March 22, 2012

I spent the morning puttering around my apartment while waiting for the weather to turn a bit warmer before venturing outside. When I went to get rid of my trash, I noticed large numbers of the female cleaning crews shoveling the snow from the sidewalks onto the street. The trees that I had photograph practically touching the sidewalk had been set upright and looked none worse for the wear.

The weather was on the cooler side, but the sunshine made up for it as long as I stayed on the sunny side of the street. I then started to observe the large number of families out for a stroll with the female members all decked out in the atlas dresses down to the babies. The men I didn’t bother looking at since they were attired in the usual funeral black outfits. I requested permission from several parents to photograph their kids and they all agreed.

I had expected to find half of the businesses closed on this second day of Navruz; however, most of them were open. I stopped at the lamination place and although the clerk wasn’t there at the moment, I was able to leave the materials behind telling them I’d be back the following day. I then walked to a beauty parlor and found two beauticians, one doing the elaborate waist-length braids favored at this time of the year and the other applying hair coloring to another customer while deeply engrossed in a telephone call. The woman doing the braids motion for me to sit and wait while she languidly leaned against the wall chatting with the customer. After half hour of that, I walked out and found the same salon where I had had a pedicure done last year also open, but with a different set of employees. I gestured to the beautician that I wanted my hair washed and then to lope two inches all around. I was in and out of the salon in 25 minutes flat and gave the woman a generous tip of 10.00 somoni and paid the woman up front the 20.00 somoni for the haircut. The beautician looked at me and signaled I owed her half of the fee until she realized I had already paid for it. A big smile came over her face and she bowed respectfully to me.

There was the mandatory stop at F1 to use their bathroom and then on to the Kodak store to print the photos I had taken at the teachers’ training center so they could get them on Monday. I made my way to the American Councils office in a leisure manner taking photos along the way of the numerous spring posters, plantings and families out on a stroll all proclaiming that the spring season was finally here.

The staff at the American Councils had gone all out in decorating their patio for the occasion, and was just starting out the dancing portion of the celebration when I got there. I saw Rebecca, Sandy and Jennifer already there in addition to Camilla and even an African-American woman who told me she teaches at the Polyglot Institute where Pariso moonlights.

I went to take a look at the much ballyhooed sumalak which was being stirred by two volunteers while cooking on an old-fashioned wood stove. Ruth arrived shortly thereafter as did Corrie and her new roommate. The staff started serving food, something I hadn’t expected, and someone thrust a takeout container full of rice with a small whole fried fish on top. She told me the rice with parsley and the fish was the customary dish eaten in Iran for the Navruz celebration. I offered to share with both Ruth and Jennifer and they both indicated they don’t eat fish. There was no flavor, not even salt, in the rice or the fish, so I just nibbled around it a bit and decided to take it home to improve it. Ruth refused to any other of the other dishes being offered and insisted we continue with our plans of going to Merve Café for dinner.  I was a bit put off by her demand since people were still dancing and it was light enough that we could have enjoyed a few more hours outdoor.

I followed her to the café, turning down her offer of hiring a cab to cover the two-block distance, and could hear her puffing away as she walked. Ruth is overweight, a diabetic, has high blood pressure and cholesterol. She gets around by taxi, which is the last thing she needs to be doing. Merve was jumping with people as entire families were out having dinner probably for the first time this year. Women were wearing glittering outfits and mile-high pumps. Ruth complained she was practically going blind from all the bling bling.

Ruth ordered a cheese pizza, on the smallish side, and I ordered an ice cream dish with three different colors. She promptly removed the cheese from the dough and ate only that along with a bottle of water. My ice cream dish had no flavor whatsoever and appeared to be the same concoction dyed in a different color. Ruth insisted on paying for my ice cream and then she got into a taxi to return to her house. 

I walked home observing lots of people walking around carrying flowers, balloons, ice cream and popcorn. It was just then that I noticed that some government buildings and some private ones too had small strings of lights hanging on the edge of the buildings, very similar to what we’d around the Christmas season.