Night in Tunisia

Jack Frost's Cousins

We always thought it was a joke, that people brought the cold with them, but certain events here have led us to believe that it may in fact be true. To begin with the hot water heater in our new apartment died. That wasn’t our fault, it was old and having problems anyway and it needed to be repaired. We spent our evenings unpacking in the cold Tunisian winter weather. Now you Canadians out there who think I’m joking when I say cold and Tunisia in the same sentence, don’t be fooled. It drops to between 0 and 5 degrees in the winter and the buildings here have no insulation, none, not even a couple of sheets of newspaper, so the temperature outside is the temperature inside.

The joked that we brought the cold to the apartment and we joked that we would just eat some blubber and suck it up. It was so cold, though, that we needed to spend a couple more nights at our host’s place basking in the warmth of their hot water heaters.

A couple of days later, for the first time in remembered history, it snowed in Ettadamen (pronounced ‘tadamen) where Enda is headquartered. My coworkers flocked to the window and joked that I had brought them snow from Canada. When the excitement died down they went back to their workstations in their scarves and winter coats to work in the 0 degree offices as best they could.

The next night, though was the final coup. We returned to our host’s place to find one of their interior radiators leaking hot water and the heating tank loosing pressure. They told us it might get cold in the house but that they could have it fixed on the weekend.

That was the last straw. Now we’re wondering if cold runs in the blood of all Canadians or if our auras have a temperature issue.

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 3:44 p.m.