Travels nd Breakups: A Brief

We just got back from Esfahan, a city in the south of Iran and i am beyond words. I was beautiful. I wrote my friend Clark about it and figured i'll just cut and paste the description here to give you an idea of what it was like until i write up the article. I'll also post some pictures of it but here is part of my email to Clark:

I just got back today from Isfahan in the south of Iran and it is so incredibly beautiful! Oh my Goodness! I never thought there would be a place in Iran that i would deem a very very romantic place but this city did it for me. It is an old city, former capitol at some point in Iranian history. Anyway, it is this clean, very Middle Eastern city that is alive with this festive atmosphere to it. Tourist attraction definately. The city is built around this huge river and one of the trademarks are the twelve or so bridges on this river, all spectacularly intricate in design. Our hotel was at the mouth of one of these bridges, my favourite bridge of all that we saw. At night it is lit up with these gorgeous orange lights and there are these arches all along it where you can see the river through it. The walkway itself is laid with bricks or cobblestone and is very olden day, reminiscent of the days of monarchies and carriages. Ugh!! I fell in love.

We went to see a bunch of ancient palaces and mosques and the like. Oh my goodness Clark, it was so beautiful and the genius of the designs shamwari! I mean, they had special designs to prevent vibrations from earthquakes from destroying the bulidings and they had these complicated irrigation sysytems and their gardens were mathmetically calculated and all this was in the early 11th-17th centuries. They even have the first human geometrical houses ever bulit. I mean, what the hell were Africans doing back in the 11th century? Why did not we not see the need to preserve out history like these people did? I mean, i know we have a lot to offer, but once you see thier stuff, how old it is and how well preserved, unotonyara. Isusu taitei kho nai? I was mesmerized once again.

I won't talk your ear off (or should i say your eyes off) but i was really impressed. I'll send you some pictures if you like. Loved my trip. Loved it.

The article will be much more in depth and descriptive, i promise.


I just broke it off with Mo. Yes that was his name unfortunately. a nickname in any case, but what he was known by. That should have been my first warning right? I never felt right about it. I was lonely and desperate and agreed to be with him in a moment of rash confusion. I have had a lot of time out here to reflect and i came to a conclusion i seem to stumbled upon fairly often.

I am a deluded moron. I really am. Why on earth would we work? We do not click on a deep level and quite frankly he is a useless individual at the moment. That does not mean he is a bad person or doesn't have potential but do i really have time to make a project of him? Do i really have the desire. No. I don't. Sorry if that makes me a mean cow, but i don't.

So i sent him an email. I know, that is terrible but that is what i did. I figured, why wait till i get to the States right? I told him i thought us dating was a bad idea and that i needed to sort myself out, which is not a lie. I do. And i do not like hanging out with him. I didn't tell him that of course. But if i must really think of it, i was forcing matters with him. I am not into him, i was lonely. Period. That makes me a sad and very daft cow i realize, but i made my decision and sent the email. No turning back yeah?

Oh dear.

Post Op

So i had my surgery yesterday. Doctor said it was successful. Now i am walking around with a bitter taste in my mouth whenever i drink coke and a huge gauze over m right eye taped with scotch tape. And things are itching under there. Annoying meto insanity. Plus i am geting a headache every hour cuzi am strainging m left eye. And the right one feels like smething is leaking. I think it is a combination of tears and blood. Delicious thought in't it? It hurts a litle, especiallinbright lights and i hae this invalid feling. I go back to the the doctos this afernoon to et the bandage remove and the eye checked ou. Ok it is really itching by my eyebrow nnow. I'mgoing insan.

Germany plays Italy today. I bet Germany as my second team after Brazil, thinking Brazil would make it. I am not a huge Germany fan but since they are on home soil, i think they are determinedto make t to the final. He is rooting for Italy. We have a bet on that. I don't eally care aymore.Brazil lost and that did it for me. Anyway, we'll se tonight.

