Camp girls....

The last few days have been quite hectic, as the Husband and I have been with the camp kids and co-ordinating their programmes. Its quite amusing to see that some of them have brought suitcases that are filled with food! I like visiting them at their accomodation, as they offer me snacks and make me tea :-) I've asked them all to leave any left over snacks behind - particuarly the kenyan tea and coffee!

Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God) the camp girls that I'm with (the 14-17 year olds) are well behaved. We have the usual problems with the girls staying up all night and then sleeping in class (sound familiar?!), but apart from that, I'm really enjoying spending time with them.

We're taking the kids to Tehran (the capital city) for 2 days, then back to Qum for a couple of days, so I'll have lots to write about then!

My Mobile Phone...

Shortly after arriving in Qum, the Husband got me an Iranian sim card. I always wondered why sim cards here are so expensive. Turns out that once you buy the card, there's no monthly fee - you only pay for usage.

The bummer here is that to buy a post pay sim card, you have to be an Iranian (pay as you go ones are easier to get). The Husband took his Iranian friend with him to get me a sim card, which had a previous owner, but had been cut off for a while.

I haven't met that many people here yet, so my phone address book is quite empty. Within a few hours, I had a lady start texting me, thinking it was the previous owner. I nicknamed her 'Krazy Khanum' (khanum means lady). Turns out the sim card's previous owner had some kind of relationship with her, but then ditched her. I used to get missed calls during siesta time, phone calls from pay phones, as well as text messages asking what happened to the relationship etc. Each time, the husband would reply back saying that you have made a mistake, we've just bought this sim card etc.... Thankfully she's realised now and Krazy Khanum can go back to being just Khanum.

So anyways, the junior camp arrived today. (The Husband is the camp organiser) Some of the volunteers and myself went to the airport to meet them. We left Qum at half 1 in the morning, only to find that their flight was delayed. The ride to Qum takes about an hour and a half by coach, and we stopped only for refreshments and a prayer break. I advise anyone traveling to Qum from Imam Khumayni Airport should say they prayers BEFORE leaving the airport. The service station we stopped at had a prayer room, which was decent enough, but the washrooms were another story. I think the male ones were ok, but some stupid person had put the plug in the sink in the ladies, filled it up with water and then vomited into the sink. Needless to say, this was the last thing we needed at 5am with a group of tired teenagers from the west!

We dropped the kids off at their accommodation (Jamiatuz Zahra - the women's university - for the girls) and took the mentors off for the briefing session. Luckily breakfast was provided and the meeting was short and sweet. Got back home at about 9am, and planned to sleep till the afternoon.

Unfortunately, I was interupted by another wrong number. I answered the phone, thinking it might be one of the mentors trying to get hold of me. It was an Iranian guy asking me all sorts of questions - e.g. if I was in Tehran, where my husband was. I realised straight away that he was looking for the previous sim card owner. I hung up on him and tried to get back to sleep, but he kept ringing and ringing. After 5 rings, I kinda realised that he wouldn't stop until I answered, so I did. The guy asked me if I was married and would I like to marry him! Needless to say, the next time he rings, the Husband will be answering the phone!

Another Random email about Iran....

Kish Island is one of the places I want to visit while I am here... though I'm not sure we would be staying at this place!

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/nov/1016.html

11/02/07

Iran To Build First Solar Hotel On Kish Island in Persian Gulf

Iran is scheduled to build its first seven-star hotel with a supplementary solar energy system on Kish Island over the next two years, Press TV reported. The two-year project with an estimated budget of 520,000,000 dollars is aimed at completing the hotel in Kish in the southern province of Hormozgan by 2009-10. "Generating electricity from the sun is a very expensive project but I mean to bring this technology to Iran," said Hossein Sabet investor of the solar hotel. "Now that other countries are imposing sanctions on Iran, building such a hotel is an important step in tourism development," concluded Sabet, manager of Kish Island's Dariush Grand Hotel.

Following are some pictures from the Dariush Grand Hotel

Hossein Sabet, solar hotel investor

... Payvand News - 11/02/07 ...

Random Email I received...

