Hellanback noticed Peace Corps workers whose "meager" stipend enabled them to live in comfortable apartments with indoor plumbing and housekeepers. He noticed that the majority of Peace Corps people he met spent most of their time fraternizing with one another, little time with the natives, and had been in North Africa longer, but knew far less Arabic than he.



Hellanback noticed Peace Corps workers whose "meager" stipend enabled them to live in comfortable apartments with indoor plumbing and housekeepers. He noticed that the majority of Peace Corps people he met spent most of their time fraternizing with one another, little time with the natives, and had been in North Africa longer, but knew far less Arabic than he.

IN WAITING

By the time he reached Tunisia his pilgrimage had settled into a routine. He'd start walking early in the morning. His pace was leisurely as he pondered creation. There had been several days without food, and a few times he'd eaten only because he found figs or cactus fruit growing beside the road, but most often people along the way would ask where he was headed. When he replied "Cairo," they were greatly impressed and usually offered him food and drink. As a rule the fare was simple, bread, cheese or eggs, or fruit, or couscous, and tea, sometimes water. Always his benefactors were friendly and polite. Frequently people called him ibn Bartuta, after a famous Arab explorer.

Many nights Hellanback would be invited to stay in the home of someone casually met along the road. On other nights he would throw down his blanket twenty yards or so from the road and gaze at the stars until sleep overcame him.

Beyond any doubt the North Africans had fewer bars, cars, and TV's, but whatever the reason, these people spent much more of their time talking to one another than did the folks back home.

Was there a connection between poverty and the will to share? Apparently the people in North Africa were at least as likely to be open, trusting, and friendly as any people he might meet in the United States. He had never found it necessary to ask anyone for anything. Because they had less to lose did the poor have less to fear?

In a way the lack of challenge was disappointing. He'd chosen North Africa for an acid test. The stateside media had given the distinct impression that these people were decidedly uncivilized. He was beginning to suspect that his mind may have been propagandized. Of course, he still hadn't gotten to Libya, home of "Mad Dog Ghaddaffi." His initial encounter at the Libyan consulate held out hope that things might get worse.

In Tunis Hellanback applied for a visa and left his passport at the Libyan consulate. After a week his passport was returned, and his request was denied. His pleas for an explanation went unanswered.

Hellanback believed he could complete his journey, but still lacked the faith to make a long detour -- equal to the distance from Morocco to Egypt -- through the barren burning sands of the Chadian Sahara. So, rather than attempting to walk around Libya, he decided to apply again for a visa in a month or so.

While killing time he noticed a few things.

People continued to offer him food, but he felt guilty accepting the generosity of people who were raising families on pennies a day. One morning a general contractor brought him breakfast in a restaurant, and offered him a job shoveling gravel at $1.25 a day. Rather than live off the generousity of big hearted poor people while he marked time waiting for the Lybians, Hellanback accepted the job.

He noticed there were men -- every bit as human and more industrious than men he'd met on construction sites in the States -- who shoveled gravel from sunup to sundown, without union benefits. He noticed lunch cost them only about fifteen cents when they ate bread with milk and sugar. If the bread was sweetened with jelly it cost about twenty cents. In either event it was a sizable chunk of the daily dollar-and-a-quarter on which they supported their families in rags and hovels.

He noticed that some merchants, and more bankers and professionals, made much more and lived lives comparable to middle class Americans, but that those living in hovels were far more numerous.

He noticed Peace Corps workers whose "meager" stipend enabled them to live in comfortable apartments with indoor plumbing and housekeepers. He noticed that the majority of Peace Corps people he met spent most of their time fraternizing with one another, little time with the natives, and had been in North Africa longer, but knew far less Arabic than he.

Hellanback had approached the "Third World" with the impression that Yanks had a corner on technological ingenuity, but he noticed Arab mechanics, routinely rebuilding parts, were at least as ingenious as Yank mechanics who purchase their parts in neat plastic packages.

He thought he'd discovered a clue to all humanity's inequality: some people just had more money than others.

On his second trip to the Libyan consulate, it again took a week before his application was acted on, but this time Hellanback was given a visa.

He split what money he had left earned from shoveling gravel among his fellow shovellers, and started walking again.

By George Entenman (adsl-77-240-36.rdu.bellsouth.net - 216.77.240.36) on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 8:31 am: Edit Post

I served as an English teacher in Tunisia from 1964-66 and 1971.

Hallanback's experience as a traveler strikes me as believable: I think that the people he would have met would have treated him generously and kindly. I think that most PCVs had similar experiences, but I would submit that it is a lot more difficult on a daily basis, as a professional working in a city or town.

PCVs were paid the same as Tunisian teachers, and since President Bourgiba was making a heroic effort to educate his country (I wish my country would do the same!), teachers were well-paid. I don't recall hearing any PCVs characterizing our stipends as "meager". I think Hallanback is making that up.

As one of the very few PCVs who actually lived with a Tunisian family. I have to agree with Hallanback's observation that PCVs spent most of their time socializing with each other. There were numerous factors contributing to this, but I want to talk about only two.

Perhaps most importantly, most of us were taught French rather than Arabic (I tried to learn Arabic but it was very hard to learn without support). There was some justification for teachers to be taught French, as it was the official language of the lycees.

Many PCVs developed a great dislike of Tunisians. While it is fairly pleasant to travel in rural parts of Tunisia, it is very unpleasant to be in pubic places in Tunisian towns, with the possible exception of the larger and more northern cities. We were taunted in very upsetting ways by the packs of children filling the streets (we were not assaulted, however). Gafsa, the town I lived in in the south, was a town that not many Tunisians wanted to visit. My group was trained in ESL techniques and then put in front of classes of 45 Tunisian high school students, where our training was useless. There were lots of frustrations.

Female PCVs probably had an easier time getting to know Tunisians since they did not threaten Tunisian women, and they were sought out as sexual partners by Tunisian men. However, you should be able to imagine that there were disadvantages to this, as well.

Male PCVs were usually not allowed inside houses.

Personal note: I was very fortunate. I chose a town in the desert, where I wanted to live, and, after a year, found a family that would let me rent a room in their house. Once I became part of my family, I had access to many more people than otherwise possible. For example, Tunisian circumcisions consisted of three days of "parties". I was able to attend the party where only women and children were allowed, probably because as a foreigner, I was less dangerous or sexual than Tunisian men. I saw some great dancing!

In sum, I would agree with Hallanback that PCVs could have done a lot more to overcome our negativism and act more maturely, but it was not nearly as easy as Hallanback thinks! It was often very lonely and difficult living in Tunisia.