Author: Lilianna Couch | Major: Nursing | Semester: Summer 2025

Exploring Sidi Bou Said

Hello! My name is Lilianna Couch. I am a Nursing Major in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. I attended the U of A Faculty Lead: Community Nursing in Tunisia, N. Africa in the Summer 2025 intersession. I studied abroad in Tunisia, Africa. I was very interested in studying abroad in Tunisia because I had never traveled anywhere outside of North America. I have always had interest in working with humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, and I thought this trip would give me great insight on what it would be like to be away from home for prolonged periods of time, as well as be immersed in a culture completely different from my own. I studied abroad for 14 days during the May intersession. This was the perfect length for me to see if I could handle being away from friends and family with a huge time difference. During my trip abroad we studied Community clinical, so this focused greatly on public health. We studied how the public health system functioned in Tunisia, some of their greatest health risks among people in the area and compared those in the United States. We started everyday around 9 -10 a.m. and finished around 4-5 p.m. and then we had free time to ourselves to explore the different cities around us. We had discussions, activities, or tours everyday with different health organizations throughout Tunis and Sousse. My favorite educational experience was when we visited Medicins Du Monde or Doctors of the World. They are a humanitarian organization that strives to provide healthcare to vulnerable populations. I found this meeting very interesting as they shed light on the migrant situation that Tunisia is facing, and how it is affecting the healthcare system. One thing that every organization we visited had in common was that they all believed that every person no matter socioeconomic status, religious background or citizenship status deserved access to healthcare and proper treatment. Seeing the compassion and dedication between all the organizations in Tunisia reminded me of why I wanted to become a nurse, to help others.

My absolute favorite part of the trip outside of the classroom setting was being able to interact with locals who were around our age. One day we visited the Facility of Medicine of Sousse, and we were able to discuss different public health issues in Tunisia and the U.S. with faculty and students. After the discussion we were able to exchange contact information with the students and we met at a cafe later that evening for coffee. This was fun because we were able to talk about other comparisons between our countries that were not healthcare related. It was also very interesting to learn more about their culture and to learn how similar we are to one another even though we live on opposite sides of the planet. We also made a friend with a local tour guide there who was our age as well in Sousse. He took four of us out to dinner one evening, showed us his favorite places to get food and coffee, and then took us to get ice cream at the end of the evening. Overall this was an amazing study abroad experience! I was able to push myself outside of my comfort zone to go and learn so much about another country, meet new friends, and gain insight for my own interests in the future.