Najaf Abad

After 2 weeks of travelling, we decided to participate in a cool project in Najaf Abad.

The couple Hajar and Mohammed had the great idea to create a language cafe, where foreigners could interact with the local people. This interaction has benefits for both sides, the Iranians can practice their English and the tourists can learn more about the Iranian culture and traditions.

The extension of the initial cafe was not yet finished, so we decided to help them out. We were not the only guests. Elif from Turkey joined the project the same day as we did, and Laura and Benni arrived a week earlier. Just like us, they are also on a world travel for a longer period. In April, they started with their converted Van from Germany and crossed the whole continent by car to finally arrive in Iran. We had a lot of funny stories to share and the days were never boring.

We took two days off from work to visit Isfahan with Laura, Benni and Elif but for the rest of the time we stayed in Najaf Abad to help with the cafe. On our second last day Maud, a French girl, joined the team and was perfectly punctual for the inauguration.

At the beginning everything was white,... or let's say greyish ;)

The electric cables were laid for the LED's, the banks were created and the wall decoration was 'deconstructed'.

To fix the wall decoration, we had to put bars on the walls. Estelle and Elif had a great time with the nail gun ;)

Six hands are better than two :)

Unfortunately, the nail gun got jammed all the time.

Nasty work, getting all the nails out.

The concept of the bar was 'wood', therefore the walls needed a little transformation.

Some details needed to be fixed on the bar, before we could continue towards the 1000 unfinished tiny tasks.

If you don't have the right material, you get creative: Polishing the windows with newspaper.

Nobody wants to sit on hard wood, therefore we needed to build cushions for the wooden chairs.

 

After long days of hard work, the inauguration was a real success.

Thanks Mohammed, Laura, Elif, Benni and Hajar.

With live music and lively discussions we started the first night.

In the end, we were all happy about the result and wish Hajar and Mohammed good luck with the continuation of their amazing project.