One busy week, many thanks!

We’re in the middle of our day between meetings but we’d like to pause to reflect on the first week of our project. Fortunately, we didn’t lose much time adjusting to the culture here. Jaber is a native Tunisian and Tricia was welcomed into his family’s home. She has found the people and the food very easy to digest ! However, it quickly became clear to us that a great deal of time and energy is required to begin to meet our immediate project goals and create future endeavors.

We are extremely grateful for Jaber’s numerous professional veterinary and medical contacts who have shared their experiences, interests and ideas. They are an amazing resource and wealth of information about the health status of donkeys and the economic situation of the owners. We've primarily been in urban Tunis and have seen donkeys, mules and horses pulling a variety of poorly designed carts. Our first impression is that the urban working equines are in most need of intervention. Most of them have the dull look in their eyes of an exhausted animal. They are thin, have bleeding around their mouths, and pressure sores from carts, scarring on their front legs (from being hobbled) and chipped hooves.

We are fully engaged in our meetings and even though we are eager for hands-on veterinary work we see the value in taking our time for conversations. We listen carefully and let go of our preconceived notions of how things get done. All these discussions are building a strong foundation of colleagues with shared visions for Tunisia and the donkeys. Even with internet and skype available to us to network, there is no substitute for person to person connections and seeing the donkeys at work.

Even though we are centrally located, driving from our home base to the various meeting places takes a great deal of time due to the heavy traffic around Tunis. There are no rules of the road here in Tunisia. Cars stop and park wherever they want, traffic lights don’t work, police randomly stop cars, pedestrians and bikes ignore racing cars, and dead vehicles are abandoned.

Tunisians are busy hard working people - there is a constant buzz of activity. Scheduling appointments to meet up requires patience and a fair amount of flexibility. We've found the best way to make contact is by telephone. Appointments are often set up on the spot and we shift directions to catch up to people as they are available.

We have also realized the business meetings we set up usually involve eating food and  general visiting and bonding. Not that we're complaining, but it does slow down the process of moving forward. Social activities are offered and of course, it is rude to say no. (Tricia was taken to a hamman (turkish bath) in Arianna a few days ago by the very charming mother of a veterinarian we were meeting with).

The days are long and hot but the week has been very productive. We are looking forward to the next steps. Tomorrow we will be in Zaguan visiting with Malek and his donkeys at his olive oil farm.