....paradis, a place of beauty and peace. Persian paradises
were famous for their 'unearthly'beauty. So you can see how the word entered
the European languages to mean our heaven, the
Garden of Paradise. The love of gardens translates to cities filled with
tree-lined streets, beautiful flowers along the roads. Roses are a favorite
especially an exuberantly red beauty gilded with brilliant yellow and fragrant...as
a rose should be.
We stock up on provision for Hossein’s Mobile Grocery: junk
food. Corn chips. Peanuts 'picnic' cookies with coconut or banana, saffron ice
cream. Our Hossein is a junk food
junkie.
Ah, the bakery. The local bread is much better warm...but
what else is new?
We’re involved in a bumper bash accident, not our fault. A man takes us across the street to get water
from a spring and to find a shady spot. Ours is on a ledge under an arcade,
front row sears for the drama across the road. He offers us coca cola and tea.
Classy people.
The actions across the street need no translation: crowd
bends to check damage in car 1, much head shaking. Everyone moves to car two,
ditto. Everyone adjourns to the shade. The police arrive. Even though the other
driver turned in and hit us ..and the other driver admits that at first...when
the policeman rules in his favor ( local favoring local we guess since the
other driver is clearly at fault) he asks for repair money ( I have two kids at
home, yada yada yada.) Negotiations (and the futility of contesting the police
decision on the other guy's turf) lead to a cash settlement of 3 million Rials,
about $100. We raid our wallets.
Now for our car. Of course someone at the police station has
a brother who is a repairman so off we go.
Again we have front row seats. One mechanic....and several' sidewalk
supervisors'....remove and comment upon the bits and pieces of the poor injured
Renault. The scene could be anywhere men bond over fixing cars. We, of course
haven't a clue.
The guys are trilingual: Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish...and
apologize for not speaking English. We feel very small!
Jacks and torches appear. We are part of the show. Den takes
and hands out photos. Smiles follow in a language we all understand. These guys
are a hoot, good-spirited, clearly friends. So they serve us tea amidst the car
parts.
Classy people!
No comments:
Post a Comment