Nathan Bernier gathered the puck on his team’s side of the ice and began skating forward. He dodged an opposing player and continued charging closer to the goal. His stick slid the puck left, then right, then left again, until he finally flicked the puck, sending it past the goalie and into the back of the net. Bernier’s goal, a spectacular one-on-one feat, added to Tunisia’s lead against the Corsaires, Algeria’s ice hockey team. Tunisia ended up winning the match 8-3 on April 7, earning third place in the Arab Ice Hockey Club Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Bernier is part of the select group of young men representing Tunisia in international ice hockey competitions. The team, in addition to its bronze medal performance in Abu Dhabi, won the African Ice Hockey Championship in 2016. Members of the team, mostly Tunisians who have lived most of their lives abroad, are looking not to just win now but also build a foundation for the future. They are focusing on one day establishing the winter sport in their motherland and eventually competing in the Winter Olympics. Most important, in this journey representing the red and white of Tunisia, the players have also rediscovered their roots, falling in love with a country they only knew about from short visits and tales from grandparents.

In June 2015, Bernier had one hour left before he had to check in at Tunis-Carthage Airport to fly back home to Paris. He had spent a week in the North African nation and it was time to return to France to start ice hockey training again. But something tugged at him to stay. So he did — for another month.

Bernier spent Ramadan in Tunisia, traveled around the country, visiting relatives, and finally had a chance to see his grandfather’s grave in Gabes, a coastal city in eastern Tunisia. Nathan Bernier's name at birth was Nathan Ben Messaoud, the son of a French mother and Tunisian father. And the cemetery visit became one of the defining moments of his life.