Monday 10 March 2008

Being different


We stood out in Tunisia. Having two blonde haired kids attracted a lot of attention. Most of the time our daughter was okay with the cheek pinching and hair patting. One of the strongest reactions was from a carload of teenage girls who pulled up next to us in the tourbus. They saw our kids, and pointed, smiled and laughed. Next a carload of teenage boys did the same. Our kids seemed to enjoy the attention.

Even though we didn't like how the vendors demanded we enter their stores, it was fun to hear them guess where we were from. We had many people guess us as German, Swiss, Norwegian, Russian, English, French and Austrian. I would say yes, whenever they got close. For example, is someone would say "Schweiss?", I would say "yah" because technically, my name being Schweitzer, along the way someone had indeed come from Switzerland. I have to say that at no point did anyone guess American or Irish. Not a lot of Americans visit the area. We felt special even though we pretended to be Canadian at times.

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