Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Visiting Special Iranian Friends

On the way to start our tour of the Canadian Maritime Provinces, we stopped in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Our dear friends, Yousef and Narmin from Iran, are visiting their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter there. Yousef’s daughter and her husband are attending the local university. Yousef was Paul’s mentor when he was teaching English in Iran with the Peace Corps. They have maintained their friendship for over fifty years, so this reunion was very special.

We were met at the airport and taken directly to the kids’ home for a delicious Iranian style dinner before going to our hotel for the night. The next morning we met at a nearby restaurant for breakfast and then enjoyed visiting the Western Development Museum. It was one of the best laid out history museums we have ever visited. We enjoyed the “Main Street” exhibit that showed an old town in 1911. Other exhibits covered more recent time periods.

In the afternoon we went to the one Iranian restaurant in Saskatoon and had delicious kabobs. We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging around visiting. The kids loved the opportunity to practice their English and to listen to all the stories Paul and Yousef told as they reminisced about their time together when Paul was in the Peace Corps. The stories never quit. Narmin cooked a delicious dinner for us of chicken and saffron rice.

After breakfast the next day Hamid and Nazanin, Yousef’s son-in-law and daughter, gave us a tour of the University of Saskatoon. It is a beautiful campus. We started in the Geology building where they had a great exhibits that included replicas of a number of dinosaur skeletons. The last building we visited was the engineering school where they study. It was special that we got to see their labs and hear the explanations of their projects. The afternoon again was spent hanging around, visiting and sharing stories. This was what we stopped in Saskatoon to do. Again Narmin fixed us a delicious dinner of a special soup made with oats chicken and lots of vegetables. She is an accomplished cook.

The next morning after breakfast they took us to the airport where we had to say good-bye. It was a very sad time. The last time we saw them, we could not dream that this chance would come again, so now we can think that it might happen again one of these days.

Now we are on to Quebec City where the Pre-Trip begins to our tour of the Maritime Provinces of Canada.

Grace and Paul