Iranian car running 500km on 1lit of gas
Tue, 20 May 2008 10:23:52

Courtesy - Press TV

Researchers at Isfahan University of Technology have invented a car which consumes only a litre of gas to drive up to 500 kilometers.

“The single-person car is capable of driving at a maximum speed of 75 kilometers per hour,” Alireza Fadaei, supervisor of the manufacturer group announced.

“The car has a 3.5 horsepower carburettor and is equipped with an injection engine,” he added.

“Composite materials with fiber-carbon, which form the body of the car, give it low weight and high strength,” the supervisor of the group claims.

The Iranian car, which is scheduled to be exhibited in France's Low Consuming Exhibit in Nogaro, aims to replace motorcycles.

NAT/GM

Jamkaran Mosque

On Tuesday night, the Husband and I accompanied the senior camp kids to the Jamkaran Mosque.

Here's what Wikipeadia says about the Mosque:

Jamkaran, Iran (on the outskirts of Qom) is the site of the Jamkaran Mosque, a popular pilgrimage site for Shi'ite Muslims. Local belief has it that the Twelfth Imam (Muhammad al-Mahdi) - a messiah figure Shia believe will lead the world to an era of universal peace - once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran. This belief has been compared to that of Catholics who believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

The mosque, six kilometres east of Qom, has long been a sacred place, at least since 373 A.H., 17th of Ramadan (22 February 984 C.E.), when according to the mosque website, one Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani is reported to have met Muhammad al-Mahdi along with the prophet Al-Khidr. Jamkarani was instructed that the land they were on was "noble" and that the owner — Hasan bin Muslim — was to cease cultivating it and finance the building of a mosque on this sacred land from the earnings he had accumulated from farming the land.

Sometime in decade of 1995-2005, the mosque's reputation spread, and many pilgrims, particularly young people, began to come to it. In the rear of the mosque there is a "well of requests" where it is believed the Twelfth Imam once "became miraculously unhidden for a brief shining moment of loving communion with his Creator." Pilgrims tie small strings in a knot around the grids covering the holy well, which they hope will be received by the Imam Mahdi. Every morning custodians cut off the strings from the previous day.There is a significant body of Shia writing arguing that the Imam Mahdi is hidden but active in the world helping those who are needy. Every Tuesday evenings the mosque kitchen provides a free meal to thousands of poor people.

One of the first acts of the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was to donate £10 million to the mosque, to fund plans to turn "the tiny Jamkaran mosque into a massive complex of prayer halls, minarets, car parks and ablutions

The evening didn't get off to a great start. Just as we were leaving, one of the Husband's friends arrived to say farewell, as he was leaving for India the next day. He also wanted to go to the Jamkaran Mosque, and since there were 3 of us, we had to call for a taxi instead of going on the bike as we had planned.

An hour and 4 phone calls later, there was still no taxi, so we walked to the main road, where luckily we found a taxi willing to take us. By this time though, we had missed the evening prayers :-(

The Jamkaran Mosque is PACKED on Tuesday nights. The school holidays have kicked in, so there were lots of families picnicing together while waiting for Dua Tawassul (the prayer of intercession through the Holy Leaders of the Shias) to start. The prayer started at half 10 and it was amazing to see the crowd all joining in with the prayer.

So, now my next task is to convince the Husband to take me every week....

Senior Summer camp has arrived in Iran!

The Husband works for an organisation that arranges summer camps for young adults (amongst other things). The camp is divided into 2 - the 18-24 year olds and the 14 to 17 year olds. We went to the airport to receive the older camp VERY early Monday morning! It was cool to finally hang out with some fellow Brits :-) Mum had sent me a package of things I miss from home with the kids - as I write this, I am also tucking into a bowl of All-Bran (you don't really get healthy cereals or brown bread here - both here are white and refined). THANKS MUM!

You can follow the kid's adventures on http://www.coej.org/iran-2008/

On the house front, the stove has finally made it up into the kitchen from the garage (the delivery man was supposed to bring it up and install it, but he didn't). So, I should have a fully working stove in the next couple of days. I think that means I have to start cooking :-(

We've moved :-)))))))

We moved into the new place on Wednesday - finally!

Moving house here is relatively easy. We packed up all our things in the morning, the husband flagged down a guy with a pick-up truck, loaded it up and brought stuff to the new place!

