Passports are a big deal in Moldova. Unlike in America, which comparatively has a relatively stable passport system, the documents that Moldovans carry have varied greatly over the years. During the Soviet times, all citizens of the USSR carried Soviet Union passports. When that system collapsed in 1991, those documents became (for the most part) invalid. As former republics declared their independence, they also had to create a new passport system (not to mention a billion other kinds of infrastructure, all of which had previously come from Moscow). Most reading this blog have waited in line to renew a driver's license or applied for a passport in America; it takes time and can be a frustrating process. Now magnify that by 5 million citizens of Moldova all applying for new documentation at the same time, add in a non-computerized system, and you can understand why trading in USSR passports for Moldovan ones can take so long to get.

Everyday, several people from my small village come to the mayor's office to apply for some kind of documentation to get an ID card or passport. Many also travel to Romania or Bulgaria to apply for dual citizenship. Why? Since these two nations recently gained entry to the EU, and their citizen may travel freely without visas to any other EU nation. This can be a huge boon for Moldovan citizens looking to find a better-paying jobs abroad. Not only do they need not apply for an expensive visa, but they don't have to return to Moldova every three months when the visa expires (or continue to work abroad illegally). Wait times to get these second passports sometimes exceed three years.

One last interesting thing: a Moldovan passport lists your "ethnicity." By this I don't mean Caucasian, Mongoloid, African, Latino, etc. Rather, one must include one's ancestry, such as Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian, etc. This is not done in America. In my passport, it nowhere states that my family has Italian, Syrian, and Russian roots. Why does Moldova do this and America does not? I think because it simply matters less in America, the (supposed) "melting pot" in which peoples of all nations come together as Americans. In Moldova, I think individuals still much more strongly identify with being Bulgarian, Gagauz, Russian, Ukrainian, or Romanian.

One woman at our last Poosk seminar explained that when her mother applied for her Moldovan passport, she had to choose between listing Romanian or Ukrainian heritage. The woman chose Romanian, and thus her last name ended wish "-ii." Had she chosen Ukrainian, her last name would have ended in "-ay," the feminine ending which exists in Russian/Ukrainian, but does not exist in Romanian. When her daughter came of age to get her own passport, she wanted to chose Ukrainian because her father was Ukrainian, but it would have created all kinds of difficulties should her mother ever need to provide permission for anything because their last names would be different - one ending in "-ii" and one ending in "-ay." So, now they both list Romanian heritage on their Moldovan passports.

My Trip North

Friday I headed further north than I’ve ever been in Moldova before, to its second largest city, Balti (pronounced Belts). I went there to conduct another of my Poosk small business seminars. Of course, it started to snow – the first real snow we’ve had all season – on Thursday night, so I was a little concerned about the 4:30am bus leaving from my village on Friday morning. As luck would have it, my bus was running, and other than traveling a bit slower than usual I made my way to the midpoint of Chisinau without incident. [Ironically Amy, another PCV who lives in a nearby city, was unable to get a bus from her site until later that morning.]

My bus picked up Bryan, the third part of our Poosk triumvirate, on the way to Chisinau and after a brief stop at the PC office we were on our way into uncharted territory. We went to Balti in a van, which was definitely the worst car I’ve been in in Moldova – and that’s saying something. My feet were ice blocks by the time we arrived, the driver lost some sort of documents so we had to sit outside the city limits while some police officer questioned him and presumably received some kind of payment, and when we finally did arrive, the driver had to tear off the door handle from the outside in order to actually open the rear door so passengers could get out.

Although this trip’s beginning left much to be desired, as soon as we arrived in Balti and actually began the seminar, I knew it was going to be a good time. In large part, credit for this belongs to several people who live in Balti and made this weekend possible. First was an amazing young Moldovan woman, Larisa, an alumna of American Council’s FLEX Program. FLEX provides foreign high school students the opportunity to live with a American host-family and attend high school in America for one year. The goal is to help mold these students, the best and brightest (who already know English quite well before they go) that Moldova has to offer, into future leaders for Moldova. If Larisa is any kind of example of the results of this program, then FLEX seems to be working well.

Credit also belongs to Nic and Bridgett, two PCVs in Balti who (a) put us “Pooskers” in touch with Larisa, (b) helped us find locations for our three days of lessons, (c) showed us around their city, and (d) put us up for the weekend and prepared some excellent meals. I had the best pizza in Moldova, cooked lasagna, and had a real American diner breakfast (not in a diner, of course, but in Nic’s kitchen).

As for the actual seminar, I was really impressed by our 16 participants. Several of them were, themselves, FLEX alumni, and most of them had impressive English skills. Their intelligence, inquisitiveness, and language abilities made explaining some concepts easier. On the other hand, it also created some difficulties for us (in a good way) when they were not satisfied with our simplified explanations of complex topics, and we were forced to go more in-depth than before.

I also taught, for the first time, a new chapter I wrote about budgeting. Although still a work in progress, I think it was definitely the right decision to include this topic. At the conclusion of our seminar, student work groups must present their own business plans. Forcing them to include a projected budget of costs and receivables made their plans much more realistic than previous seminars’ groups’ ideas, and provided an excellent opportunity to teach some computer skills on Excel. The work groups’ ideas this time around were: a flower and tree business; a summer job placement agency for youth; a coffee lounge where students can study; and the “Space Café,” a student run concession stand that would sell higher quality food within the school cafeteria.

