Martha's big adventure Part 2

During our 2 months stay at the hotel, we were checking the Bell Board for places to rent. We found one which had 2 bedrooms, i bath, large kitchen and basement, living room with a fountain. Outside we had a pool with a pretty garden full of flowers. Of course, the pool wasn't really a pool, you could sit in it maybe or dangle your feet in it. Not really our description of a pool. But we moved in it anyway. At least it was out of that damn hotel! Our house was on a dead-end street or Kouche as they say. All the roofs are attached and everyone had a skylight. Ours was over the fountain. It had little windows around it that opened up from the roof. Well by this time Hubie was working 3rd shift. One night around 10:00 I was sitting in the living room writing a letter and Hubie was asleep. I heard this creeek, looked up at the skylight and one of the windows opened for a few seconds then closed. I couldn't see anyone because it was dark out, but it scared the shit out of me. I went running into the bedroom and woke Hubie up bawling again. Hubie stayed home for awhile then had to go to work. I slept with a ball bat from then on!

One day right after we had moved in, a neighbor lady brought over a dish of food which was a real sweet gesture but it looked like someone had puked in the bowl. It was green and soupy with white beans in it. She couldn't speak any English nor could we speak any Farsi. We thanked her as best we could and tossed it in the sink after she left.

One day we were on our way to Katy and Terry's house when we passed this young fellow that had the most strained look on his face and was all sweaty. I looked down and he had his hands in his fly and was going to town with his thing. Hubie and I saw him at the same time. I looked at Hubie with my mouth on the floor of the car. Hubie just died laughing and said "well they're holding their own in Isfahan"!!! It was broad daylight out and the streets were full of people, young and old. They all just ignored him as if they see this sort of thing all the time. Once again I thought to myself what kind of sick people are they and why am I here. I couldn't wait to tell Katy.

We had marble floors through out the house. We got on our hands and knees and cleaned them then put a shiny sealer on them. They looked great. It wasn't long after that we found out that our landlord was staying in a room upstairs whenever he came to town. You see from the street you opened the front door into a foyer, to the right was the stairs leading up to the roof and this room that was always locked. We never knew why we couldn't get in that room. Well now we know. Needless to say we stayed there only one month.

Katy and Terry found a house that had 2 floor apartments and a basement apartment. The basement apartment was vacant so we rented it. Katy and Terry lived on the second floor and another American couple from Texas lived on the first floor with a big garden in the back yard. They're names were Jim and Lois. Jim worked out of town and was gone during the week and would come home on weekends. Lois had one of these voices that was real loud and had the Texas drawl that made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. But she always meant well and was very nice. Our place was very small at least 1/2 the size of the 2 apartments above, but we thought it would be safer and Hubie felt better about leaving me at night by myself. It wasn't long after we moved in that Hubie got transferred to Fabrication. This is where they would build scale models that was used for instructing the Iranian students. For instance, the different parts of the helicopter or instrument panels. Basically whatever the teacher needed. Now he was working 8:00 to 5:00. Yeah, we thought things were looking up.

While in the new basement apartment I kept noticing the floor was moving. I thought I was going nuts, but as it turned out there were little lizards that were the same color as the floor. I hate snakes and lizards. I bawled some more and thought to myself, why did he bring me to this God forsaken place! I was always afraid to put my shoes on or get up in the middle of the night that I might step on one or it would be in my shoes.

Lois was a little on the dippy side, she would turn on the outside water hose to water her plants and forget to turn the water off. We would wake up the next morning and our apartment would be flooded. This happened about 5 times and each time we flipped a coin to see who was going to kill her. Not only did we have to sop up water but it brought in all kinds of bugs. No wonder the lizards loved our place. It was a regular feast for them.

I got a little braver and learned some of the streets and my way around town or at least to the stores. Most Americans shopped at the Armenian Square. Armenians are Christians and as a whole very nice people. Shopping was always an ordeal. If you wanted meat you had to go to the meat store. If you wanted vegetables you went to the vegetable stand, if you wanted bread you went to the local bread store, then if you wanted staples, you went to the local grocery store.

The meat store was an eye opener. You bought off the carcass. You would tell the owner how much hamburger you wanted and he would chop it off the carcass put it in the meat grinder and off you go. You could even buy frozen whole chickens from Springdale, AR., if you were willing to pay the price for it. One day I lucked out and saw them delivering the meat to the store. Two little dirty men with filthy hair, got out and grabbed a carcass and carried it on their backs inside. After that, I was a little leery of the meat. I also got to see the flour being delivered. They would bring loose flour in the back of a dump truck, some little man would get in the back and start shoveling flour. He would be completely white all over with flour. You would be walking down the street and some guy would be selling goat parts, including the head on the sidewalk. Never ate goat meat while I was over there. On both sides of every street was a little stream of water called a Jub. At one place some guy would be taking a leak in it and down stream some woman would be washing her dishes in it. Men took leaks everywhere, anywhere the urge hit them. Katy was sick most of the time. She got food poisoning while we were there. She never really got over it until she left.