We have a carpet, DIY sofas, a mattress and most of our kitchen appliances. Hopefully it will be easier to get everything else done now we have moved in. I'll post some pictures up on the blog once the Husband has shifted his stuff from the bedroom floor and into the wardrobes!

Our neighbours in the basement have 2 children who have adopted us as family. The kids come up to visit all the time. The kids speak Farsi and Urdu, which is a bit of a challenge for me, as I can't hold a conversation in either language! We somehow communicate using broken Farsi, Urdu and English, with the help of their picture books and my dictionary! The kids have been fascinated at how our place has gone from being a shell to a (nearly) fully furnished place. When our wardrobes arrived, they were so amazed that they opened all the drawers and doors! I have to get the husband to set some ground rules with them now that the drawers are filled. I'm sure I will enjoy watching him being the bad cop :-P

The city of Qum is on a 'save electricity' campaign. So everyday, there is a power cut for a couple of hours. In our area, the power goes out at noon. Yes, that's right. In the middle of the day, while the sun is at it's peak, we have no cooler or fan. In Iran, if the temperature goes above 50 degrees, people are not allowed to go to work or school. It's a well known fact that in the summer, the official weather reports are fudged and they NEVER go above 50!

The other day, the Husband and I were out shopping, with a friend, for mattresses, pillows and other things for the kitchen. We were in a taxi and the husband was complaining about how taxi drivers are always ripping people off. We get to Bazar Bozorg (literally means 'the big market'), where I buy some knives (side note - the knives here are rubbish! If you are planning to move here, bring knives with you!). We order the mattresses and then make our way to the fabric market by taxi. After a few shops, the husband realised that he'd left the knives behind. We re-traced our steps, but then realised that the knives had been left in the taxi. A few minutes later, we see the taxi driver, in the market, with the knives looking for us! So now, every time the Husband moans about Iranian taxi drivers, he has to give me 2000 tomans (roughly £1). He owes me at least £10!

I do like Iran (sometimes)

Before my blog gets too anti - Iran and the government shuts me down, I figured I should write something positive about the country that I've made my home:

1. The ice cream here is really good (obviously the most important thing when its 50degrees in the shade)
2. Stuff is really cheap (e.g a glass of freshly squeezed juice is 30p)
3. Big appliances get delivered same day
4. Furniture gets delivered within 2 days (ready assembled)
5. $30 pays the carpet fitter to fit carpet 3 rooms
6. No need for a TV watershed - all the TV programmes are PG
7. Pace of life is slower and you have time to stop & think
8. Siesta time!

Any tips?

I'm still finding surprises when I'm cleaning the kitchen. The other day, I found a burnt knife hidden in one of the cupboards.

The area around where the stove was is the worst. There's grease caked onto the sides of the cupboards and tiles.

If anyone has any cleaning tips, please post them in the comments section!

The Iranian Highway Code

I've come to realise that there is no highway code in Iran. Everyone has the right of way, even at red lights! If you've been to the Middle East, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Take today for example, we were on our way to the Husband's office this morning when we stopped at a red traffic light. A motorbike came speeding up from behind us, ignored the red light and went straight through the lights. Obviously the rest of the drivers (who had the green light) started honking at him. The motorcyclist then stops in the middle of the crossroads and starts arguing. What a joker. He's clearly in the wrong, but then makes things worse by stopping the rest of the traffic.

Roundabouts are another comedy.Drivers coming onto the roundabout have the right of way (supposedly), so it's a bit strange to drive onto the roundabout without looking, but then stop while on the roundabout to give way to others! Some of the larger roundabouts have traffic police who are employed to control things, but all you see them doing is playing on mobile phones!

Crossing the road here is another drama. I still can't understand how people cross so calmly. Me, I pray and run across!

For those of you that don't know, the Husband has a motorbike. He told me the other day that me sitting on the back of the bike is good, as I remember God so much! The Husband is a good driver (to give him some credit), its the other 500,000 drivers in the city that aren't. The most difficult thing to remember when on the bike is to bring the minimum amount of stuff on the bike (although I am getting quite good at balancing groceries) and to keep the compulsory chador (the black tent that you have to wear here) far away from the wheels.

