The Story of this picture....

Please ignore the poor quality of this picture. It was taken with a very cheap, beaten up range finder.
Beside me, there are two of my 4th grad students (and cousins). On the left, Ali Abbasi and behind me is Ali Ramazani.

Location was a remote village called Ashkan in Bashagard south east of Iran; 200 Km north east to the city of Minab, in a dry mountainous area, 150 km away from any paved road, running water, electricity and many other things.
The horizon in the pictures depicts the typical landscape of that region in the country.
There I was teaching in an elementary school as a conscripted Solder-Teacher. (as in Farsi, Sarbaz-Moalem) I had been there for over a year and pretty much knew the entire population of village, 30-40 people. 2/3 of them where my students!

Now back to the photo; it was a weekend, we were in our hike/expedition in the mountain just above the village.
The mountain was impregnated with many different kind of fossils of Ammonites etc.
On the summit where the picture was taken (approximately 2000m of altitude) one could see the wavy sea bottom on the shapes of sand stones, and as we pealed off the layers of the sand stones it was not too hard to find amazing fossils (I gathered many of them and I have some with me to this day).

That day on top of the mountain I broke my eyeglasses! And I was very lucky that those kids were there with me to guide me back to the village.
But that was the least of my problems that day.
On the way down, we met a few other kids from the village who rushed to me and started yelling and crying! As we approached them, one kid said, “You have to come and help, father of Ali Abbasi is going to kill his brother Father of Ali Ramazani! And no man in the village can stop him…”
In disbelief, I saw one brother had a rifle pointing at the other brother, lot of cursing, yelling and red faces…
I tried to talk to him but it did not work. It was a rape accusation/ dispute; a very big deal, and almost no way out of it for Ramezani…

Finally, I stood in front of Ramazani and told the brother “Well, you have to shoot us both or give me your gun then we talk!?... After an hour of dispute he gave me his gun…
That was probably the longest hour in my life, so far.
(That is why I am so patent with everyone!)
Long story short, the two brothers hardy spoke to each other for next few months but they could not resist coming together to say goodbye six months later when I was leaving. I hope they are doing well now.

I have many stories for that time which I may share them, gradually.
For now,
Farewell to all.

PS: About Ali Ramazani; I wish I could adopt him as my child. He was a wasted talent there. He was an extremely gifted child, very well mannered and gentle. Even when I was there, I was thinking of the day that I would go back and take him with me to the big city…