The necklace of life

by Wiem Trabelsi (Tunisia)

A leap into the unknown Tunisia

Two years ago, in the middle of the summer, my best friend invited me to travel with her to a little village in the north of Tunisia called Rimel. It's a small beautiful place where the mountain caresses the deep sea; thats how she described it. I hesitated at first but something deep inside decided to go. Though I was a shy girl, I went for the unkown on 14th of July 2018. I was sleeping all the way there and I need to admit that I was introvert and unsocial person. After five hours we finally arrived. Lina was knocking at the car window to wake me up. We set up our tents and we lit the fire with tree branches. All of us spent the night playing games, having deep night conversations, gazing the stars, talking about our stupid childhood mistakes and pranking each other. The leader, Alexander, asked us politely to sleep because we are going to have a long day with discoveris tomorrow. 05:42 am: we woke up. We fried some eggs and Alexander went to the inhabitants of the village and brought eggs, bread and olives. We ate than we went swiming until sunrise. I felt sun rays on my back while I was laughing with Lina and Alex. When suddenly my foot pressed something and Line screamed because she saw a black moving circle in the water, while everyone was laughing hardly at us because it was just a little sea creature: turtle! It was a female turtle who layed her egges on land and went back to the sea. We followed her step by step and helped her to cover her babies until she left. That event was breathtaking and magical as you can possibly imagine. Than, we dried ourselves before having lunch and getting ready to go to the village. Two hours later; we nearly arrived. I can remember clearly the small houses of love, the screams of children playing football barefoot, living Souks and cheerful people. The atmosphere was captivating all of my spirit. People in this small place are living with love in coeixtance. The mosque is just 5 feet apart the church. Two diffrent beliefs are just living togother in the name of humanity was a shock for me and my friends and we definitely did not expect that. Every single foot and every single look at that place was even more interesting. The inhabitants have already noticed our existance, I had a lot of prejudices about others and it wasn't easy for me to have friends. But here ! The people were too generous. Everyone was giving us free food, drinks, souvenirs; and the most important thing that they were giving us free immortal memories. There was a lady, in her fifties, insited that she is going to invite us for dinner. She was living alone after the death of her husband, and she made us a traditionnal local food: the famous tunisian Koskus with Cod and Tuna. She also baked a cake with basil from her own garden. We helped her to wash the dishes than we spent the night hearing her stories about her life experiences. She was a living library and we were really thrilled to have her with us. Minutes later she prepared us a place to sleep and since the house is too small I slept with her in her bed. She was too generous and kind unlike the people I used to know in my life. At 07:00 in the morning we were preparing ourselves to have breakfast and to go back to our city. We had the last tour in the village, greeted the inhabitants and surely thank Mrs.Dammak for her invitation, generosity and hospitality. Just before Adam put the key in the car, she was running to us with gifts in her hands. We hugged her tightly and we cried as long as she was crying. She gave me a necklace. Very beautiful handmade necklace that I m putting it around my neck until now. Today, I almost finished the country tour and I am preparing myself to the world tour with that necklace, the one who introduced me to life.