The Waterstraut Waterspout: Tunisia

On to number 119, and we're headed back to Africa with the northernmost country on the continent: Tunisia. Sitting next door to Trump 1.0 banned country of Libya, it's no surprise Tunisia has it's fair share of issues. There's an official US Travel Warning, advising against travel to certain areas. Violence is so bad there, that even US Embassy personal outside of the capital of Tunis needs advance notification. Terrorists have attacked civilians, government and security forces, and tourists.

Our landmark for Tunisia was the Ruins of Carthage. Founded by the Phoenicians (shout out to Spaceship Earth! Who says Epcot isn't a home school field trip?), the ancient city was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. At it's peak, it ruled a significant portion of the coast including Northern Africa, Southern Spain and the Islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily.

But, the boys know Carthage, from Rome Week . Carthage became increasingly in colfict with Rome, which resulted in the three Punic Wars.

The wars lasted nearly 120 years, but let's just fast forward through those.

In the first, Rome defeated Carthage and took control of Sicily.

The Second Punic War was made famous by Hannibal, and his elephants. It's the guy who crossed the Alps on his elephants to attack Rome. Hannibal won some battles in Italy, but Carthage weakened as the war waged on.

In the third, the Romans defeated Carthage and gained control of much of Northern Africa and Spain.

Carthage was later rebuilt by Julius Caesar, and it became a major part of the Roman Empire. Carthage was home to El Jem- the largest Roman Colosseum in all of Africa.

When Peyton first sat down for the lesson on Tunisia, he was like 'Hey, it looks like Tatooine (Luke Skywalker's home in Star Wars, for those of you not familiar... and if you're not, where have you been living!?) . In fact, George Lucas used the troglodyte dwellings in the village of Matmata as the set. A lot of Tunisia was used for Star Wars. It seems like a good place for it, as Tunisia has some of the most accessible, beautiful parts of the Sahara desert.

The largest salt water lake within the Sahara is also located in Tunisia. It's a place where the mysterious optical phenomenon 'fata morgana' occurs. A layer of cooler air lies beneath a layer of warmer air, creating a mirage in which people see weird shapes in the distance floating and transforming in front of them.

And, that's your very quick Tunisia lesson.

In order to get some more countries done, and to make sure we're eating at least one meal together as a family, when Asa is in the office, we're going to try and do some smaller meals and have countries for lunch. There's just not enough days for me to wait on dinners (and we lose meals with football season and our various tacos/sliders/baked potato bars).

For brunch we had Tastria (Tunisian Fried Peppers and Eggs), and Tunisia Lemon slices. I get pretty excited when I can find a 'Product Of:' insert whatever country we're doing here. And Trader Joes really helps with that.

This lunch earned ZERO spoons up. That doesn't happen very often.

I really, really wanted to love this one. What's not to love? Fried pepper with eggs! But something made this really, really spicy- and we didn't even get that spicy of peppers. I don't know, maybe someone put the wrong pepper in the wrong bin and we grabbed something other than what we thought. But, even Asa and Peyton had a hard time with this one, and they love spicy stuff. I'm not above trying it again.

BUT, I do not want to try those Tunisian Lemon Slices again. I had them in the pantry FOREVER, because when I find a 'product of' with a country we haven't done yet, I check the expiration and then I buy it and stick it in the secret pantry for whenever that country rolls around. I really thought these were going to be good, but they were quite possibly some of the worst things I've ever tasted. They were like more sour than anything I've ever had before, but somehow also managed to be bitter. I tried to set a good example and eat both of them on my plate. After we all had a bite (or just ate the first one), nobody could believe I tried the second one on my plate. It wasn't a good decision.

Along with the eggs I did decide to make some toast. I felt like it just needed something, and we still had lots of bread left from our prepping for Irma days. Then I decided to pull out jams and jellies to top it with- and I was most excited to pull out another Trader Joes find: Apple Cider Jam! Ok, so it's about as American as it gets, but it was SO good, and totally saved brunch. I want four more jars of this to stockpile when they stop having it (I'm pretty sure it's a fall seasonal item).

We actually did our lesson after lunch, while Asa was at work and then the boys made their postcards.

Of course they all made note of Star Wars.

Both Calib and Peyton had lightsabers featured on theirs.

Hayden went with Jobba the Hut.

Dinner when I'm cooking is something easy, so I think that night we had roast in the slow cooker (Asa actually put it in for me). But, we need Asa's vote for postcards, so we made sure to video chat with him during dinner so he didn't miss that part.