Before that, let me convey the fact that my grandmother
passed away a few weeks ago (while I'm here).
This mail surprised me a bit.
Because on my father's side we rarely talk
about emotions, and the knee-jerk reaction would be to keep
a stiff upper lip.
But I guess we don't really need to keep up the machinations,
do we?
I replied.
In good faith.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Fahmi Zaki
Date: Nov 26, 2008 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: just to say ...
To:
Mak Teh,
I am doing alright here in Kiyanly.
Right now is the onset of winter, and the temperature is decreasing,
although we still can find a few warm days. The peak would be in
December, with ambient temperature falling to minus
twenty-five. Work here will definitely be challenging.
I work at the edge of Caspian. If you'd view the map, you can find
Turkmenbashi (port). We're 30km to the north. I'll be working here
for two years (til end 2010) with the occasional home leave. Right
now I don't have my working permit sorted out yet, so every 30 days
I have to travel to Ashgabat and then Iran for the usual exit-entry
process to get another 30 days here. It's not a process that I enjoy.
Making friends here is relatively straightforward and easy. Here in
Kiyanly, there aren't a lot of locals. Instead, there are russians, azeris,
tartars, kazakhs, and whatnots. The common bind would be the
Russian language, so that's what I'm doing now, on the sides. It's not
exactly similar to any other languages I've learned, what with all the
Cyrillic alphabets. But it's nice to communicate with them
and they appreciate the effort and gesture.
As you might have heard last week, PM came to Ashgabat with the
delegates. There were talks about him coming to Kiyanly, but later did
not materialize. Gaddafi also came and I gave him my contact number.
But we did not meet up since he's in Ashgabat and I'm handling cargo
offloading here. Next time, maybe.
The culture here is pretty much bare. They celebrate birthdays,
weddings, new years, and a few others. Those are the major. Religion
here is practically eroded, save for Friday prayers and greetings. There
are quite a number of Malaysians here, so you can say there's some
element of homeland transplanted here. We'll be celebrating Eid Adha
in December by slaughtering cows and prayers.
For now that's about it. It's a pretty simple life here.
I hope everybody will feel better as time progresses.
You can view pictures of Kiyanly/Turkmenbashi at my photoblog
photoblog.com/anwarfahmi
Take care Mak Teh.
On 11/26/08, wrote:
Used Off-office.
Fahmi Zaki
--
Used Off-office.
Fahmi Zaki
