Russian women in Tunis

Russian women feel that kids from mixed marriages smoothen the culture gap at first. However, as time goes by, the kids begin to speak the father's language better than their mother's and draw closer to him. The mother feels that the children are moving away from her, her language, her mentality. There were even crises when mothers who were afraid to lose their growing children took them back to Russia.
With perestroika and the disappearing of the USSR, many Russian women had a problem: they did not know which country and nationality they belonged to. Many were born or registered in different republics of the former USSR. Their friends and relatives stayed there. Meanwhile, a lot of the present CIS countries do not even have an embassy in Tunis. A woman who is Abkhazian by nationality and who had lived in Moscow before moving to Tunis complained that going home means going through a lot of trouble.
Since mid-90s, there has been a revival in the activity of the Russian cultural center in Tunis. They hold cultural parties and meetings, show movies for adults and children, organize Russian language courses and even a ballet school. Russian women are invited to the Center for celebrations and other events, that are dear for every Russian person, with their children and families.
There are two Russian Orthodox Churches, recently restored, that unite women of different nationalities: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian. On big events, like Christmas and Easter, they are full of people. Tunisians bring their festively dressed wives with children to the service and patiently wait for it to end on the stairs in front of the church. Then many families come to the priest's apartment to continue celebrating. Many bring Russian food.