Feeling welcomed

Despite what the US State Department says, I do not feel despised and unwanted here.

Many people have gone out of their way to be helpful or friendly. Don makes people laugh with pantomime and silly French and they laugh and embrace him when they see him coming. A guy on the beach yelled out "hello," to Del and I as we walked along the beach Thursday. We answered back and walked on, but when we looked back, there he was jumping up and down with his arms spread telling his buddies, "I talk English!"

Then at the embassy barbecue Karim, an Algerian businessman my age, told me about how appreciation for Americans was rooted in World War II and remained strong. He learned this from his parents, he said.

The Americans were so big and strong, and friendly. They handed out gum and chocolate and Coca-Cola and they talked to people. This made a strong impression on his parents and other Algerians of this era who could not help but compare these powerful Americans to their French colonist masters who wee puny, small and snooty. Algerians liked, as Nadir, one of our interpreters here would put it, "to make a laugh of them."

Karim also talked about how high-spirited and drunken Americans were frequently confused by the Moorish architecture of Algiers which features homes with doorways that lead to a courtyard. His grandmother, he said, would frequently wake up to find American soldiers snoring on the courtyard ground. She would shake them and call, "Wake up, my son!"