Holiday Bazaar

Today the US Government Employees Recreation Association (USGERA) in Tunis hosted a Holiday Bazaar. They have a tent-like, semi-permanent structure that they filled with vendors selling their handicrafts. There was some gorgeous local pottery, several artists with oil paintings, jewelry makers, clothing and wrought iron decorative home accents.

The club area served lunch allowing folks to come peruse the vendor tables on their lunch hour and still get something to eat. Friday was Tikki Masala day.
So aside from getting lunch, we wandered the tables and looked at the very fine local Tunisian handicrafts.

There were rugs of all colors. The style is very much like Navajo rugs, with every single design element having some kind of meaning. I've been told to research the meanings carefully before investing in a Tunisian rug. I didn't have the heart to tell the Tunisian advisor that I don't think they are soft enough to fill my house with... I want a Persian.

I bought two small leather wallets (hand made!) for about $4 each. You might think the choice of small leather coin purses was kind of random, but I find myself the lucky owner of Algerian money, Euros, Tunisian Dinar and American Dollars. My goal is to keep all the money in easily identified wallets and just grab the one for the country we're traveling to or through. That's my plan. And now I have the wallets to do it.

The Holiday Bazaar was a boon to the Americans working at the Embassy. They were able to come over on their lunch hour, do some Christmas shopping and get right back to work. I was told that USGERA does this about four times a year with different vendors each time. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

--Sandee Wagner