My Seventh Marriage Proposal

FROM ISSUE # 148 (April 2008) | IN THIS ISSUE
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I met Peter at an internet café several times before he introduced himself. He was a businessman and worked in Tunisia for a Hong Kong fashion company. He invited me to his apartment and even offered to let me stay there if I wanted to. I agreed because that meant I would save on the hotel money and Tunis is an expensive town.

Peter went to work early morning and would return in the evening. And while he was gone his landlord would always come and talk to me. She was a housewife and didn't speak English and I didn't know Arabic, so our conversations were more with hands than the mouth. But her daughters understood a bit of English.

She had four daughters and all of them were pretty like most Muslim girls. Tunisian Muslim girls didn't wear a burka like in other countries. Even though 98 percent of Tunisians are Muslims, it is very different from other Muslim countries in the world.    

Normally in the day I went around the city and took pictures. People are very friendly and they come to talk to you all the time. At times they even ask you for coffee or tea but that is just their way to mug people. If you accept, you end up paying for them too. Some come up to you and show you pictures of girls to have sex with. And if you like one of them and agree to it, they ask for money to bring the girl in a taxi. When you do, you'll never see them again.
 
Every evening on returning, Peter, his landlord and I would talk a lot. I'd tell them about my experiences which they found funny. Peter would translate for us. She even offered to get one of her daughters married to me making it the seventh proposal I've received in the course of my journey. She'd always ask me which daughter I wanted to marry. And her daughters would get very excited when she said that. Maybe they thought I was a rich guy; they had no idea about my life. Well, I am rich, but at heart. 

The landlady was one of a kind as it was very rare to find someone in a Muslim country offering to marry their daughter to someone from a different religion. If I agreed to marry her, I'd first have to convert into a Muslim and I know they are very strict about their religion. And that meant I'd have to be circumcised first, which is a must according to their culture. They circumcise boys when they are babies so that they heal fast. But I think I am too old to be circumcised and if I did, I'll have to wear a maxi and stop riding my bike till I recover. But the most important question is will my wife come along with me to Nepal?  

 Pushcycle
 Tunis, Tunisia

Journey started: 29 November 1998
Aim: To cycle around the world spreading the message of peace and hope within 11 years.
Countries travelled till date: 118
Next Leg: East Europe