Our Pakistani Brother

 

During our constitutional through Astara we stopped into a store to buy some fruit.  Speaking with the man out front, we asked in our best Azeri how much a kilo of a certain item is.  Since our best Azeri is rather poor, the man had the customary look of confusion on his face.  Breaking the confused silence, in the best English we have heard so far he asked, "Hey do you guys speak English?", to which I replied, "sure".  He then said, "Good, cause I have no idea what you are saying, I am from Pakistan."  Now try and imagine his statements in a kind of Rastafarian accent/slur.  He gave us an excellent price on the fruit as we continued to share information about ourselves and hear his story.  Since he spoke such excellent (if not slurred) English, we took the opportunity to ask about other things in town, things to see, Internet cafes, and places to eat.  We told him we were low on cash and needed an inexpensive spot to have some food.  He then told us to hang on a second so he could call his friend.  Obviously asleep in the afternoon, his friend took several tries to answer the phone.  Finally he answered and our Pakistani brother told him about us and to not jack us because we are tourists.  He said we would be over to eat that night.  Leaving the store we thanked our new brother (he kept calling us that), and continued our journey.  As we were walking away he said, "Do not worry about anything here." 

 

After a trip to the Internet cafe, we made our way to the restaurant we were pointed to by our new brother. We tried the door, but it was locked, We knocked, but there was no answer.  We wondered if he was "asleep" again, and headed to another place.  Our Pakistani brother saw our confusion and immediately came over to help.  He again called his friend who took quite a while to answer.   After several minutes our host for dinner, Raymond, opened the door of his restaurant and ushered us in.   If was a very nice restaurant with excellent appointments, much nicer than the places we have eaten so far.  He summoned us into the kitchen to pick out our dinner from what was available, and proceeded to prepare and present a truly excellent meal.  It was a lot of food, well prepared, and presented in a very professional and appealing manner.  Raymond also seemed a bit slurred and in a super good mood.  As we left he hugged and kissed us several times, calling us his brothers and sisters.  The price was a real hookup too.  Our Pakistani brother was right.  He told us, "If you have any problems here, let me know."  We will be seeing him again.