This morning Facebook reminded me of my first hike on13th December 2020. Thanks to hiking, I became a solo adventurer. Maybe I should set 13th December as my hiking anniversary day and start celebrating it the next year by going on another hike. Here are some photos from my first hike!
Note: I found it as a draft written on 10 Feb 2021, don't remember why didn't publish it before.
Last week I watched The Devil All Time movie, directed by Antonio Campos. The movie reminded me of Kabul and my forgotten memories...
Willard Russell coming back to his home town in West Virginia after serving in World War II. On the way, he met a waitress named Charlotte in Ohio. He married her and had a son called Arvin.
Even though I was born on 1985 during Iran-Iraq war (22 Sep 1980 - 20 Aug 1988) in Iran, I didn't have a clue about war. Or maybe being born on a foreign land, was a war mark on my life. After I went to school and could read the streets' names, I realized they were named after Iranian martyrs who lost their lives during Iran-Iraq war. Also watched so many Iranian tv series & movies about Iran-Iraq war. But I never had any classmates who was an orphan of a martyr because as their father's contribution to defending the land, they had special schools called Shahed schools.
I grew up with a paradox in Iran. In school, we learnt the martyrs are forever alive human beings. Their bodies leave their loved ones but their souls and memories live forever. Despite going to heaven and having unlimited joys there, still people mourn after their depart from the earth. Iranians wear black shirts & dresses and held big ceremonies each year. They said: tears for martyrs were awarded by god in world after life. So everyone tries to cry as hard as possible. Some people try to seek help from onions. I couldn't cry and thought maybe I'm a cold hearted person. Actually my friend believed me as a cold hearted person. It took me years to realized I just was a strong person.
Then 11 September attacks happened in U.S. me and my family didn't have any ideas that those attacks will lead the American government to invade Afghanistan for hosting Bin Laden. I even didn't know my poor country was hosting a rich Arab guy like Bin Laden. He must be a hippie not a jihadist who traveled to a poor country.
That time I was in 9 grade and imagining myself study in one of Tehran universities and starting an independent life like Oshin and Hanako. I wanted to go to Tehran International Book Fair and buy lots of books and drowned myself in reading them. I wanted to go to Iran parliament and listen to parliament members arguing with each other on development of their cities. I wanted to visit some Iranian famous news papers offices but in my surprise, 2 years later we returned to our so called post-Taliban country.
We spend one night in Dogharoun's Ansar camp. It didn't have electricity and my mom turned on the oil lantern before sunset. One of UNHCR staff saw our lantern and told us: "you proved yourselves as real Afghans". In his opinion, traveling with oil lantern to Afghanistan was an indicator of Afghan identity. My mom always saying: "there's no electricity in Afghanistan". That's why we didn't take any of our electrical stuff except our dad big tape & radio. Another UNHCR staff advised us to not drink water without boiling. On our way to Herat, I saw lots of houses destroyed by bombs and nobody built them again. I wasn't shock by the roads because I saw same roads every summer in Iran on our way to brick kiln.
But nobody listened to her except me and all of them had to suffer from dysentery for few days.
Charlotte wasn't lucky like my family to suffer from dysentery. Doctor diagnosed her with cancer. Willard and Arvin urged to god to save her life. Even Willard sacrificed their dog to god, god rejected their prayers. Consequently, Willard took his own life to be with Charlotte. Then Arvin continued his life with his grandmother and adopted stepsister called Lenora.
I entered Kabul university in few months as my family stayed in Herat province and my dad built a house for us there. After graduation from university, I heard the story of Shirin Gul and her husband who killed 27 taxi drivers, buried their bodies in their yard and sold their taxis. Shirin Gul's husband was pimping her as Carl was doing with Sandy in the movie.
Corruption, violence, religion extremists is much worse in Kabul compare to the cities in the movie. Police in Kabul are corrupted as much as Sheriff Lee. If Roy believe god gave him the ability to resurrect the dead and he kills his wife for testing his ability, Taliban believe god sent them to take people to heaven by suicide attack. Many Mulla like Preston seduces girls in mosques and rape them.
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| Resting |
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| Watch Tower |
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| The Suspension Bridge |
- Seriously! Are you complaining about the cold temperature of Air conditioners? You come from a country full of mountains and snows! ACs are nothing compared to snowy mountains!
Recently I watched the film CODA 2021 about a Child Of deaf parents. Ruby is a hearing teenage girl living with her deaf brother and parents. She likes singing and joined the school's choir team and discovered she has a talented gift in singing. Her teacher encouraged her to go to the music college, but is torn between that and helping her brother & father on the boat as they dont have enough money to hire a hearing worker.
I really loved this movie because:
- It was the first movie I've ever watched about deaf people and it answered all my questions about them.
Now I know they can write and read everything including lips and can have a hearing child but it can be challenging as Ruby's mom was scared if she would be seen as a bad mom due to her disability.
- Protecting the family: the movie contains lots of lesson regarding protecting the family:
- Ruby tries to protect her family from harassments, she even teaches wrong sign language to her friend whom wants to date her older brother.
- Ruby's mom tries to find family activities, so all the family members can join together.
- Ruby's dad doesn't blame her children over negotiating the fish price in the market and stop them from fighting each other. He tells them: "Guys! you want to fight, go fight those assholes! Our family sticks together!"
- Sacrifice: learning when to sacrifice for your loved ones and when to follow your dreams. Sacrificing your self is very hard and challenging once you discover that you have a gifted talent and your family and loved ones rely on you. In Ruby's situation, it's not only Ruby who has to sacrifice herself; her family also has to sacrifice a free lifetime interpreter.
