Travel note in Persia 21 Hearty welcome

Travel note in Persia 21, Hearty welcome

I could see about 10 women of the village were walking to us.

"You should go there. Any foreign woman may be welcomed if greeting."

My husband pushed me. I began to walk to them. I found all of them were old women.

　I lost a timing to greet the first woman. I talked to the next woman with courage.

"Salam.(Hello)"

Surprisingly she huged me and kissed my cheeks with saying Salam. Other women discribed a greeting one after another. I was impressed by the contact with strangers.

　Although the women were going to walk away, my husband and the uncle who were looking at us came to us. They thought the women would not show a stubborn attitude to unknown men because of their passionate greeting to me.

They told the women we came from Japan for travel and so on. The women smiled more and more and said.

"Khoshmadi.(Welcome)"

They shook hands with me strongly. They allowed us to take a photo with us to commemoration. We talked for several minutes eagarly and said goodby.

Villagers

　In return we still continued taking a video and a photo of the village. The man who rode of the horse passed us while running slowly by jeep.

And just as he came in front of jeep, the horse stumbled over the stone and had fallen suddenly. While we were taken at amazement, they stood up immedeately and ran away. The traffic of horses continued.

　The woman with colorful traditional cloths who rode a splendid horse came out from the house in front of us.

Since the figure was very smart, we turned the camera immediately. Then she noticed it.

"That's bad to take a photo of a woman."

She glared at us with saying so.

"No, we took a photo of the wall of this house."

The uncle told her. She went into the house without saying anything. I felt sorry to her.

　I saw some groups of women but no men. As I asked the uncle about it and he answered.

"The village men do not work. They might play around."

He did not mean they do not work at all. They had not much to do on the agricultural off-season.

　I asked the uncle again.

"How is the marriage in this village?"

"They can get married to even an American."

He answered jokingly. But I was sure that they had no chance to see Americans daily. He finally said they get married to the person in the same village by the arranged marriage.

We left this village with thinking they had continued the same life style for hundreds of years or maybe thousands of years.