Moldova Bound

Later today I am leaving for a short trip. The basic mission of this jaunt is to retrieve a five year old girl from her grandmother and accompany her to the States, where she will be, after nearly a year’s separation, reunited with her mother. The mother asked me if I could go and pick up the child, since she herself cannot go, and no one in her family on the Moldovan side was able to get a visa to come here. Plus, who would not jump at the chance to spend a few leisurely days in a freezing cold, unknown, and impoverished nation in brisk December?

I was introduced to the marvels of Moldova when I did my Fulbright there in 2003-4. At that time I wrote:

When initially I heard that I was to be the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to lecture at a foreign university, I was reminded of something Groucho Marx said: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” Suddenly all the virtue and solemnity of the coveted award vanished. I realized if a guy like me could throw together an application over a weekend and actually get the award, then either the State Department, that funds the award, made a serious clerical error, or the U.S. harbors some deep resentment against the Republic of Moldova. By means of expressing their contempt, they are sending me over there.

“Where is Moldova?” That is the question most frequently asked by anyone with whom I discussed my plan. Even educated and well-traveled people have ventured guesses that were well off the mark. Africa is the most frequently mistaken area. Some do have a foggy notion that Moldova is somewhere over in that part of the European map that has changed so much in the last decades with the fall of the Soviet Union, but not usually further than that.

So where is it? Moldova is a landlocked country nestled between Romania and Ukraine. It is a former Soviet Republic in Eastern Europe. It is not too large; about the size of Maryland. The Republic of Moldova has been independent from the Soviet Union since 1991. The broke the yoke of Communism and became a free state in their own right; to then become the first former Soviet Republic to ever re-elect a Communist government, in 2001, ten years later. Later I’ll try to explain why they though that was a good idea.

Moldova is by far the poorest country in Europe, with an average monthly wage of around $30. It is an agricultural country, mostly, with some of the finest, darkest soil imaginable, though they are destroying it with negligent farming methods and widespread use of banned pesticides such as DDT. Still, they say you could plant your walking stick and it would sprout leaves. One interesting fact is that that soil was carted away by the German by the trainload during the early days of WWII. Speaking of WWII: it is sad but somewhat befitting to the rest of the Moldovan history that they are the only country in the history of the world to have lost WWII… twice… changing sides and losing both times. On a much more painful note, also during WWII, even though the pogroms throughout this area of Europe were some of the most vicious, netting around 98% of the Jewish population, I was deeply saddened to come to realize that many of the same anti-Semitic prejudices are flourishing amidst the youth, and most of them honestly have no real idea about the ugly realities of the Holocaust. I suppose that their grandfathers did not want to tell their fathers who could not tell them… but when I taught there I made it part of my curriculum to introduce some very specific literature and lectures that would at least open a few ears and eyes to the recent history of their country. But to take us away from that sentiment and illustrate how confusing identity and the notion of a nation is, I can tell you that while there I met a woman was born in a village in the Ukraine, later lived in Romania, then lived in the Soviet Union for most of her life, and now lives in the Republic of Moldova, and she has always lived in the same house. Her life sums up Moldova.

The official language of the country is Moldovan, which is essentially, Romanian. There is only a political difference to the extent that anti-Romanian facets of the country seek to minimize the very language of the country. Even though Romanian is the official government language of the country, Russian is still widely used and indeed, forced upon the population. It is a very complicated situation. Essentially, during the time of the Soviet Union, Russian speaking administrators were placed in cities all over the country, in order to maintain order. Now, even though it has been over fifteen years since Romanian has been the official language once again, those in charge of many offices simply refuse to speak it. At the university where I taught, many of the professors, and many of the students, did and do not speak anything other than Russian. It is not a matter of them refusing to speak Romanian- they truly cannot. Even those born within the last two decades, and could have learned Romanian, went to Russian language State schools, spoke Russian at home, and so on. This is in contrast to other ex-Soviet countries, like Lithuania for example, where the youth of today cannot speak Russian and indeed, have no wish to.

Aside from Russian, there are other languages spoken in Moldova. Gargauz is one. The Gargauz are a group who has migrated over the centuries northward, from Turkey. They are Christians, and they have their own section of Moldova, representatives in government, and even their own universities in the language.

Next are the Romany speakers- the gypsies. They are in Moldova in abundance though they have been more or less settled into government housing, and there are few caravans and roaming groups as one might see in other areas of Europe.

There are more Ukrainians than Russians, and many people speak Ukrainian, but it is close enough to Russian that people can get by with it.

There is another section to Moldova that may not completely be called Moldova- it is called Transnistra. It is a separatist State that is heavily fortified by the Russian Army. They are a heavy military State, and are reputed to be a wholesaler of most of the “lost” Soviet weaponry from the break-up of the empire. Getting in and out is very difficult even for foreigners, who are usually issued passes only for two hours, and then at great expense, and usually with some sort of “fee” upon trying to get out. When I went there, I felt like I was on the set of “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, it was so chilling. Transnistra is even poorer than the rest of Moldova.

So that is where I am going. But I have a few stops along the way.

I ought to be packing my bag for my trip later today but as I am traveling light I think that I should be ready. I have a customer coming by the house to pick up some comb honey, and then I need to make a delivery to a supermarket before I go, and I have a much needed appointment to have my haircut, but beyond that, I imagine that I have enough time.

Also, I just returned from the Middle East two days ago, and I am exhausted and have a multitude of things to do. But this will be a short trip and with luck, in about a dozen years, I will watch this little girl graduate from high school here in the States, she will have a life that holds much more promise and far more opportunities than would have her life in her home country. So that is reason enough to sit in economy class for another intercontinental flight.