- Appreciate other people's time & help: Follow your dreams. There are always some people to discover your talents and help you to achieve your dreams. Appreciate their help and their time spent on you.
- Don't be scared of judgement: Ruby is always afraid of hearing her classmates making fun of her family. She doesn't want her friend date her brother or doesn't let Leo go to the bar with hearing people until Miles tells her that she was cool when they were at 3rd grade and she was ordering beers for her parents but his own parents wont even let him to take the bus alone. He mentions his parents hate each other but Ruby's parents love each other.
- Humor: I love the humor in this movie and laughed a lot after Gertie told Leo that "she has herpes" and when Frank says:
"You know why God made farts smell? So deaf people could enjoy them too".
- Don't put all your eggs in one basket: When Jackie and Frank are struggling financially, Jackie suggests to sell the boat, but Frank disagree and says: "It's the only thing I know how to do!"
During quarantine, I used to jog in the car park. One day, I saw an injured kitten there but it was scared of me and ran away. I read street cats live up to 4-5 years while pet cats can live up to 14-15 years. That's why on September, when I saw a kitten behind the apartment's door, decided to rescue her but only managed to look after her for 10 days. She was black, skinny, and around 12 weeks old. Me and my friend decided to call her "Alfred Wallace" even though we knew it's a female kitten. I learnt some lessons from her as listed below:
1) How to give a kitten a bath?
When I brought Alfred inside the house, I first gave her a shower. She didn't like it and tried to run away but could manage to hold her until shower was done and dried her with a towel as best I could. Then left her alone on the couch as she licked herself dry.
Later I realized I should leave her alone from the beginning with some food and water, shower could be second step.
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| after first shower |
2) Identifying the kitten's sex
When I was thinking about a name, I was wonder how can I identify its sex. Based on my finding in Google, guessing the kitten's sex is a bit tricky especially for male kittens due to their undeveloped testicles. For identifying the kitten's sex, you need to look under their tails. So you need to be able to raise their tails gently and look at the distance between their anus and urinary organs. If the 2 organs are close to each other means the kitten is female but if they are far from each other, means it's a male kitten.
3) Cleaning kitten's ear
Her ears were very dirty. I cleaned her ears with cotton buds and baby wipes as best I could.
4) Litter box
Actually according to our apartment rental rules, I'm not allowed to keep any pet. During the day, I let her stay in the hall but at night, I had to bring her inside my room, so my housemate will not see her and complain to the landlord. That's why I was constantly worried of her pissing or pooping during the night while I'm sleeping. I bought litter and prepared the litter box for her. She was good at using her litter box. After scooping her first poop, I felt sick. So I decided to use 2 masks while scooping her first poop. Who could imagine Covid-19 virus couldn't force me to wear 2 masks, but my kitten did it with its smelly poop!
5) Never use freshener
Silly me, I was tired of her smell and decided to use air freshener. Then guess what happened later? She started biting her box, running in the room, then Voila! After 1 hour, she had diarrhea. The next day, I had to take her to the vet. Giving her medicine, was challenging. I had to give her treats until she gets used to her medicine.
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| going to vet |
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| her medicine |
6) Tuna, Tuna & Tuna
She loved her Tuna more than her dried food and every time I was in the kitchen, she would follow me and stand next to the fridge hoping I'd give her one more spoon!
7) Kitten shirts
She was coughing and I thought she might feel cold, so I upcycled a few shirts for her out of old socks & shirts.
8) Playing mouse videos
She was alone and I was busy with my job, no time to play with her and she spent most of the time sleeping or licking herself. I did play short mouse videos for her and she thought they were real and tried to catch them on my mobile screen, wasn't nice to fool her! Kittens are sweet but needs lots of love & care. That's why I decided to find a sweet home for her!
It was 9th May, when I read the news of Bo's passing, the Obama's dog. I shared the news while going to the supermarket to refund some cherry tomatoes. Then found out the whole shopping mall was closed for 4 days because of increasing Covid-19 cases. I was frustrated by the sudden change and had to spend some time catching up on the news to track changes on shopping mall closures and train & bus operating hours...
When I opened my Twitter, everyone was sharing the news of the Kabul school bombing by Taliban. U.S. troops withdrawing from Afghanistan, and Taliban wanting power back.
I remembered the day when I read Obama's speech in Cairo, I felt in love with his speech:
"Our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity -- men and women -- to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice"...
Now Taliban is grasping back power by killing innocent girls, stopping them from going to school and Obama doesn't seem to care. Only George Bush seemed to care about the effects of U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan. Even Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his speech "A new beginning", but no mention of anything regarding U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan. Why should he? As he changed his tone during his second presidency time and released 5 Taliban members. Currently, they are present at the Taliban peace deal with the Afghan government. I am disappointed with Obama.
90 people dead and 240 injured in the blast outside of Sayed al-Shuhada school in Dashte Barchi. So many families now scared of sending their daughters to the school. Who wants to collect the remaining of their children in a bomb blast? Who wants to go to hospital to identify a burnt body? Who wants to dig several graves for the remains of their loved ones? Some people ended up with having several graves in a cemetery. Soon, there'll be more labor for building of graves in Afghanistan than labor for building houses for the live ones. People have started advertising their funeral services in social medias. Only in Afghanistan, is economy growing based on funeral services.
It's a complex feeling. Living in the present, battling with Covid-19 pandemic while trying take in on what's happening in Afghanistan, unable to help...
I always wonder how followers of Abrahamic religions came out with the idea of an "invisible god". This Saturday afternoon lookin...
