow who's resistant to having someone on top of him, or to anyone telling him where and when to go, tries to throw the cowboy off his back by flinging his hind legs up and out. Most riders don't last more than 3 seconds; but on Saturday there were quite a few who held on past the requirement and invariably the crowd cheered their lungs out. As the auction rages, three other cowboys ride fast and furiously after the loose bronc. They finally rope and lead him through the corral into the trailer that will take him to a few years on the rodeo circuit or to Alpo heaven.

The races are equally enthralling, but you can't close your eyes for a second, because you miss the entire thing.

Hola! I arrived in Miles City, MO

2008-05-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

You know, spring break in April just wasn't long enough. Even though George and I vacationed on Maui with Terri and Nadia (check out the view from our balcony!), I worked and so I've accumulated way too much stress. I won't get to relax for a couple of weeks yet, but actually, this summer's adventure started today. We are at Scotty's in Montana. I leave early to gather myself before departing on a business trip to Kuwait. After a week in Kuwait, my vacation begins: I fly into Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, where I'll spend about a week exploring the country and reading literature by Tunisian Jewish women. I want to travel along the Mediterranean Sea coast and stop in Hammamet, Sousse and Jerba Island. If I have time, I'll go inland before returning to Tunis from where I'll take a ferry across the Tyrrhenian Sea, probably into Napoli, Italy. I'll spend a week working my way up the coast to the Vatican and Rome, and then I'll fly back home to Saratoga. I hope you'll enjoy my musings and photographs. Below, the beautiful entrance to Miles City, Montana.