Archives August 2020

We arrived in Tunis and immediately went into quarantine. Sona and Aiden got stomach bugs and one day we had to ask Rico to find us a pharmacy to get medicine. Other than that, I was teleworking and getting used to the routine. We definitely need to learn French though. I’m trying to take classes every day time wiling. Rico, Kenton, and Intissar were great helping us and came by several times with food and toys for Aiden. On Friday, August 21 we moved to our new place in LAC 2. We like the place and it’s in a nice area. Walking distance to the Embassy, the lake, and several restaurants. We also found out about Bolt which is the Tunisian Uber and also Founa which delivers all types of merchandise including bottled water. Our UAB came on August 22 and we’ve started organizing our place. We went to a sports store called Decathlon to buy Aiden a basketball hoop and a ball dart board. On, August 29, we went to the DCM house for a cookout and met some new Embassy folks. Today, we went swimming and also had a nice breakfast at a Turkish restaurant. Enjoying it so far and hoping to keep on learning and making new memories. Aiden seems to enjoy ACST and he’s finished one week as a Kingergartner taking the bus and making friends. But he is hitting now which isn’t good. We’re planning a beach trip next week so I will write another blog about that.

On August 6, we started our journey to Tunis. The flight started at Dulles and then JFK followed by a three hour layover before we boarded our next flight to Paris. This was an overnight journey and I only got around 3 hours of rest with us having our masks on the whole time. In Paris, we had a 4 hour layover before we took our final leg to Tunis. The flight to Tunis was packed and Aiden slept the whole time. We were met at the airport by the expeditor and the CLO. On the plane were 4 other Embassy families and I introduced us to a couple. Our temporary house is in La Marsa which was around 20 minutes from the airport. Kenton met us and helped us with our bags and gave me my phone and laptop along with showing us stuff around the house. It’s a nice place and we’ve already started settling in. Aiden seems to be fine except for some skin rashes. He adjusts everywhere he goes. I’ll start my check-in process tomorrow and do some work while in quarantine. We’ll also venture out this week to explore a little bit. Tunis!

From March 2020 to August 2020, we’ve been in a Coronavirus pandemic which so far has claimed 150,000 lives in the States. Fortunately, we have at this point not contracted the disease but you never know. I’ve been teleworking all this time, first at Aperture and then Mom-Pop’s house. It’s been okay but stressful since work has been non-stop plus organizing everything we have to get done for Tunis. We are down to our final 5 days in the States and depart for Tunis on August 6. Our packout is done and the only items left is the pickup of our car and our COVID test on August 5. Hopefully, it’s negative and our flights don’t get canceled since we fly to New York, Paris, and then Tunis. I’ll need to hone my IT skills and start reading more about project management. Aiden and Sona are doing well so far and he’ll start kindergarden on August 25 at ACST. Sona will settle in and maybe find work at some point. We’ll be in temporary housing for two weeks before moving to our permanent home. See you in Tunis!