Apologies for the lack of entries lately. After being sick, I recovered and life has been a whirlwind ever since. Let's start wher I left off and catch up from there . . .
At the request of the director of Amideast, I attended an event at the Minicple Theater in downtown Tunis called the FYOTD (translated as the five opportunistic disabled youth of Tunisia) sponsored by JCI (Junior Chamber International). My task was to meet and mingle with the people at the event and find out if any of the nominees were of high school age, and if they would be interested in applying to study abroad in the US as part of the YES program through Amideast. I was happy to oblige . . . requesting that I attend a fancy event and mingle with motivated youth and professionals who are interested in bringing about change in the world? Ok, I'm in!
A little background first: JCI is a world-wide organization that provides development opportunities to young people to encourage activisim and positive change. I mentioned that I was attending the FYOTD event to my supervisor, and she suggested that I meet up with her neighbor later that day who was also attending the event. I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with her and learn about her fulbright experience teaching Arabic while studying english at a university in the American South. As I am writing this entry I do not recall which southern university she taught at, so it shall remain a mystery.
The FYOTD ceremony was held at the beautiful Municiple Theater in downtown Tunis. It was built at the turn of the 20th century in classic French architecture style, and the balcony looks out over the famous bustling Avenue Habib Bourguiba. I was also lucky enough that my Tunisian companion's cousin happened to be one of the organizers of the event, so we were ushered around to the back of the theatre in order to enter through a seperate door. After coming up a sindy staircase,we were led to a VIP seating area with nice red velvet chairs. I was so surprised to have such fancy treatment, and repeatedly thanked everyone who worked the VIP area that night. We were given bundles of jasmine flowers and refreshments as part of the event as well. What can I say, it's good to have connections!
The ceremony honored the five most outstanding disabled youth in Tunisia in select categories of higher education, athletics, fine arts, computer science and communication, and traditional arts. Between each nominee, a famour singer, musician, or poet would perform his/her latest work for the audience as a form of support for the youth and to keep the event young and hip. These local artists added an interesting flavor to the overal atmophere of the event. A short introductory video was made in Arabic about each student explaining their disability and the reason for their nomination. I attempted to gleen as much information as I could from the videos and context, but was grateful to have a Tunisian companion for the evening. After the video, each student was asked to come up on stage in order to be presented with an award, and asked to speak a little about their plans for the future in regards to their specific field.
Nominees included a master's student in a wheel chair, a foot painter (an artist who paints with his/her feet due to lack of motor control in the arms), an olympic runner who is blind, a computer science engineer with severe speech disabilities, and a traditional textile and pottery artist who is blind. Each student was unique in their own pursuit of their passions, and from what I understood from their personal statements, each had overcome difficulties to establish themselves as "normal" in society.
One of the most touching points was when the wife of the computer software engineer shared the story of how they met and fell in love. They both worked for the same company and had worked together on several projects. She was inspired by his kindness and generosity to those around him, despite people not always providing the same respect and dignity when they initially interacted with him. In spite of this adversary, "he walks the walk and talks the talk", she said, "and for that he is better than any 'normal' person I know and an inspiration for everyone". His story was really quite amazing, and he looked so humble as he accepted the award, and so proud as he turned to his wife and smiled at her as she squeezed his hand. Ah, sooooo wonderful!
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