Adapted from a post I wrote for the Medium account for the U.S. Department of State’s International Exchange Alumni community. – Pauline, SOUKRA founder
When I think about my first week as a Fulbrighter in Tunis in September 2005, it was not only the beginning of lifelong friendships and connections to Tunisia, but also an experience that awakened my entrepreneurial spirit. At the time, though, I had no clue that it would play such an important role in my career and life beyond the research project that brought me to Tunisia in the first place.
My independent research was focused on the visual representations in reception room mosaics during the Roman Empire. I traveled to remote archaeological sites to see mosaics in situ; audited art history classes; studied in the library of the Bardo Museum, which houses an enormous collection of Roman mosaics; visited museums across the country; and met with students and renowned Roman mosaics scholars. Two years later, I applied this research to my master’s thesis.
The most important decision I made when I moved to Tunisia was to live with two Tunisians, Zina and Rihab, in La Marsa, near Carthage and Sidi Bou Said. Doing so not only helped me to bridge a cultural boundary, but also created lifelong friendships. One memorable experience was celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, with Zina’s family in her hometown of Gabès. By keeping an open mind and a willingness to adapt while living in a different country, I learned as much about myself as I learned about Tunisia.
My closest friends, Zina and Senda, are the reasons why I return to Tunisia every few years. They were instrumental in helping me launch Fouta Lifestyle in 2010, and help me grow SOUKRA. I am forever grateful for their friendship and support. Both studied at Tunisia’s architecture school ENAU (Ecole Nationale d’Architecture et Urbanism) in Sidi Bou Said, when I lived there, and have been practicing architecture for years – Zina in Paris, and Senda in Tunis. They were the first I called when I started thinking about SOUKRA. You may recognize their names from the fouta styles – a way I pay homage to them and the friends I’ve made in Tunis over the years.
In 2017, Fouta Lifestyle relaunched as SOUKRA, a platform that celebrates Tunisia by offering home accessories, apparel, skincare and specialty foods from the country’s designers. There’s a burgeoning community of entrepreneurs in Tunisia ever since the Arab Spring and SOUKRA provides a platform for these designers to share their Tunisian culture with the world. That feeling of vulnerability when living in a new place and adapting to different cultures is a feeling that I also felt when starting my own business. I know that within that challenging place are new opportunities.
Zina, Senda, and Pauline at Senda’s home, November 2016