Travel Tips

Since two weeks I’m back to the village of Hendijan but it feels like I’m here since much longer. Time was standing still and there was no change to recognize except that the weather turned towards summertime and the temperature is now about 45° C every day. The locals are telling us that we have to expect about another 15° C more to come within a couple of weeks. Sounds good – we have only one AC in the whole house, xube!

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Muleing equipment

The work itself turned into a much bigger *** show than before. The remaining lines to shoot are in the inundated area, means that cars can’t go there. So the guys have to mule everything in thru the mud onto the line and then move it along the line! To carry a couple of tons of equipment through the mud is absolutely no fun!!! The only machinery support is by a few motorbikes which manage to go through most parts of the *** areas. But it’s ridiculous to see what effort the guys make to get at least a little bit of production.

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My driver

08.05.2003 "The Safety Problem"

During the second or third day on the crew there was a driver employed for me. Everything was fine until the next morning when the security service told the guy, that he was not allowed to work here any longer. But it’s not to these guys to decide who is working for us and who isn’t. I told him to drive me to the office past the security guards and so it happened that we were stopped by them. The boss of the guys tried to pull the car keys off my car, but I managed to push his hands away and when he tried to pull the driver out of the car I pulled him to the other side. At the end was dragged out of it and the guards started to beat him up. Not badly, but the incidence was bad enough! I got off as well and tried to talk to the man. “Mohamad is not allowed to work on this crew!” “Why not?” “He caused security problems!” “What kind of problems?” “That’s a secret!” What a *** show! I went to the office and the crew was shut down until and the party chief tried to sort out the situation. It needed two attempts and after about two hours we started to work. The “Chief of Security” is a quite powerful man . It was said he has good relations to a general of the Islamic Revolutionary Army, I was told. It’s difficult to understand the relations here because at one point it all turns into religious matters and then there is nothing to do about it! Even his supervisor can’t do anything about this guy because of these connections! At the end there was an official report by the company sent to the client and the driver could stay! But probably it’s only a matter of time when they will start threatening him to quit! On the other hand he told me he is coming from a different district and when this security boss will show up there, he will be killed. I believe him, because that area is not Iranian dominated but Arab and they don’t like each other too much.

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Iza heating up coffee water

A day later I got bollocking for wearing an ear ring. I had to take it out or being asked to leave the country! Another three days later there was an official notice sent to the party chief complaining about me saying that I were telling bad things about locals and their families! Three witnesses are enough to make anyone guilty in this country. I was threatened to be deported out of Iran! It was decided to ask the guys who made those accusations to see me face to face and tell me right into my eyes that I said all those things. At the end two guys showed up trying to tell some stories but very quickly it turned out to be pure phantasm. During this conversation the mechanic helper Iza was listening and got upset: “Don’t listen to that liar!” he said and explains what was going on. The accusing local got nervous and suddenly said that that he would quit and went off. (Of course he had to leave, because they needed a victim and in their eyes he was losing his face!) He was put under pressure to tell all those stories and within 10 minutes it was clear that it was only crap. The supervisor had to apologize and was put into a very difficult situation not to lose his face now!

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In memory of Mr. Kave

08.05.2003 "Kave died"

On the same day a very sad accident happened when one of our local foremen drowned in the river. He showed up and went swimming. Although everybody told him not to do, he did and shortly he collapsed and disappeared under water. The current is quite hefty and unpredictable because there are two of them. One is shallow and the second one is at the bottom. The river is said to be as deep as 20 metres. There was no chance to rescue him in these dirty waters where the visibility is less than a metre. The whole crew was looking for the body until late at night and started again early the next morning. It’s very important for the Iranians that the body is send to the family that he can be buried. We all hope that the body will be found soon but it’s dubious. Probably it is already washed into the ocean and the sharks will have it. Tonight our boss asked a Mullah to hold a Celebration in the camp of the local stuff.

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Hendijan River

20.05.2003 "The Show must go on!"

Two days later the dead body was found. We received a phone call when we went to bed. About 30 minutes later a whole bunch of locals came into our house demanding money and a car to take the body back to Abadan to his family. At the same time the Party Chief was asked to see the dead to give respect an honour to him. Of course he asked me “Will you give me acquaintance?” “No!” I really didn’t feel like looking at this dead body, but we decided to go together for security reasons. We were ready to go, leaving our yard when one of the guys told us to go out of the car because nobody could guaranty our safety anymore at this moment.

The next day the client started to make comments like “Why didn’t you write in your daily report that the guy was sent to free a twisted hose in the river?” So, it’s looking like that there are some guys who try to make us responsible for his death. But it wasn’t like that and there are some witnesses (at the moment) who say he was warned not to swim and stay away from the river. Every year are about 6-10 locals are drowning here due to the dangerous currents.

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Working in the midday heat

21.05.2003 "Ordinary days - no motivation?"

Today was the first day of production and the atmosphere at the yard was very strange: very quiet and a bit offending. The locals think that we didn’t honour the dead guy because nobody was showing up at the funeral! To me it’s a lot of pretending in this story: I’ve seen guys in the village yesterday and they seemed to be in a quite good mood! This morning amongst all the others they were looking very sad and down playing the same game. Emotionally touched they were not able to work hard and needed a lot of breaks.

Today we had problems with the line and I had to change a few cables in the heat of more than 40° C. I had to realize that I’m getting older and was near to collapse. Now I’m suffering from massive sunburn and I feel ***ty tonight!

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Payday - Local worker on strike

27.05.2003 "Bad water"

This morning the labours didn’t receive proper breakfast but some biscuits. The water was taken out of the river where all the *** of Hendijan goes in!

The labours had not being paid the money they expected and like every payday they were very unhappy and today the plan will not work because they will work slow and give a ***!

My room mate had birthday today and we emptied a few cans of (illegally) Vodka, hehe! (I feel *** today!)

Part-2