Hadi is an Iranian with a dream to emigrate to Denmark. I met him and his pregnant wife Sheyda at the restaurant we were workawaying at in Qeshm Island. They are friends of our host Annelie’s, and a truly lovely couple. Antony and I were invited to their home where we enjoyed a delicious meal and their lovely company. Their English was good and Hadi could even speak a little Danish. It was rather funny for me to see Hadi’s Danish workbook. He attended a Danish course in Tehran last year and could already understand quite a bit despite never having set foot in Denmark and possibly having never even met a Dane!
Sheyda & Hadi with little Helena yet to meet the world
Hadi wanted to show us Hengam island so kindly took us there one day. The goal was to take a speed boat trip to see dolphins and dolphins we did see!!
This was really fun as dolphins are beautiful creatures to watch, but just as interesting was getting to know Hadi. It was a real pleasure to spend time with such an interesting and lovely person, to hear his insights and thoughts on faith, politics, use (misuse) of power etc. Hadi was a very sincere, bright, enterprising, determined and caring person and one who had a very clear sense of doing the right thing.
At the time, he was trialling a new business idea which involved an app he developed for bread delivery and special bags to keep bread fresh, with magnets on them to attach to the doors of those who’d signed up for the bread delivery service. It sounded like a great idea to us so we hope it works out for him.
Hadi’s main job was to lecture IT at the university in Qeshm. He found it frustrating that students offered sexual favours or bribes in return for good grades. He refused these but was still not in a position to give students grades they actually deserved because of pressures or threats on him or his job.
Hadi wants a better future for his wife and their child and to live and work in a country where things were fairer and there was less corruption- hence the desire to find work and move to Denmark. I wish him all the very best in this endeavour and hope to meet his little family there in the future.
Antony & Hadi, Hengam Island
Other interesting highlights on our outing with Hadi were – seeing a water desalination plant on Hengam Island and on the way home chatting on the beach with a random passer by. The random passer by stopped his motorbike when he saw the three of us having a snack on a blanket on the beach. At first I thought he might know Hadi but it seems it is normal here for strangers to just stop and talk and pretty much join you for your picnic. He started chatting with us (in Persian so Hadi was doing most of the talking with him and translating when he could) and I tried all my best Persian out on him- including asking about children, work, age etc. The answers were less straight forward than you might think as he couldn’t remember exactly how many children he had and how many were girls and boys. Quite funny! He was a camel farmer with a fabulous smile, born and bred on Qeshm Island. We had driven passed his camels before finding our picnic spot on the beach. When conversation lulled he started up with a poem. This proved quite a challenge for Hadi to translate.
Camels, Qeshm
Beach Picnic & a friendly camel farmer, Qeshm
Despite not knowing exactly what his poems meant, I loved that there we were, sitting on a beach, in Iran, looking at this camel farmer with glistening eyes and a wonderful smile, listening to him share heartfelt poems with us in undoubtedly beautiful Persian. Ah Iran… I had to pinch myself that this was real.
Poetry reciting camel farmer with Hadi, Qeshm