The First Time I Saw a Car I didn’t see any cars until I became seven years old. In that time, our village didn’t have any road to the nearby cities, because the village was surrounded by a chain of mountains and people carried their necessities from the city to the village on the backs of animals such as horses, mules and donkeys. Similarly they transported rural products to the city. Approximately 90% of the people never set foot outside that area, living there without any health care, medicine or vaccination. Let us forget about how I came to the city at the age of seven. However it was a journey of discovery for me. Passing the mountain and raging rivers, watching olive trees and fishes moving in the streams at the edge of the rice fields, amazed me. Because I never had seen live fish or some kind of evergreen trees before. I was very lucky to see things at that age that expanded my world. Before we reached the road, I could hear the sound of passing cars, I was in a hurry to see them up. Finally we reached the roadside and I was lost in the sight of the cars and trucks that occasionally passed along the dirt road. You might not believe it, but I liked the smell that was emitted from the car exhaust in the air that day. Now the question is how I came to the city from a village that had no school and no car access, and how despite all the obstacles in my way to go to school, I was able to live in the city from the age of thirteen, away from my family, is another story. Fortunately, I managed to finish primary and high school in 9 years and passed the entrance exams to one of the universities in my country and got a bachelor degree. Let me say this too, I worked in the field of education and management for thirty five years and have since retired. Now, my wife and I thanks to the efforts of our sons who completed their postgraduate studies in the United States and are working here, enjoy living with them here and are happy to be learning English in the classes of this school. Hasan is a student in the Intermediate High/ Advanced Low ESL class in the afternoon
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