Matmata - one amasirr family 

 

After a three hour drive from El Jem we arrived at Matmata where we visited a Amasirr family, which is part of the free people of Tunisia. It was a special experience, as they still live in caves underground. Their houses are built into the rocks, but with an open courtyard in the middle which gives light and heat to the house. The courtyard is round and the center of the house, where the different rooms excavates from. The rooms are very dark and cold, as there are no windows to give light and heat. Apart from the walls, which are made of sand, the rooms are decorated like any other home in Tunisia, with a bed, a cupboard and pictures on the walls. We think it would be nice if they had built a hotel in the style of the rooms, so you as a tourist, had the opportunity to live in the same style as the family, but maybe with slightly better options.

 

The population speaks boubor, which is an old language that can’t be learned in school, and therefore must be learned at home. As seen in the pictures below, they live out in the middle of nowhere, and must therefore go far to get fresh supplies. In Tunisia we believe, that they  are 30-40 years behind down here in terms of their home and technology compared to Europe, then the amasirr families are certainly further behind as they still uses das and outdoor bath and as they do not really have access to the electronics, which is very far from our everyday life in Denmark.

 

It was definitely a special experience to visit the family, and it could really be nice to try to live like them for a week. We didn’t get this opportunity, as the trip only offered a short visit where we were got bread and tea, which the family had made. The mother and father can be seen in the pictures below, but the kids were unfortunately in school at the time, and we were therefore not able to take pictures of them or see how many they actually live in the "house".

As a little fun fact, the Star Wars movies were recorded in the same area as the family lives. We soon have to see the movie, so we can see if we can recognize the areas in which we were driving through.

!