Safety in Tunisia

As some of you may have seen on the news, 18 US embassies in North Africa and the Middle East have closed due to Al-Quaida threats.  However, Tunisia is not one of them!  All the US embassies around Tunisia have closed but not the one in Tunis.  This is all God!  I truly believe he is telling me it is safe to go and he will take care of me!  I have felt very loved and cared for with all the people who have been concerned.  Here is the map that shows which embassies are closed.  The little gray country between Algeria and Libya is Tunisia. God is amazing!

 

On Sunday morning, my director emailed me and I wanted to share it with you.  It was very comforting and I hope it is comforting to you as well:

"Contrary to what you may have seen on the news, conditions in Tunis are quite normal on the ground. There is a pro government rally scheduled for today but we will not see it here in the northern suburbs. Such rallies and/or protests occur in one of 2-3 sites in Tunis proper and are typically peaceful. Expats are always advised to avoid such gatherings. You may have also heard that the US has closed its embassies in 18 middle eastern and north african countries today (Sunday, August 4th) due to broad Al Qaeda threats. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Tunisia was not on that list. 

Tunisia is a young democracy and will continue to go through some bumps. However, thousands of tourists are here enjoying the Mediterranean beaches and foreigners have not been targeted or injured here. In fact, physical violence involving guns is very rare which is why the recent assassination of a political leader has caused such alarm in Tunisia. There are very few guns in the country but occasionally they are smuggled in from Libya or Algeria. Homicide rates in Tunisia are actually 1/4 of what they are in the US."