We prepared leaving aunt and cousins around 8 and for me it was funny to see that even ironing boards are ajusted to a life at the floor (Ramin irons his uniform several times a week. Ah, and he explained to me his idea of world citizenship where it is not important to say you are from Iran or Iraq or other countries)
One of my bags was locked in a basement and aunt was very ambarressed that she couldn’t give it to me as the key was at a neighbour’s and the neighbour not at home. So, Ramin would bring it to Tehran the other day.
When Nader and I arrived, only Fanid (10) was at home. She opened the door, invited us and brought something to drink, like a real host. Then Shabnam came home and prepared lunch.
In the afternoon, I was so tired, because of the last exhausting day and short night that I feel asleep and also Fanid slept for a while. Meanwhile Nader met a friend. When he came back, Shabnam, Fanid and I went to Goftegou park. The name means Dialogue and is related to the different design of the park (Chinese, Italian, etc), but for me, it has a ouble meaning because of many young couples sitting there. Shabnam explained to me that these boyfriend-girlfriend couples meet there, although this is very dangerous as forbidden, because their parents would not allow that at home…
I tried also to pose….
We saw the statue of Mary, what
surprised me a bit, to find a full grown “mother of god” in Tehran.
The park is full of cats, they get food and no dogs are allowed in the park. Some of them have problems, no tail, cut ears, injuries from fighting, some are fat and we saw also very young and small cats.
While we walked, some men wanted to speak with us. They were retired and meet to play ping pong and talking. It was interesting to hear their opinion about government, but not surprising. One of them had been educated in India and had been teaching Economy at university.
We could have talked for hours, but we met Nader who meanwhile had had another meeting. On the way back, we went to the library situated in the park (and btw, open at 20:00) where I had another surprise, seeing books there that I would have forbidden if I were a conservative clergy, like Simon de Beauvoir “the other sex”
When we came home, Javad was there and his brother Ramin (see day 063) who works in Tehran, came for a short hello before going back to Karaj. Fanid helped me with this text and with cutting and improving photos, so, this time, the quality could be a bit better.
