what happened....

The reason this blog has been so quiet is that I am in Tunisia/Salammbo [yes, Flauberts one]. I am staying here for several reasons, one of them is to improve my arabic. I discovered many strange and interesting things so far....one of them being a magician.

We were strolling through the narrow lanes in the old market of Tunis not aiming for much except soaking up the atmosphere. Then we stopped to buy some henna and harkous [the stuff people call naqsch in Yemen, used to paint hands and feet]. The man sitting in the tiny shop let us browse his goods for some time which consisted of the strangest things i have ever seen [skewered dead toads, three little chameleons in a tiny cage, porcupine bristles lots of different dried herbs and different spices to make bkhur]. We were invited into the tiny shop and could therefore discover how he practised his art. Lots of people dropped in while we were there and quite a big amount got amulets for different kinds of problems. There were letters that had to be placed above the door to make ones husband stop deceiving oneself and a shopkeeper dropped in to get something to improve his business. I thought that something like that does not exist here and was pretty excited about experiencing it. Coming home and telling friends about what happened was even more interesting. The man, I was told, is a good for nothing ripping of people.