Heartbreak on the football pitch

They lost. They bloody lost. They are on their way home.

I'm speaking of Brasil of course. My team. The team i was sure would be in the final. They lost to the bloody French. There are no South American teams left in the tournament, just Europeans. I am disgusted really. Brasil so disappointed me last night. The game they played was lax.

They played scared. Because France always beats them. Like they did in the finals in 1998. So i think this huge powerhouse team saw France as it's boogeyman. It's cryptonite so to speak. And they played a dismal game. I was in shock throughout. I was appalled. They all played terribly. France had the possession most of the game and whenever Brasil had it, they did not know what to do with themselves. Like they forgot how to bloody play the game. And their formation was off. They should have had Adriano in earlier than they did. Him and Robinho. Ronaldo kept tripping over himself the whole game and Ronaldinho was useless as striker, he should have been midfield. Ugh.

Anyway, i have to support bloody France for the final now because they are likely to play Germany for it. Sad sad day in football.

My surgery was postponed. Apparently the corneas they had in that day were of "poor quality" according to my doctor. That worries me a bit but at least he said so and so i am going back tomorrow and that is when i wil go under the knife. I just want to get it over and done with.

Was in Dubai for the past week with mum, the sibs and D. She wanted to see mum since it has been over ten years and so we went. We stayed at the Hilton on Jumeira beach. Gorgeous. Spent time on the beach, shopping and such. It is hotter than the devil's balls out there, excuse the analogy. It was deathly humid all the time and then freezing inside cuz they had the air conditioners working overtime. But you got used to both actually.

Long story short, it was beautiful and i had a really good time. Also went to the Burj al Arab for drinks the last night. The only supposed seven star hotel in the world. The other two stars are not real, just to hype it up. I have always wanted to go to this hotel but it is super posh and super expensive. You have to pay a cover just to enter the hotel and you have to dress smart casual. No sneakers and such.

Wasn't terribly impressed by the skyview bar where we had drinks. It was on the 27th floor and had a little bit if swank to it's game but the ceiling was incredibly tacky to me and threw the whole thing off for me. It was a bunch of these disco inferno type coloured lights that did not go with the smooth sophistication it should have portrayed. It just hit me the wrong way.

The view of the city was gorgeous though. I loved it. One side of the bar/restaurant was all glass overlooking a sprawling, twinkling city in the Arab desert. The chairs were silly looking with this horrible square bullseye design on the back.

One thing i have to say is the food was great. We had a vegetarian platter. It was delicious. The drinks were a tad overpriced for my liking. Overdone. D had a rose martini. Basically straight vodka with rose petals floating on top. It was.....well not as great as i thought it would be. I had a rude tini. Apple martini with a mint leaf or two in it. It was very very minty. Then we had this New Zealand white wine i think. I forgot the name of it. It was ok. Not a big drinker so i dunno if i would have loved it. Anyway the hotel seems nice but i am still curious as to why the seven stars. D said we are gonna have to come back and actually stay there for a night. Even though it will cost about a million dollars plus.

Anyway, Dubai as usual was fun, a nice escape. Now i am back in Iran. Whoopeee. And Brasil lost. Even better. This week is gonna suck.

Tomorrow

Ok. So it's tomorrow. Dad jut paid for everything and the doctor is expecting me tomorrow for the surgery. Tomorrow. Hmmn.

Mum and the lil sis are in Dubai and if this had been scheduled for later, i had hoped to go for a day and see them, but it's tomorrow.

It's been six years since i had surgery. Since i was put to sleep. It is so much easier when you ar a kid you know? Kid's are resilient creatures. Almost fearless at times compared to grown ups.

Me? No, I'm not worried. No. I'm not.

I'm not.

But my mind, body and soul seem to be. I am having mild heart palpitations which is silly because i know i'll be fine. I'll be fine. Just routine. No biggie. I've done this more than once before.

I'm not worried.

What is going on?

