The night was short again, I could not fall asleep although I was tired. The hallucinations were more pleasant than yesterday but still disturbing and the Azan (call for prayer) did a better job than necessary at 4 a.m.. Yesterday it was also little sleep but the whole day I was not sleepy, today I was.
Early in the morning, I began to look for all the papers and documents I need for the freighter. The have attracting names like letter of indemnity and it is a long list. Some I had in my dropbox, some I could find in the emails to and from “Langsam reisen”, some via link of this company and finally I had the whole collection.
Majid had shown me “the way” to a print shop and the barber (I have IRR left and a beard to cut), one is 2 houses to the right, the other is on the opposite side of the street. Let’s say: easy to find.
So, I was surprised when Sedigheh came to accompany me. Her English ends where my Farsi ends, so this would not count. It was easy to find out – I had no chance to pay, well she also could not, the shop keeper didn’t accept any payment, not her card and not my money.
We left the printshop (I with a lot of paper) to the barber. On the way, I tried to say that my beard would call for my money but Sedigheh entered the shop first and paid in advance. She said she would go (most of the time when I say “say” it is either sign language or talking in a language the other one doesn’t understand), but for a while I saw her waiting in front of the shop. The barber had a special seat for very young customers, a seat in car design with buttons to press to give sounds. A father and the barber did there best to keep a small boy happy while the barber cut his hair. They did a great job, only the last minute some tears flowed and in the and the boy seemed to be satisfied. I got a kind of remake of the design Naser had given to my hair and left. Sedigheh seemed to be gone home and I thought that this could be my chance to spend some money (I would not get much for it when I change it and here most of the things are cheap, at least cheaper than I thought as the next example shows.
I went again to the Bazar and found a shop with some electronic devises and asked for a SD card reader. The shopkeeper had one. Even in Austria I would not know exactly what it could cost and in Iran with the rapidly sinking value of IRR to $ I roughly expected a price around 2-300000 and was not surprised when I was told “6!”. So, I offered a 500.000 and a 100.000 and the shop keeper took only 100.000 and gave me back 40.000. That means I would have paid 10x the price without problem and the shop keeper helped me to get it right.
I went on to the confectionary to buy some chocolate against my craving and some for the family as I expected that they would not open the box. On the way, the man who was the next after me at the barber came to me and said, “woman waiting you!” I showed that I am sorry, and that I will be back in 15min. In the shop, they knew me from yesterday and were very helpful again. The next, I wanted to buy was some tasty juices for the family and they showed me the way. I was near to that place but met Sedigheh on the way who took my back in direction home. I explained via translator what I wanted to do and so we went to a fruit shop near the house and she bought lots of fruits. At home, I got a fresh made carrot juice instead of me bringing something for the family. Again failed…
This afternoon, I fell asleep for a while. When I opened the door, Majid and Sedgheh came in, she had a box and he explained that she had a present for me. In the box was a little box and in it the landscape of Iran plated in silver….
Maybe you can guess my mixed feelings.
The evening continued with two shows:
Matin showed what he does in Gymnastics (before that, Taha had been coming home in martial arts uniform) and then, Majid had suggested that a friend could bring a guitar so that I would still have a rest but would not feel bored.
Let us say it was one friend but with his son and another friend. And let us say the friend’s son brought his guitar but the father with a little help of his friend brought also a Ney (flute, played by pressing it to the inner upper lip!), a (Se)tar and an Iranian and an Arab drum (Zarb and Timpou).
But first, Saeed played an Iranian melody on his guitar. He played musically and very fluent and so I completely misjudged the time he learns – it is not 2-3y, he only practised since 3-4months!
His father then played on all the other instruments and sang and accompanied himself with both drums. It was great to hear that and a nice gathering of the complete family with those friends!
