Beautiful days.....

It has been a few days of beautiful sunshine here in Tehran.....with an occasional breeze. I have been down to only a short-sleeved t-shirt and a jacket. Spring is just around the corner. They say that spring is the most beautiful season in Tehran...we'll find out soon enough. The garderners in Shahab are busy fertilizing the plants, watering them.....I guess when I come back in April, things will be a beautiful as they say it will be.

"Mohandes" (Engineer in Farsi) is the name they call people who take care of the engineering. Mr Tajgardoun (Engineering Manager) is perhaps the most popular and busiest of them. Me...? maybe I haven't earned the title yet in Shahab as they are still calling me Mister Haza or just Mister. Maybe the title is for the elite engineers, just like Tajgardoun. He is busier than Mr Laky the Plant Manager and majority of them look up to him. An ethnic Turk (and he speaks Turkish too), he has a lot of knowledge about everything, it seems. He is very proud of his origin and his hometown near the border of Iran and Azerbaijan. He will be my "main Man" here in Shahab. In fact we are based in his office just adjacent to the production line.

Many people will ask me how do I get along in Iran, especially in Shahab. I mean, how does a Sunni Muslim get along in a place where the Shiahs are the majority. No problem.....for me, as long as, we are worshipping the same true GOD, we are brothers. And brothers take care of each other. Maybe their solat is a little different from us, may be they prostrate (sujud) on a piece of hardened clay from Karbala' (so that their foreheads don't touch the place of sujud)....may be they "jamak" their solat (Dzuhur and 'Asar, Maghrib and Isya')......but as long as they say the "Kalimah"....I will consider them as my brothers.

They treat me well here.....in my opinion, they just know that I am a Muslim....and only that counts.....nothing else does. And they know that I am of a "different" sect (a Sunni) by the way I pray....but so far nobody has asked me any questions about it.

The most important thing is that we are the servants of ALLAH....and are enjoying the weather that has been blessed by The Almighty here in Tehran......nobody can take that away from us....