Youth under the North African Sun  A traveler does not have to
be very experienced to reach the conclusion that wherever he
goes the most striking impressions come from things that are
unexpectedly different from or surprisingly like those to which
he is accustomed. Recently revisiting western Algeria, where I
had spent a year teaching in a secondary school, I was again
struck by how different life is in a country where little
appears to have changed since the religion of Islam was
introduced over ten centuries ago. But I also noticed how
similar life there is to mine in a host of daily trivialities.
For the northern European the whole Mediterranean area conjures
up an image of olive groves, sunshine, and dust, little changed
since biblical times. Even the advent of the motor car has not
altered the fact that the donkey or mule is still in many areas
the most practical and popular means of local travel. Yet one
can buy the same brand of toothpaste or soap powder in a small
town in the hills of North Africa a