In Iran I found the most warm and genuinely friendly people that I've ever met any place in the world. What was most amazing was that they singled out Americans and often embraced us and told us "we love Americans." One of the most moving experiences we had was sitting in the big park in Tehran and having a crowd gather around us, wanting to talk. One young boy came up along with his mother to talk to us. He had sent a letter to Obama without getting an answer. We apologized and I asked what he had written to our President about. His mother blushed and said, "he asked for a visa to the U.S.” A man in the group criticized the President of Iran and said, "Quote me."
The outreaching to us was consistent and in several instances women took hold of a tourist from our group and pulled them toward their house to meet the family or have dinner with grandma.
In addition, our leader Abdi Sami invited 2 professional women to join us for a day. One of them was a university professor. They answered many of our questions about life for women in Iran. We were astounded by the fact that the majority of University students are women in this country and that there are so many female doctors, attorneys and professional women. The impression is that women are free to be empowered unless they choose not to be.
Another surprise to me is the high level of culture that exists in all the cities we visited in Iran. I was a High School World History teacher; but had forgotten how the Persian culture had existed at the same time as Greek culture.
The ruins of Persepolis, the tomb and archeological site of Cyrus the Great, the 1500 year flame of the Zoroastrian temple and the old burial grounds of that Zoroastrians were some of the highlights for me. So much information was shared for just 17 of us. We had our leader, Abdi, our Iran national guide, Mahmoud, and in Shiraz, Persepolis & Esfahan we also had regional guides. In Esfahan our guide sang the call to prayer in the magnificent and acoustically perfect grand mosque.
Many people don't realize that the very gifted poets of Iran are still revered and when we visited their tombs we found lovers of poetry weeping. In addition, Abdi recited his favorites of Hafez at this soulful time.
We also attended a play written by Neil Simon based on short stories of Anton Chekhov, at a wonderful theatre in Tehran. Since it was performed in Farsi an actor met us ahead of the performance and told us the story line. The seats and acoustics were perfect in this new building. The acting was superb.
Abdi's knowledge and contacts in Iran gave us more opportunity to meet people and see significant cultural sites; I can't imagine "winging it" without him. Meeting several of his relatives, having dinner at their home, and adventures in a cousin's SUV really added a lot. Three generations chatted with us and told how they live in a country that is like no other.
As we were leaving the delightful party at Abdi's brother's house and anticipating our 2 a.m. departure from Iran, we heard that all outgoing flights to Europe were cancelled due to the volcanic ash blowing from Iceland. Imagine our concerns. Did we have enough money for our hotel? How about medications? Abdi stepped right up and 1. Secured an extension for our visas, even taking new pictures; 2. Started the process of rebooking return tickets; 3. Kept our hotel rooms and paid for them; 4. Booked tours and hired guides for 5 days; 5. Took us to a pharmacy that was completely helpful; 6. Delayed his own trip to Turkey to make sure we all got on our flights..
Most of us are very experienced travelers and left Iran feeling that this trip was "the best we'd ever taken." Iran has a lot to offer and is unique in culture and way of life. We have our differences with how some things are done politically or in their way of
life; but thankfully Iraians are free to tell us that they love us and we loved them too.
Many said that the reason they like Americans is that we are so friendly and smiling and that made us feel good. My wish is that many more Americans can visit Iran and build bridges to friendship that reach the leaders of our two countries.
Gayle knoepfler, Seattle WA