When the plane landed in Teheran, I noticed that no foreign stood up to leave the plane except Iranians and me. The American passenger who was sitting beside me could not believe her eye that my Destination Pass indicated Teheran. She gave me a grinned and said the word, Good Luck. When I was moving towards the aircraft door, she pulled me back and ask me where was my winter coat and I told her that they were in the luggage . She straight away pulled me to the side window of the plane and showed me that snow is falling like flake outside. I turned to her and said whoa it is snowing.
I murmured to myself, “See Liao”(hokkien word meaning Death). Why did my administration staff in Singapore tell me it was winter over here in Teheran. Without any hesitation, she pulled a few woolen blankets and wrapped one at my next and another at my navel area.
Before leaving the aircraft the air flight attendant rearranged nicely all the woolen blankets for me and whispered, it is very cold out there, 0 degrees.
After embarking the plane I have to lined up like the rest of the Iranians outside the terminal building. All the Iranians started to ask me to go forward to the terminal entrance and one of them tell the Revolution Guard to let me in for I do not have my winter coat.
Once inside, I was immediately question by the Revolution guard. The question was whether I like the American and my answer was , "what?".
At this very moment, I saw a Chinese standing beside me and was talking to the guard. He was holding a very special pass and straight away I was released and my passport stamped and before further questions I followed him straight to the car where a driver was waiting.
Once in the car, he introduced himself as Mr.Ngai Sek Kee,the personal officer. He told me that I was lucky that I did not give the guard any answer. The whole country was just in a chao condition after winning the civil again their King, Shah of Iran. Oop, the voice of my former Project Manager, Mr Lee came flashing through my mind, do not go to the country having civil war,Iran
I finalized reached the office and met my project manager, Mr. Lau King siu.
He gave me a winter jack left over by those Kuwait’s staff and asked whether I have to buy any extra winter clothing for he will be taking me to the Hasan Kif Substation site tomorrow. The journey was approximately 6 hours.
Upon arriving at company quarter, I was introduced to the housekeeper, Agar Safar ( Agar means Mister in Farsi, Iranian Language.).
The following morning he gave some petty cash for me to purchase any food that I wish to eat or cook by myself and he left to another site called Neka Power Station approximately 6 hours from my site.
This rented house that I stayed was directly opposite the Substation. I would walk about 5 minutes everyday. For the first few days, I started to rehabitaliate myself to the new environment. There is no phone in the house and everyday I have to make a trip to the Hasan Kif town to make a call. The daily call back to my Personal Officer in Teheran was to ensure that I was okay over here. Well, this country is straight after revolution and Law and Order is very unstable as yet.
Slowing my curiosity of this country start to turn homesick. just imagine, my housekeeper can not talk in English and I have to cook for myself. I started to carry out my daily marketing and cooking and since Safar was always beside me I am doing my chores, he started to learn how to cook my Malaysian dishes too after many trial an error.
Lucky for me, when my mother was cooking in the kitchen , I managed to pick up some good menu from her. Anyway I did cooked once for the whole house when she was sick in Penang. Just imagine,Safar would boiled a whole chicken for the whole day,8.30am to 5.30pm. By the time I returned from site, he showed me with pride how well he cooked! My God, I managed to drink a tasty eccense of chicken but not eating the chicken.
One day when I was in the house, I heard the sound of a girl calling my housekeeper and and upon opening the door, I found a girl standing in the lawn with an elderly man. Safar talked to them and turn back to me and informed me who they are but up todate I only can undertand very little of what he speaks. Then all of a sudden, the girl who was beside him started to speak to me in English. I told her how happy I was to see somebody who can speak in English. She told me that the elderly man is her father and they are the owner of the house that my company have rented.
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