I'm starting to realise why the level of spirituality is so high here. People are constantly praying to stay alive!

Home Delivery!

Most of my time is divided between cleaning the new place and shopping for the new place! The frustrating thing is that no matter how hard I scrub, the kitchen still looks like the "before" of the Flash advert :-( I wonder if Kim and Aggie do house calls in Iran?

Anyways, we're now the proud owners of a fridge/freezer, microwave/grill and washing machine! We went to an area called Keyvaanfair (the Tottenham Court Road of Qum!), where all the appliance stores are located, chose our stuff and got a whole load of recipe books in Farsi. I can't cook using English recipe books, so I'm not sure what good Farsi ones will be! While the process of buying a vacuum cleaner and food processor was long winded, buying major appliances was surprisingly the opposite. The appliances were delivered the same night (within 2 hours). We live on the second floor, and the guy carried the washing machine up 2 flights of stairs on his back. Yes, you read that correctly. On his back. I found it amazing that in a country where admin things take so long, appliances can be delivered the same day

Do not read if you are Monica from Friends or Iranian!

In my previous visits to Iran, I've found that Iranians are amongst the most hospitable in the world. Even this time round, I've met a few genuinely nice people too. When I started this blog, I promised the Husband that my blog would not become my arena for venting out against Iranians. But that was before we got the keys to our place!

Finally, after millions of phone calls, meetings set up with the previous tenants and the middle guy, we got the keys to our place :-)

The family who live in the basement (and manage the property in the absence of the landlady) warned the Husband on the phone. The Iranians had left the place in a mess and we should bring black bags with us.

So, armed with my 'luxury' yellow gloves, hoover, cleaning fluids and black bags, the Husband dropped me at our new home to start cleaning. Our neighbour wasn't joking! I filled up 7 black bags within the first half hour. While the Iranians have completely stripped the place (they've even taken the light bulbs!), they have left behind at least a years worth of garbage and dust!

The kitchen was by far the worst. (Shame, as its a really nice kitchen). I found a variety of surprises, particularly under the cupboards:

Rotten pomegranates and lemons
Split bag of popcorn
Rock hard okra
Broken glass on the floor
Broken plates in the cupboards
A bowl of water with a dead grasshopper
A years worth of grime on the cupboards and shelves
etc

For some reason, they had taken doors off some of the kitchen cupboards and covered the cabinet handles in silver foil!

The second worst area was the bit by the bathroom sink, where I found:

Old newspapers
The contents of the hoover bag
Toe nail clippings
Plum stones
A bag of mouldy bread
and other stuff that I'm trying to block out!


So guys, if you're passing this way, please feel free to drop by with your yellow gloves, cleaning fluid and CD player! The more the merrier!!

Shopping - Iranian Style!

Even though we're still waiting for the previous tenants to move out of our new flat, the Husband and I are buying bits and pieces for our new place.

Yesterday, we went to a department store to buy a hoover and food processor. The system for shopping in big stores is really strange. Rather than putting all the irons together, all the hoovers together etc. the store is organised by brand. I guess it's easier in some ways, so you can avoid the Iranian brands and go straight to the imported ones! Amazingly, even though the people in the shop are paid to work in the shop, you see them catching up on their sleep, playing with mobile phones and just generally ignoring potential customers!

So, Husband and I selected our hoover and food processor, and the girl behind the counter gave us a slip. Turns out, you have to take the slip to the central money counter, pay for your item, then take the receipt back to the original counter to collect your item. OK, sounds quite straight forward. You'd think that in that time, the sales assistant would pack up your item ready for collection, but no! You take your receipt back to the sales assistant, who then opens the box and checks that EVERY SINGLE feature of the food processor and hoover works before she re-packs it into the box. I shouldn't complain, at least I know that everything works before taking it home, but it just takes so fricking long! (BTW its an all singing, all dancing food processor that my mother would be truly proud of!)

To leave the shop, you have to pass through a security checkpoint, who confirms your purchases against your receipt and tears half the receipt off!

I miss my Tesco :-(

??

Hmmm.... here's a question:

If you've had 6 months notice to vacate your apartment.... how long should it take to clear out a 2 bed flat?

Answers on a postcard please!