Little Monster

This is Mayssar Rebi, a rather inquisitive 10 year old I met on the road between El Hamma and Kebili today. His dad waved me over to offer me some dates, and this little monster wasted no time before diving into my bike bags.

I could not convince him that my GPS offered neither music nor video games, and he happily went crazy on all the buttons for 15 minutes to see what he could pull up on the screen.

Mayssar rides a taxi bus the 35 km. to school every weekday in Kebili. He asked if I could give him some money to buy a bicycle. Instead, I pulled out my map of North Africa, and that was a real eye opener…for me. Damn, I’ve got a long way to go! Polly was right.

Making sure dad didn’t notice, Mayssar chewed through half a baguette and all of my cheese. Then he found my cameras, and demanded to take pictures. I took a picture of him instead, and promised to send it in the mail. Dad did not want to be photographed, and wanted me to write the address because (I suspect) he isn’t literate. Just really, really nice. I offered some money for the dates, and even insisted, but he would accept nothing.

On the road to Kebili

It was with some relief late in the day to find a guy kilometers from anywhere walking his mobylette, having run out of gas. After receiving so many kindnesses I could finally reciprocate by filling up his tank from my stove fuel.

Kebili, Tunisia