Our experience in Balti this weekend will hopefully lead to another Poosk seminar in April in Chisinau for FLEX alumni and their friends. This session would be completely in English and would be more in-depth than our typical sessions. In the mean time, there’s still plenty of room for a session here, in Copceac, and in a nearby village where another PCV lives.

The Prodigal Son Returns (for 2 weeks)

For those loyal readers of this blog (all three of you), I apologize for my posting hiatus. I was on vacation in America, and when I’m on vacation, I’m on vacation. That being said, it was a bit of a working holiday, and if you’ll allow me, I’d like to tell you all about it…

I left on Jan 31, flying from Chisinau, Moldova to Budapest, and then after a 5-hour layover, to JFK. Everything went remarkably smoothly. The airline food was plentiful and tasty, the plane was nearly empty so I could stretch out across three seats, and I even made a new friend.

While I was sitting in the Budapest airport, someone asked me for the time, which started a conversation with a 30-something man, Keiran, who happens to be a former-PCV. He served in the second group of volunteers to go to Mongolia, back in 1992. I told him about my previous vacation there last summer to visit a current PCV friend of mine, and later emailed him some of the photos I had snapped. We spoke on the plane for a couple hours, and it was really interesting to hear from him how Mongolia had been when he was there, his life post-PC, and how he is still in touch with many of the people with whom he served. [This last tidbit bodes well for a potential Uzbek-18 reunion, perhaps in January, 2008.]

My folks met me at the airport, and we stopped on the way home to get some Chinese food – awesome. I nearly fell asleep halfway through the meal as the jet lag set in.

The next day I took in the changes in my house since last I was there: my Dad painted the family room (looks really good, and I’ve already signed up to help with the rest of the house when I come home), there’s a new chair in front of the TV, and Mom has several new paintings that adorn the walls. I also drove – yes, driving a car for the first time in two years – into town and there discovered that there’s a Hilton Hotel, an Applebee’s, and a 10-story apartment complex.

Every time I come home there’s always something new, some good some not. I do appreciate things like having a Staples and a Blockbuster in town, but it’s a shame to see so many shuttered shops along Spring Street in Newton. There are, however, some new success stories along the main street, like the Chocolaterie, started by a local couple, that imports fantastic stuff from Europe and recently opened a second store in New York.

I was home for a few days in Jersey, just getting my bearings, sleeping, and eating. My extended family came to visit on Superbowl Sunday for some bagna cauda, the most amazing meal you could ever eat and a Dakake family tradition. As per usual, it rocked and I gorged myself.

Then it was onto the working end of my vacation: train rides up to Boston to see Harvard Business School, then to NYC to check out Columbia, next to Philadelphia for a special Wharton Winter Welcome, and then on to Washington to celebrate my nephew’s 5th birthday. I really liked traveling by train. The seats were wide and comfortable, plenty of storage space overhead, it’s a smooth ride, there’s electricity sockets, and no need to go through all the hassle of “checking-in” as one must at an airport (to check baggage, get your ticket, and go through security). I bought my ticket online and then printed it out from a kiosk at the train station in about 20 seconds.

I’ll say this for the schools: they’re all amazing institutions with a diverse group of intelligent students. Some of the high points for each school, in my opinion, were that Columbia has the added bonus of being in NYC, Harvard is its own awesome compound, and Wharton students are really involved in all aspects of the school.

Although I was initially concerned about seeing three schools in as many days while I’m supposed to be on vacation, it was definitely a good choice. I was able to sit in on classes, tour the facilities, talk with students, and get a general sense of each school. Should I be admitted at more than one place, I will now be able to make a more informed decision. I am definitely leaning toward one place at the moment, but I’ll wait to hear from each school, particularly their financial aid departments, before making a final decision.

In DC I met up with my folks, David & Maria, Krista, and Gabriel. My nephew is more difficult to carry these days, which could be a sign of his increased size (and weight) or my decreased biceps – probably both. David & Maria’s house, like my parent’s and my hometown, had changed since I was last there. There’s a different TV sitting in a different corner, new couches and a new window are on the bottom floor, Gabriel’s room has a new layout, and there’s a new toaster. And there’s wireless internet, which was very nice. I think more change is coming once my second neice/nephew is born in July.

We also went on a tour of DC monuments, mostly just driving by places like the Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, WWII, and Vietnam Monuments; Congress; the Smithsonian Museums; the Supreme Court; and most importantly, the Moldovan Embassy, pictured here.

Then it was back up to NJ for a couple days. I got to make a fire in our fireplace, which I love to do. I showed Krista around my hometown and tried to eat as many bagels with cream cheese as possible. There wasn’t really time to see anyone besides family, but fear not (or consider yourself fortunate that I was so short of time), I’ll be back soon. I flew out on the 13th.

Special thanks to my hosts during my tour – M&C in Beantown, Baldi & Gumby in NYC, Kevin in Philly, and Cito in DC.