I was going to write about learning Farsi, but just as I was getting started, Sepi got her phone call from distant parts. Today, it\u2019s Tehran, Gothenburg, and Kish Island (Iran). I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Farideh from Montreal showing up any time. It\u2019s \u2018The Gang\u2019, Sepi\u2019s phrase for her sisters and cousins who talk regularly via WhatsApp.<\/p>\n
Almost always just women, they usually start their call by asking about \u2018Daryoosh!\u2019 I learned early on how to say \u2018hello\u2019, \u2018how are you\u2019 and \u2018I am fine, thank you\u2019 in Farsi.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I seemed to be stalled there. Sepi told me the other day how to say, \u2018It\u2019s nice to see you,\u2019 but it hasn\u2019t stuck. I found a really nice web site with Farsi phrases but almost never go to it. You\u2019d think I\u2019d be motivated to learn with all these interesting Farsi speakers to talk to.<\/p>\n
The calls are almost always fun, with several people talking at once in happy voices. There have been serious moments, such as when Sepi\u2019s aunt was dying last summer but mostly it\u2019s just people happy being together. One cousin got COVID but seems to have gotten through the worst of it. Sepi\u2019s sister, Mali, was sad when her niece left Iran for Canada but she puts on a brave face. Mali\u2019s own children – with a grandchild on the way – are all still in Tehran.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll keep at it. It\u2019s likely that there will be many more such calls in the months ahead. We can\u2019t go to Iran, but Canada and Sweden are on our short list of places to visit when it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n
The other day, Badri, who lives in Gothenburg, tried to teach me some Swedish words. Aieee!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was going to write about learning Farsi, but just as I was getting started, Sepi got her phone call from distant parts. Today, it\u2019s Tehran, Gothenburg, and Kish Island […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,395,1],"tags":[653,651,638,591,645,533,652],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-travel","category-uncategorized","tag-badri","tag-daryoosh","tag-farideh","tag-farsi","tag-mali","tag-sepi","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}