Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (28)

Edited by Mohsen Kazemi

Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (28)
Edited by Mohsen Kazemi
Soureh Mehr Publishing Company
(Original Text in Persian, 2000)
Translated by Mohammad Karimi

Reconstruction and Development Corps of Semnan

After finishing the training course and learning some information about hygiene, rural construction, irrigation, agriculture and … I was waiting to be dispatched to a village or county for serving people and be freed of dry army system. But I firmly believed forming this kind of governmental organizations such as Reconstruction and Development Corps, literacy Corps, and ... was only propaganda for dissembling people by the Pahlavi regime. However, I welcomed this opportunity and tried to change the situation in my favor and serve my people as a member of Reconstruction and Development Corps.
Because of my good marks they let me to serve in a county of my own choice. And since I did not want to be far from my other comrades in Hezbollah Group and do my organizational tasks, I chose Semnan province.
It was around April of 1969 that I was dispatched to Semnan.  Reconstruction and Development Corps Administration office was in the governorship building. At first I went to visit the then governor general, Mr. Dabiran and introduced myself. He told some general points about Semnan and then sent me to the village of Kheir Abad. This village and another village, Rokn Abad were located about 3 kilometers in south of the city’s railroad. After these two villages was desert. Near these two villages, there was Haji Abad brimstone mine that a group of villagers would work there.
A man named Ghahremani from Reconstruction and Development Corps Administration office showed me the way to Kheir Abad village. We looked for room to rent, but alas. Finally we went to house whose owner had abandoned it years ago and gone to Tehran. It was not bad. Ghahremani could get the permission of the owner for me to reside there. So I settled there. It took a long time to clean that old building. Then I went and looked around the village. There were about 250 families who were living there. The first thing that attracted my attention was the drinking water. I saw that villager girls and women carry unsanitary water from a far duct in plastic buckets to their homes, or men who were coming home from their work would bring buckets or vases of water.
That wretchedness and misery were seen all over the village and in the face of its inhabitants. However, at the same time there was a rich family named Vafa Shari’ati who was so wealthy. They had big luxurious mansion which had a deep well and a pool that would provide their drinking water and also the water needed for the irrigation of their own lands. And the same time the villagers had no good drinking water. The facilities there would bring some rich people from Semnan there for relaxation and swimming.
It was so painful for me to observe the thirstiness of villagers just beside the pool full of clean water in the house of Vafa Shari’atis. The poorness was seen everywhere in that village. The rough calloused feet of those poor girls and women who would carry water buckets from far were so heavy for my heart. The rough hands of those boys and men who would come back home at nights after a daylong hard work in mine, spinning factory, or agricultural lands with empty hands, would make me cry. It was so hard to tolerate that much cast difference and discrimination. The luxury of Vafa Shari’atis and the misery of Kheir Abad and Rokn Abad people was a small sample of the Pahlavi Regime’s injustice against the people. Observing these scenes would give me deep reasons to fight against the tyranny and try for finishing that condition.
In the hot burning days of desert, those people would mostly feed on yogurt and in dry cold days of winter, on dried eggplants. They did not benefit from very elementary facilities such as rural clinic or bath. Because all these misery and calamity, these people could not trust anyone. At the beginning days of my residence there, I noticed that people would run away from me and did not like to make any relation with me or talk. They did not even answer my greetings. It was a strange situation. I was wondering what to do. Until one day that I met an old man in a shop whose behavior was a little different. I complained about the people behavior with me and said that I had left my home and come there to help them to have clean water, bath and school and… That old man told me: “These people are opposed to Corps agents from whatever Corps they are coming from; Reconstruction and Development Corps, Education Corps or ....” When I asked for the reason, he said: “The agents came before you said the same things but did differently and betrayed these people and even raped their women and then went away. So they hate these Corps agents.” I said: “All people are not the same. I am different and I want to serve. I am annoyed of this much misery and poorness...”
The conversion with that old man made me think for hours. I was sad of what had passed to these people. I had no choice but continue my life there the way it was. During those days I would go around the village and pass my time by reading books and praying in the mosque. After some time when people noticed that I pray and do my religious tasks, they changed their behavior gradually. They began answering my greetings and later they showed more respect... and this way praying saved me from isolation and loneliness.
One day, I saw little boy crying in one the alleys of the village. I asked him the reason. While cleaning his tears, he told me that his father was sick and he could not do anything for him. I went to the city and brought an ambulance from Red Lion & Sun Society and took his poor father to hospital. There, they asked for money for his reception, but they ignored the matter when I guaranteed him.
About ten days later I came to Tehran for furlough and was busy for organizational affairs for some days. In this interval the poor boy’s father had gained his health but hospital had not released him because of not paying his treatment cost. When I returned to Semnan and became aware of the matter, I went to the office of the hospital president and explained the miserable conditions of that poor man and his family and asked him for help. I told him that I was only staff sergeant and my involvement in that case was only to help that man for the God’s sake. The hospital president trusted me and signed his release paper and I then I took him back to the village.
My attempt was unbelievable for the villagers and changed their behavior totally. When I entered the village along with that sick man, they hugged me and showed such warm affections that I could not believe it. This sense of unbelieving was common between us. They had not seen such an attempt by any agent of Reconstruction or Education Corps. From that time the conditions changed in my favor. The villagers had trusted me. For any reason, they would try to get closer to me to talk or do something for me. They would bring food, drinking water, and fruit. I would reject their gifts because I was seeing their own deep needs. These simple people let me in their lives and shared their secrets and confided to me. My presence in their wedding or mourning ceremonies was so important for them. It was a victory for me. I confidently believed and still believe that honesty and sincerity can rule over the people’s hearts. And this cannot be achieved except by the great God’s will.