making a history
My father makes things. He has, so far, been a cartographer, a filmmaker, a soldier, a photographer, an inventor, and a businessman. He speaks four languages. He is ambidextrous. He has lived in all three worlds and has seen many of the faces of poverty and wealth. My father has three names- one for each country he’s lived in. Unconventional, stubborn, eccentric, with a mode of problem solving that drives my mother crazy, he is filled with stories. This is one of them. I hope I get it right. My father was born in Tunisia, in Tataouine, back when it was a tiny village in the desert. His father, my grandfather, ground wheat for a living. They lived in a hut with no electricity- mother, father and half a dozen siblings. My father talks of adventures climbing palm trees, of hitting birds with his s...