AIESEC PROJECT IN TUNISIA PART-2

    

At the beginning of the project everything was good, I was meeting with new people from other countries and walking around the city. I was also improving my French. Many people were interested in me at there because I was Turkish. On their TV there were many Turkish Series with translation. It was strange for me because I hate watching them but people at there, they love it… Many girls found me attractive and some of them also ask me to get married with them. They were dancing around me and feeding me. I was like a king for some time!

I was trying to get used to this mixed Arabic French culture. They were acting like they are Arabic, but their living style was trying to be like French people. Their meals, houses even mosques were not theirs. Maybe it was because of the city I was staying in. It was the last city which French troops left. About the leaving in 1961 there was a small battle occurred between Tunisia and France, almost 600 Tunisians and 30 French troops were killed in the battle. For me it is so strange because even though they don’t like France they still speak French and use it in education!

We were generally spending time at marina, where all people go to drink coffee or tea. It is surrounded by old castle walls. Sometimes were going to swim and one of the best was going to Cape Angela. It is the northernmost point of African continent. It had a beautiful seaside, there were big rocks in the sea and after diving in the sea, it is possible to sea many different types of fish. Also, there is a monument where you can go and take pictures, it is on the top of a hill. It is almost 17 km from Bizerte, which means it is not that far.

About the bad things, I got infection from my foot. I had to stay at home for 2 weeks, and other people went to visit some places, but I couldn’t. I was staying downstairs, when they turned back house owner also came with them. They forgot to take thresh out so that smell spread everywhere. The owner who is uncle of our project leader started to say some bad words about Turkey suddenly. I was shocked and defended myself, but he got angrier. We started to shout each other (I used cursed Arabic words I learned at there) and he left the house. Days were passing so fast; weather was almost 45 degrees, and we were going to a village which is 1 hour by taxi bus. Imagine there is no air conditioner and just windows, car is full of people, and it is 45 degrees…

In the middle of the project, they moved us to another house which is so old and in bad condition that homeless people even wouldn’t want to live in. It was horrible, I was sleeping on the ground, there were even not enough plates for us to eat together. Even though everything I was trying to avoid bad stuff till I got sick. At the beginning I felt something bite me from my chest, a red spot appeared on the left of my chest. In several days those spots got more and more…

I started to search about it and my friends and everyone. We figured it out that it was zona. Every night I was feeling like I was dying, the zona I have was related to nerve system which bounds to brain directly. It speeded all around my shoulder and chest. I was begging for project leaders to help me to go to doctor, but they were saying that God will help me! After 1 week I finally went to see a doctor, but he didn’t know nothing, and I was all alone there. Meanwhile other project ended, and it was our time to move back to good house but guess what, they were allowing everyone expect from me! I was so angry again and had a breakdown, I was going to beat the uncle if the leader didn’t come to talk with me. (I am holding myself so hard to write in calm, those memories hurting me so much.)

At the end they let me to spend my last days at that house and I turned back to Turkey. There are many bad things happened during the project -they didn’t let the Chinese people make their visa to steal money from them, which I figured out and solve this problem and more problems- which I never imagined at the beginning-. After I turned back to Turkey, I thought I was healed and everything is fine, but it was just the beginning of the real disease to appear. My nerve system got so much damage during the Zona disease and the doctors said that I must had treatments for that because it was the highest level. At the end I lost my 2 years because of this disease and had to quit from FLT because I was fainting 3-4 times in a day and it took so long to recover.