Tunis

        We enter the rich capital city of Tunis after a short journey from Venice. It is not as hot as we expected for May. Our stories as children always considered Africa a dry and extremely hot wasteland, yet this land was mild and crops grew just outside the city. The city is quite accepting of Christians and merchants because it is largely dependent on trade to support its empire. It is a Sunni Islamic city however and we choose to respect their customs so they in turn will respect us. The city is large with a population of about 100,000, much bigger than we are used to since our own home had only about 15,000 people. Thanks to our privileged upbringing we are well versed in many languages including Arabic, the lingua franca of the city. We head to a merchant shop to learn more about what our journey will be, what we will need, and what to expect.

    We meet with the merchant Shihad to speak with about our trip. He is a kindly, elderly man who has much experience and has made trips across the Sahara many times in his lifetime and has helped other travelers cross. He introduces us to a translator and a guide, Ghassan, who will help us on our travels. He also supplies us with 10 camels for us and a wagon to carry the goods we will transport South. He locates and gives to us the supplies we will need including: 6 canteens full of water along with 3 gallons in the cart, 2 months supply of food including salted meat, biscuits, fruit, and rice, a roughly drawn map of the route we will take along with oases along the way, 2 changes of white clothing, 4 pairs of socks and underwear, and 2 pairs of boots each. We paid for all of these items with some of the gold we brought along. He also supplied us with some goods for trade including various colored cloth, some ornate glassware, Arabic books, varied manufactured goods, and some modern weapons. We were all outfitted with handcannons originating from China, and French Falchions which were lightweight, single hand swords. We only hoped we wouldn’t need to use any of our weapons. With all of our new supplies Mark, Ghassan, and I left the beautiful city behind and began our journey which would entail going all throughout Western and Northern Africa before ending in Tripoli.