Plea

To you who stole our things: Return our pictures. Files, too. Unfortunately, you know where to find us.

Determined

You know things went completely, totally wrong on your return trip when your hands have blisters from luggage-handling.

Not DE-Expatriate-ized

What does it say about me if, in the 2 weeks I've been in Moldova, I've forgotten that there is a car - actually, two cars - waiting for us to use in the garage? And what if the fact that we will be returning to the United States from Moldova seems like a fantasy? What if it doesn't seem like our house in the USA is really our house, and that I cannot really picture us living there?

After 6 months of being back in Birmingham, if I forget about that life after I'm away from it for 2 weeks, maybe I'm not as de-expatted as I thought I was was...

Quotables

The purpose of being in Moldova right now is to lead a group of businessmen as they learn more about the microfinance program with which we work. We hope to use trips like this to facilitate the growth of the agency and to find people who are willing to help to create jobs in this country. We've had a series of meetings and 4 visits to clients and lots of informal discussions. It's been good! Prior to the guys arriving, we've had a number of talks with others as well, to help us understand Moldova better.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from these times:

The silly:
"Couple of cherries" (The fruit of the Romanian lesson Dan set up for the guys. It's the easiest way to remember how to say 'You're welcome" in Romanian.)

"I should have prepared the devotional in Romanian after hearing how well you speak the language." (A pastor to the guys after hearing them say 'Couple of cherries' and various Romanian greetings.)

"Don't fall off the porch!" (Us to a client. There were no guardrails on this particular porch.)

"I should sell my stupid apartment in this stupid country and buy a nice house in Huntsville." (A teacher from Chisinau (who had been to Huntsville) who is wondering what keeps him in this country, the poorest in Europe and unhappiest in the world.)
(There is a better link out there somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment...)

The serious:
"The government sets the price of bread at 60 cents per loaf. Our cost is 80 cents per loaf. When the government saw we take a loss, they say we give a donation to the state at 20 cents per loaf and that we must pay tax on the 'donation'." (Interviewing the management at bakery in the village outside of Hincesti.)

"This house will be one of the only aftercare homes in the country for women recovering from being trafficked. We'll take 12 women and they can live here for about 1 year to get back on their feet." (The husband of the home's director, who is planning for the opening of their home this month.)

"At my former school, the principal tells me that 100 of the 150 students do not have parents looking after them. 100 out of 150 students have parents who have left Moldova without them." (A board member to the group after being asked how the emigration of Moldovans is impacting the family unit.)

Appointments

Typical here in Moldova, we spent the first 4 or 5 days of the trip getting situated, and now things have taken off. It's amazing how fluid appointments here can be...an e-mail asking for a mobile phone number, a phone call, and 2 hours later, tea at the French cafe. We like this way of working. It takes a little getting used to - and a little faith that we will accomplish something while we are here! Nevertheless, we find we can do a lot this way, one conversation leads to a couple of other meetings and those contacts are typically easy to arrange at the last minute.

It's so very different than the Netherlands and the USA. In the Netherlands, people are very "afspraak" driven, with most everybody working out of an "agenda" and scheduling appointments days, or even weeks, in advance. There are spontaneous drop-ins, most definitely, but scheduled afspraaks are important. In America, I find in my circles at least, that it's a little of both - schedule and plan, but leave it somewhat spontaneous since we are all busy and might be called away for any given reason at any given time.

I've been thinking about how all of these methods are effective, and how they are all unique to the culture. Moldova is all about networking and flexibility. The Netherlands, more engineered and formal. The USA, a blend of cultures but geared towards individuals rather than community. Impose agendas and strict time codes in Moldova, and all that ends up happening is a lot of missed appointments. Work with the fluid appointments typical of Moldova, and in the USA it would be difficult to find times when all the parties are available.

So here we are, Americans who lived in the Netherlands doing things the Moldovan way, and getting work accomplished. Dan and Beth didn't waste their trip to Moldova!

Valid Question #2 to Ask

"One kilogram?!?!?!?!" the lady at the bakery asked.

I nodded, "Da." Well, when three potato pies were loaded onto the scale and I saw the scale was only registering 0.25 kilos, I understood why she asked the question. I certainly did not need 12 potato pies! Potato pies are light! I ended up with six and there is still one left over.

Even more than Holland and certainly more than in the States, people here shop by weight rather than quantity or volume. I suppose if I could have remembered how to say "5" in Russian, I could have asked for 5 pies rather than 1 kilo! But buying by weight is important here. I ordered a 390 gram pizza the other day. Could not remember if that's like a Pizza Hut personal pizza or an extra large Papa John's. Turns out it's more like a 12-inch.

When I cook with our friends, they think of everything in terms of weight:
"Three hundred grams of pork will be enough because we'll have 1 kilo of potatoes," they tell me. I ask, "Is that 12 potatoes?"
"We need 50 grams of rice," they announce. "Is that 1/2 cup of rice?" I wonder.

It's good for a diet! I know that after I ate 2/3s of my pizza, I'm was going to weigh 260 grams more!

Valid Question #1 to Ask

Does the elevator in your building work?

One of my friends, a local Moldovan, asked me that very question today. (It does.)

We visited a friend on Tuesday who lives in one of the old-style Soviet concrete high rises. We bravely (naively?) got into the elevator. Dan punched the button (think manual typewriter keys from 1950, and you have an idea of the buttons on this elevator) and we rose to the 5th floor. Rebecca wondered why it was so dark, I wondered why it was shaking so much. When we got to our floor, we all jumped when we heard what we thought was a gunshot. It wasn't - instead, it was just the button popping out! The doors opened, we found our friends, we ate pie.

Oh, then there is the story from last year: my husband and some other friends had to CLIMB OUT (not just step out) of our elevator because it stopped midway between floors. Now THAT'S a great memory!

If on a Budget in Moldova...

...don't eat at restaurants that advertise "American" cuisine. For lunch, three of us ate a normal lunch at such a place for 460 lei, or about $46. I left hungry. For dinner, three of us ate very well at a local place close to our apartment for 200 lei, or about $20. We had food left over.

In general, I'm surprised at how much prices are rising here. My favorite Moldovan meal at one of our favorite restaurants was about $6 in 2005 and now it is $9.50. I think last year it was about $8.50. The dollar here has lost value, so that contributes to some of it. But it is mainly due to the high inflation.

If we keep eating so well, and if the stock market doesn't recover, we might not have enough money to get back to America! (Just kidding, Mom.)

Just In Time

I was starting to itch again to get overseas. I was NOT looking forward to the packing and the traveling, but I was ready for how my senses are heightened as I try to figure out new challenges and experiencing something that's not quite so common. So now we are in Moldova, and I'm scratching that itch.

Granted, we've been here enough that things aren't quite as different as they seemed to be the first time we were here. And as the years go on, Moldova is becoming much more Western: big shiny new buildings poking out from behind some of the more historical buildings in the city as well as more and more imports, even Dutch canned food and the German oatmeal I bought from C1000 in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, there is something very stimulating about being here. And it's just in time, because recently the most exciting part of my life was NOT VERY EXCITING. My life in Birmingham is just so...predictable...and normal. I'm going to have to do something about that when I get back.