Fellows' Reflections: Neely Egan

I can hardly believe that six months have already passed in my fellowship in Tunisia. Time has moved so strangely – it feels like I’ve been here forever, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like any time has passed. Adding to this confusion is the difficulty that comes when I try to put my time here into words, because few people at home can picture anything that I’m talking about.

There is one exception – for our last school break, two coworkers and I went on a major road trip all across the south of Tunisia. We covered miles upon miles and ended up seeing it all. It was an amazing trip for many reasons. First of all, it was my first time outside of the greater Tunis region. On our drive across the country I was completely struck by how diverse the geography can be in such a small country. Throughout our drive we went from beach town to olive groves to desert to mountains to oases. At home in Florida, I could drive 8 hours and still be on a beach, so I found even the drive incredible.

Secondly, I camped in the desert, rode a camel, and got to see the set of Luke Skywalker’s home planet: Tatooine. If you know me at all, you know that all three of these truly touristic activities would make me jump for joy. I love camping, but camping in the desert was something entirely different. This may seem funny to say, but you’ve never experienced true silence until you’re in the middle of the desert … unless you’re riding a camel, and then they can make funny noises. I certainly wobbled when I was on that hump, but I got to cross it off my bucket list! I also embraced my inner nerd when I saw the Star Wars set. It felt so funny to see something so familiar in the middle of the desert. Even though I was actually farther from home than I am in Tunis, while I was on that set, I was, for a moment, back on my family room couch watching George Lucas’ movies with my family, which leads nicely to the last reason I loved this trip.

My trip was something that my friends and family back home could experience (somewhat) with me. I wish that all of my favorite people from home could come visit me here in Tunisia, but of course that is a bit hard this year, given travel restrictions. So, I’ve just had to bring Tunisia to them instead, which funnily enough came most easily through George Lucas and camels. For them, these moments of true tourism were easier to picture than normal life like my day-to-day interactions with my homeni (Tunisian for “neighborhood friends”). So for now, I’ll stay in my galaxy far, far away and try to convince people to move here, instead of New York or Washington, DC.