A Journey to the Island of Dreams(Gasmi OLfa) All the birds assembled in the forest of “The marvellous tree” to admire the new born dove, Suleima. This event created joyfulness among the inhabitants of the region, because Suleima was the first dove born on the first day of spring! And this means, that she would be appointed, as doves used to be, to take children from all over the world on fantastic journeys. They would discover together so many nice places.

Every day, since early morning, Suleima would set out, accompanied by her mother, to discover new places and to learn many things.

“You should be attentive in order to memorise the places, dear Suleima,” her mother would recommend.

One day, Suleima listened to her mother carefully, and asked all sorts of questions, then said: “Ok mum, I’m now ready to travel with the children”.

The summer season came and a group of children visited Suleima. They felt exited when they saw the lovely dove in her traditional clothes. In turn, Suleima was very glad to see her new friends: Peter from America, Mary from London, Frederic from France and the twins Samer and Samar from Tunisia. Suleima welcomed them warmly:
”Hello dear children. Welcome to the forest of Marvellous tree”.
“Hello suleima!” The children replied.
Then Suleima announced the beginning of the journey. They decided the island of Jerba to be their first destination.

Kaos is a blue naughty bird. He was born on the same day as Suleima; that is on the first day of spring. This is why he wanted to take the responsibility of going with the children; He was jealous of suleima seeing her preparing herself for the journey.

The preparations were over. Suleima and the children were ready. When they were about to leave, they heard a strange sound coming from a tree! Suleima went there to see what it was. She was surprised to see Kaos crying:
“What’s the matter dear Kaos?”, Suleima asked.
“I want to join you, but mum refused, she said I’m too young to go on a trip without her company”.
“You should obey your mother Kaos, she is sick and she can’t provide food for herself, you should stay to help her”, Suleima said.
Kaos listened carelessly to Suleima then flew away.

The children caught a small nice bus while suleima flew happily above them. As soon as they reached the island of Jerba, Suleima shouted gladly: “Hey! Children welcome to Jerba." The children moved hurriedly to discover the charms of the island.

The inhabitants of Jerba admired the pretty dove with her shining traditional Chechia and their sons and daughters were joyful seeing her fly above their houses.

As the sandy beach was charming, Suleima and the children decided to rest for a while before continuing their journey. Under the palm trees, Suleima saw something.
-“Wait children! Who’s that?”.
The children let out a cry of surprise:
-“Kaos! What a strange bird!
How did you come here crazy bird?” Frederic asked.
Kaos demanded: “can I join you?”

The children were joyful to see Kaos. But Suleima blamed him:
“What about your mother! Did you get her permission?”
“No…yes, yes, I did” Kaos answered hesitatingly.
“Ok then, you can join us” Suleima said. “but if I find out that you are lying, I’ll expell you from our group!”

The children had multiple questions and Suleima suggested that they ask them one by one.
“Do you see the traditional architecture with domes?“
“Are domes old”? Peter demanded.
“Yes dear, Jerba is a several thousand-year-old town,” Suleima said. “Follow me to explore the seductive oasis.” She added.

The children followed Suleima but Kaos stayed on the beach to play with some birds. Suleima and the children reached the oasis.
“Wow! It’s really a wonderful view”, Mary Whispered.
Suleima hovered over a white building. “Do you see this prestigious mosque? It bears witness of Jerboa’s past”.
Peter cried surprisingly: “Oh, look at this big building. What’s that Suleima?”
“This is called «Borj el kebir» dear Peter, This fortress was built in the 15th century by «the sultan» of Tunis. It was here, in 1560, that the famous soldier, Dragut, pushed back the Spanish invaders.”

The children got hungry; Suleima took them to a nice hotel to have lunch there. After lunch Peter and Samer played Tennis together, Frederic played Football with some boys, and Mary and Samar preferred horse riding.
After leaving the hotel, Suleima proposed to go on tour around Jerba. While wandering along Jebra’s pathways, Suleima noticed a bride on a camel’s back.

Suleima congratulated her then said:
“Brides in Jerba use a camel‘s back to walk along the sound of bagpipes and tambourines as part of jehfa.”
“Oh it’s really a magnificent view,“ Peter yelled.
Samar, Samer, Peter and Maria started to dance and jump delightfully, while Frederic was taking photos.

At the end of the day, the children got tired. They went to their tents to spend the night there. Before sleeping, Suleima heard a strange noise. It was Kaos trying to enter. Suleima let him in then warned him:
“If you leave by your own in the morning, I’ll punish you kaos!”.

The following day at dawn, kaos managed to get out. He flew until he reached a strange scary place! It’s a 400-strong crocodile farm! Kaos leaned over the crocodiles!

When she got up, Suleima decided to go to «Gualala» to buy potteries and old jewels for the girls, but the boys suggested going to the crocodile farm:
“Why don’t we go to the crocodile farm Suleima?”
“That’s a good idea” Suleima replied “but you should promise to be careful and attentive”.
“Ok Suleima” The children said happily.

When they reached the farm, the children were surprised to see the huge crocodiles swimming in a big lake.
“That’s amazing!” Peter whispered.
Maria and Samar were scared. They didn’t approach the park. Suleima was on her way with the children to «lalla hadria museum» which was near the park when she heard a cry. It was kaos stuck on a small palm tree bough while a big crocodile was coming over to him. Suleima let out a cry of fright.

“Kaos is in danger!” The children cried: “Poor Kaos! He’s going to die."
Luckily, Suleima showed up in time to save him. She started to move crazily up and down above the crocodile, until he got nervous and backed away. Suleima came over to Kaos and tried to free him using her beck and finally succeeded. “Quickly” Suleima growled, “follow me.” The children clapped happily.

They left the crocodile farm, again Suleima blamed Kaos who apologized for disobeying her.
“I wanted to prove that I’m a brave bird” Kaos explained.
“You mustn’t put your self into trouble to prove your bravery,” Suleima replied.
“I’m sorry Suleima, I’ll never do things without asking for your permission” Kaos said.
“We should go to a calm place after the hardships that we have come through today” Samar said.
“What about going back to the tents to relax?” Peter proposed
“I agree”, Suleima replied.

The children had their lunch then fell asleep. While they were recalling the dream-like journey; Suleima said loudly. “Wake up children. Time to go back home”. They felt sorry as the journey was over but Suleima promised to take them to many other wonderful places. She distributed small papers in which she wrote names of Tunisian regions: Gabes, Matmata, Hammamat and Tabarka. Then she said: "every one should write the name of the region that he hopes to visit. The region which will be chosen by the majority will be certainly our next destination."

David, Jako, Celina and the twins started to choose their best regions enthusiastically………then, they exchanged their addresses in order to write for each other as they really became true friends.

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