J.I. - Jesus Incognito (Tunis, Tunisia)

[Author's Note: I arrived in Tunis on September 10^th, 2010 and left two months later. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia on December 18^th, 2010, a day after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. I missed the festivities by about a month or so. Some would say I dodged a bullet but I cannot help feeling like I missed the boat. How often do you have the chance to watch history unfold from the front row? It is interesting for me to go back and read about my experiences at the time. Yes, I could almost taste repression in the air but if you told me the powder keg was about to ignite I would have been incredulous in the extreme. Yet, there it was boiling just beneath the surface. Keep this in mind when reading my Tunisia posts. It makes for a fascinating subtext.]

Oct 1^st, 2010 - Tunisia is 98% Sunni Muslim. If I were a Christian missionary I suppose I could view that statistic as the basis for an act of futility or choose to see it as one 'hell' of an opportunity. Think of all the potential converts. Fish in a barrel? Only one problem. It is technically illegal for non-Muslims to proselytize to Muslims. Missionary groups are allowed to be here but not allowed to go full throttle, at least not with the 'yet to be convinced'. They are allowed to preach to the choir, so to speak, but considering the very small population of Christians (or Jews for that matter) it is not as if there will be large revivals. And even then there are strict requirements on gatherings. It is legal for a Muslim to convert to another religion just not at the behest of a non-Muslim. What if they see the light on their 'own'? Well, game on I guess. 

Sooooooo you are allowed to be a non-Muslim. Muslims are allowed to convert but it has to be....organic and spontaneous....I guess. Non-Muslims are allowed to practice their faith but are not allowed to proselytize. Non-Muslim foreigners are allowed into the country but not allowed to conduct any type of 'missionary' activity, at least not with those outside their faith. See where I'm headed with this?

Terjit-Chinguetti-Tanochert (Adrar Region, Mauritania)

Dec 12^th, 2010 - (Nov 12^th) Vexation. Frustration. Cerebral constipation. Anti-cooperation. This became the nature of our relationship with Ahmed. He was confusing the living bejesus out of us. We floated the idea of having our Dutch friend (Yoris) join us for at least part of our journey. He had hopped on the ore train from Nouadhibou and ended up hitchhiking his way to Terjit afterward. We had space in our Toyota Heliux, Ahmed would incur no extra cost that we could foresee, and Yoris' fluency in French would assist Ahmed as much as it would us. No problem, right? Wrong. 

Ahmed resisted. First he said something about insurance, claiming if something happened to Yoris he would be liable. Alllllriiiiight. Liable to who? Was he not already liable for us? What if Yoris had been with us from the start? What is the difference? I was mustering all my powers of empathy to see his point of view. He was not helping.

He mentioned phoning his sister in Nouakchott and asking her to speak with somebody for some reason to accomplish something (She was chummy with someone important). Then he mentioned a tax that had to be paid. As I tried to clarify and understand his position it slowly eroded until he finally told me it would be no problem. Huh? Tax you say? We were willing to pay it but he then claimed it was no problem. In the course of ten minutes he went from 'No F'in Way' to 'Ain't no thaaang but a chicken waaang'. Yes, I was bewildered. What else is new? It was impossible to accommodate him because it was impossible to determine what the hell he wanted.