NINE YEARS IN TUNIS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 58, 2 August 1940, Page 16

NINE YEARS IN TUNIS

Written for "The Listener" by

VIRGINIA

CHADRABA

Mme. Chadraba, who was interviewed recently in " The Listener," is a graduate of the University of New Zealand, and before her marriage was first a secondary school teacher and then a nurse. As she speaks French as fiuently as she speaks English, she was able, from her first arrival in Tunis, to enter freely into the lives of her neighbours.

UNIS, the capital of Tunisia, lies at the head of a long canal, which is very narrow and very shallow. The town is built partly on a hill, and as you approach the wharves you have Minarets and Mosques facing you where the native quarter " straggles" up the hills. Fe lived in Tunisia for nine years and got to know all the narrow winding streets of the Arab and Jewish part of the capital. Many of these little streets have Arab names — Rue Sidi Brahim, Rue Bir el Jadja, etc. The Jewish part

of the town is known as the Hara, and before I left the French were already demolishing much of this slum and were building new, modern houses. We in New Zealand have no idea what inconvenience one has to put up with in some parts of the world. I lived for quite a long time in an Arab house where there was no water laid on, no electricity or gas, and no sink. The Arab houses are built round a central courtyard and you have no outlook on to the street, as no Arab woman must show herself unveiled to the outside world. We also had three wells: two were "citernes,’ that is to say, underground tanks, which are filled by rain water

from the roofs; the third was a very deep well. I don’t know where the water came from, probably from a spring, as the supply was inexhaustible. There was a bucket attached to a pulley for getting the water up.

Cooking by Oil or Charcoal I used a primus and oil stove for cooking, and there was also a charcoal stove. Coal is never used for fires as it is too dear. The Arabs bring charcoal (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) in from the country and come to the door with it. It is light, and you get quite a lot for your money; it used to cost about 34d for a kilogram, that is about 2%lbs. In, the European part of the town there are of course many gas and electric stoves, The European quarter is quite modern with wide streets and pavements and very good shops. At the " Magasin Général" you could buy everything. A few years ago they opened the " Monoprix," rather like our Woolworth’s or McKenzie’s, and they sold everything in this shop — meat, fish, clothes, cheese, butter, shoes, jewellery, etc., at prices far below those of other shops, Cheap Tram | Fares The residential part of the town was also well served by trams and buses. Fares were not high-you could travel 4 miles for 1d. The conductors and motormen were Arabs or Italians. There were a great number of inspectors, who often got on to the same car three times. They did not "punch" the tickets but simply tore them a little. I remember once some one complained because the conductor did not speak French (he was an Italian), and it was maintained that he was under no obligation to speak French as Tunisia is not a French possession- it is a Protectorate. I often wonder why the French fleet did. not take shelter at Bizerte instead of at Oran, as there is a narrow passage to it, and the French have a large arsenal at Ferryville, on its shores. During the Great War Bizerte was used by Great Britain for reserves of fuel for the reinforcement and hospital base of the Serbian Army. In the Ferryville cemetery I have noticed in one corner many black crosses over the graves of Serbian dead. A Wonderful Market Tunis has a wonderful market and the Tunisian housewife does all her shopping there. The better-off Frenchwoman sends her servant to do the buying, but the rest of us used to go down early to get the day’s food. The market is right in the centre of the town-a big square, partly covered in, where you get the most splendid choice of évery fruit and vegetable in season — sweet, juicy oranges for as little as 5d a dozen, muscatel grapes, luscious rock and water melons, fresh dates from Tozen, to say nothing of the strawberries and cherries grown inland and the many varieties of figs. All the vegetables that are grown in New Zealand can be found there, except parsnips and kumeras, but there ais a sweet potato, though it is not so nice as our native kumera. Precautions in the Butcher's Shop You buy eggs at so much for 4-they never cost more than 1/- a dozen, and often fall to 442d a dozen. Fish is good and plentiful, but you never buy a lobster unless it is alive, You find, too, that the feet have always been left on skinned rabbits, otherwise you might be given cat. Butchers who sell goats’ meat aré not allowed to sell mutton; this is done so that you can’t be made to pay for mutton when you are given goat. We

always "bargained" with the Arabs, but I know that we always paid far more than the French or Italians, who were adept at "beating them down." In Tunis there are shops open all the time. The European shops are closed on Sundays, but you can always find what you want at the djerbien’s (an Arab grocer who sells everything). I believe the djerbiens were the wealthiest Arabs of all as they took advantage of their Arab clients when they sold olive oil and semonle (semdlina) in small quantities, since the illiterate Arab could not get the price of 1/16 of a quart of oil when he knew the price of a quart only. Most Italians, Arabs, Maltese, and Jews use condensed milk, but it is possible to get cows’ milk, while some of the Italians drink goats’ milk. In the summer, from June to the beginning of October, there is no rain and no pasture. The whole country is brown and dried up, save for the bright green of the vines and the greyish green of the olives. Early winter and spring are the most pleasant seasons in Tunisia. Cheap Living for Visitors There are always many visitors from England during the winter months. Living is cheap, and there is no real cold. I knew one man who came regularly each year; he said that he lived most comfortably in an hotel with central heating for 3/6 a day. Wages are low, so that the cost of living can never rise very high. However, in 1937 the wages went up by 10% and immediately the cost of living rose by at least 50%. Poor Tunisia. I expect this collapse of France will hit her hard. She imported all the coal for her electricity from England, and that source is now stoppedperhaps for ever.