Karoke, Tunis-style

I think I've mentioned that the whole area we're living in is dry. The Saudis put up the money for the development of this part of town, and in exchange, they required that all the businesses be alcohol free for 20 years or so. We keep some liquor in the room and tipple a little in the privacy of our room, but there is no drinking in public.

The bar downstairs makes gorgeous fruit drinks. I can't tell you how many times I've enjoyed a "Capisoda" wishing it had a shot of vodka in it. It might be worth it to sneak down an airplane bottle of vodka and tip it in...

All the 'bars' in this area of time serve elaborate coffees and fruit juices. Imagine our surprise when we went into Cafe Cubana for some cuban food and found that Saturday night is Karaoke Night. The Cafe Cubana is decorated in a bright Caribbean color scheme with the addition of all kinds of writing on the walls. On weeknights, with your bill, you are given a marker and invited to sign the walls. We've left messages on one of our past trips to the restaurant.
Nothing is quite like it seems around here. I explained to the Scottish couple who accompanied us that everything looks right, but it's just a bit off. Not quite right. It looks normal but there will be one thing that is just off enough to make it not quite taste like it should. The fajitas are served in a cone like bread that is NOT a tortilla. It's a flatbread made in the Middle Eastern style. It looks like a tortilla but has none of the softness or 'give'. Ditto the stuff that LOOKS like sour cream. It's not.

So, it shouldn't have surprised me when other things about this cafe appeared one way, and seemed another.Take Karaoke Night. In the US, you'd have the after work crowd of adults. They'd drink a few drinks to get loose, or use it as 'dutch courage'. In this cafe in Tunis, there is no alcohol. I expected to be exposed to a bunch of the local Arabic rock and roll. I hear it on the radio all the time. There's quite a lot of it. There's a whole 'MTV like' station on TV that is full of the local singers and their music videos. Not what I'm used to, but I recognize it as popular music. I steeled myself for a bunch of these teens wailing away to that music... and boy, was I wrong.

The DJ controlling the karaoke played the songs selected by the teens (none of whom were drinking age) and they were ALL US rock and roll hits. The biggest crowd pleaser was "Zombie" by the Cranberries.If you are familiar with this song, then you can imagine the repetitious IEIEIEIE that comes at the ends of the refrain "...ZombieIEIEIE" The kids were howling along with this lyric. That song transcended all language. Although this picture is not great, I was trying to show the monitor on the wall that showed the lyrics to sing... the lyrics are an English song. The singers are not English speakers, at all. Beyond their pronunciation, they actually miss song phrasing and connotation that a native speaker would get, even if unfamiliar with the tune.

Once again, not quite what I expected. Tunis keeps surprising me.

--Sandee Wagner