M24

Right next to the main tram station of La Marsa is M24. Located in a pretty building with the typical white walls and blue window panes of the Tunis coast, M24 appears as an upscale place decorated with posh, showy furniture covered in dark red and dark yellow velvet, alongside more modern looking low coaches and cushions in grey, brown and black and what looks golden christmas decoration. The walls and arcades are covered with stucco that looks more like somebody's idea of Arabic pattens than the real deal, although the ceilings seem quite authentic - let down slightly by the plastic chandeliers hanging from them. 

We tried several restaurants that were closed - in summer time, it is difficult to find places to lunch as life starts mostly around dusk. When passing M24, we decide to try our luck here and find that the place is open. M24 has three floors: the ground floor that looks like a slightly seedy lounge, the first floor, which has its walls covered in artworks, and the second floor that offers nice views over La Marsa, but which is clearly meant for dining rather than lounging. So we settle for the first floor. The television is playing Arab music clips and Rihanna Gaga is immediately mesmerised by them. I ask her whether she'd like to play, but she shakes her head and tells me she prefers to watch the 'computer', as she calls it. So I take out my book to read while she watches the hyperfemine and hypermasculine popstars of the Arab world doing their dances and playing out their melodramatic, clichéd storylines with much eye batting, duckfaces and brooding gazes.

An extremely friendly waitress, slightly shy and with a broad and genuine smile, takes our order: a banana/date smoothie and a cheese and chicken pancake. As can be expected at this the hottest hour of the day, they take some time to arrive and the bottle of water we ordered as well never arrives - although, when I remind her, our waitress does produce a glass of water instead.

In the Netherlands, a smoothie has a healthy ring to it: you order a smoothie because you want fresh fruit and yoghurt. Here, a smoothie seems to be just a fancy word for a sorbet. The affair they bring me looks splendid, but there is no resemblence of yoghurt in it. Instead, whipped cream seems to be its main ingredient and the whole thing tastes mostly like a liquid banana pie. In fact, I fear that when I return to the Netherlands, I will suffer from withdrawal signs because of the sudden drop of sugar I will get to digest. Here, if you go out to drink, there really is almost nothing - except for coffee, which I don't drink a lot of - one can order that doesn't contain ridiculous amounts of sugar.

Rihanna Gaga and I share the smoothie - which she doesn't particularly like and soon has had enough of - and the pancake, but her attention remains mostly focused on the television screen. I look around. In front of us there is a larg painting, executed on pieces of wood loosely nailed together, of an old man's face gazing intensely towards the viewer, executed in an almost graffiti like esthetic. Around the man's face there are scribbled words - such as 'politics', 'economy', and meaningful quotes, all in French. One word, located quite centrally in the painting, is 'homosexuality'. With that, the painting taps into one of Tunisia's hottest potatoes at the moment. Gay rights issues have kept popping up the last year, with graffiti demanding a stop to homophobia scribbled on many walls throughout the city and talk show appearances of gay rights advocates. The backlash has been, on the other hands, cafetaria owners putting up signs saying 'gays not allowed', death threads to gays and their defenders and the attempted suicide by one of the most publically gay Tunisians after he couldn't face the harassment he had to deal with anymore.

Be that as it may, Tunisia has got to be one of the very few predominantly Muslim countries in which these issues can even be discussed. In many ways, this country is a haven of progressive thinking, not only concerning gay rights, but also for instance women's emancipation, which seriously lags behind compared to Norther European countries, but is lightyears ahead of other North African countries, Tunisia being probably the only place where - for instance - one may expect female waiters. It's a mixed bag, really, but I still think Tunisia has much going for it.

That doesn't mean the place doesn't have its drawbacks, though. Most notably, its looks: everywhere, one is faced with delipidated construction sites, appartment blocks and office buildings that were once started but never finished. Sometimes some work seems to be done, but between La Marsa, where we live, and Lac 2, a little more towards the capital, where I work, there is mostly an endless string of deserted building sites that depresses me. And then there is the garbage, which is just - everywhere, really. Many people have no qualms about dropping whatever they don't need anymore on the ground and it shows, with plastic bags, paper wraps, leftovers and just about anything else littering the streets in large amounts. 

After two years, it certainly is time to head back to the Netherlands - although I realise how priviliged I am that that is even an option for me. Three of my job applications this summer were successful and we're only back in Tunisia right now to round things up. In two months time we will return an - it must be said - it feels a bit like a relief. It is significant how much more careless and happy Rihanna Gaga seems to be there and that is actually an important reason why we took the decision to return. Two more months to go. I wonder how much Rihanna Gaga will remember of the place once she's older. Because for now, I'm quite sure she can't remember anything from when we were still living in the Netherlands, so in a very real sense, Tunisia is all she knows consciously - and I do hope that when she's older, her first memories will be of Tunisia, and that those will be happy memories.

She's started to dance to the music, skillfully imitating the movements of the dancers on the screen. She announces that she wants to go to the ducks and later to the playground. That's fine, I tell her, but first we'll pay, go to the supermarket and then she needs to take a nap. After that, we can do anything she wants.