So life back home is three steps away from hell it seems. My Grandfather’s younger sister just died today. But the back story is what really gets me. Apparently she collapsed on Thursday. She was in the rural areas (village, what we call kumusha in my language). She went to the fence between her place and the neighbor’s and called the garden boy so she could borrow matches. He brought them to her and as she was turning around to leave, she collapsed.

They took her to some hospital in the capital and the nurses said there were no doctors available to see her right away so they put her on a stretcher in the hallway. It was around 7 p.m. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Still no doctor had seen her and she was lying in a coma on the stretcher in the hallway

5 a.m. Five in the bloody morning! That is when they saw her. She had been lying in the hall for the night without any attention. A woman in a coma. No doctors they said. Finally they got her a bed

Sunday my grandfather, who is an Anglican priest and her brother, went to see her around ten in the morning. The nurses stopped him at the door and said he could not go in. He was arguing with them, saying that he always goes in to pray with the patients and this was his sister for goodness sakes. The matron came and said no, you cannot come in. They said that there were so many priests these days, they didn’t know who was for real and who wasn’t.

She died today. Two hours ago. Kidney failure they said.

My point? There were no doctors at one of the big hospitals in the capital city of the country. NO DOCTORS. None available.

What has my country come to? This place I was born and raised. This place I think about everyday. That I want to go home to someday. What is there to go home to? Our inflation at the moment is 1140%. Do you even know what that MEANS? I sure as hell didn’t.

That is Z$350,000 to US$1. That means bread is Z$130,000-150,000 per loaf. A chicken is Z$1.7 million. It costs Z$18 million a month to go to the high school I graduated from. Our house is worth billions.

And the disparity between prices and salaries? Well, let us begin at the bottom of the barrel with the maids and garden boys (common in my country, practically everyone has one of each, or at least that is the way it was when I was at home) who make Z$2.7 million a month. That translates to about US$77 a month. School is not free at any level for anyone whatsoever and the government schools (what Americans refer to as public schools) are around Z$5 million per term. So tell me, if you are taking home Z$2.7 million a month and you have children or one child even who needs to go to school and you have to eat and live and wear clothing, what in hell do you do?

My dad and his colleagues have not been paid in months. MONTHS! Because the government “says” it has no funds.

And yet every minister of parliament demands a new car, a Mercedes no less, and they go on holiday out of the country, a luxury normal people cannot even fathom. They go to see the doctor in bloody South Africa! That is why when something like this happens, they don’t care. They do not try and fix the situation at all. They do not try and make sure their doctors are paid and not on strike. Or are just THERE!

How can there be no doctors? DOCTORS? My country was known as the “Breadbasket of Southern Africa” not so long ago. The Z$500 bill was the biggest denomination when I was home three years ago. Now we have a Z$100,000 bill. In three years. We were unsurpassed by everyone except South Africa.

My entire age group, the ones lucky enough to have money for a plane ticket out, is non existent in the country. All the professionals live in Australia, the UK, America, China, South Africa. Our doctors are treating Americans and Europeans. Our businessmen and women are making money for foreign countries. Our lawyers defending western criminals. Our educated elite, cleaning toilets in London for lack of an otion.

And the poor bastards left in the country are dealing with inflation, western sanctions, no doctors and no fuel, which when there, costs an arm, a leg and half your kidney. And let us not forget AIDS which has claimed three lives dangerously close to me.

My country has gone to the dogs, literally and no one is helping. We are drowning right there in front of the world’s eyes and no one is paying attention. They are focused on getting Mugabe (our president) out BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY and are blind to the pain and suffering of the lay people who did nothing to bring this damnation upon our heads.

I am one of the lucky ones. I live in America, going to university with money my parents do not really have. I pine for home every single day, but what would I be going home to? The country I was born and raised in, the country I love more than any other place on earth (and, mind you, I have been to many places) has gone to the dogs.

And I am disgusted.