Day 255 - Yet another David

General Services Officer, David

David was a popular name at the embassy. First there was David the general services officer. Then there was the first David, known as Dave, with the Corps of Engineers, followed by the second Dave with the Corps. The most memorable of the Davids was David Gutnik, a friend and classmate of the Fluor Daniel employee of Moldovan background who made the first trip before the site mobilization for the removation. Many of the people hired for the renovation project were skilled in construction work, but many others had little experience in construction but were willing to work for Fluor Daniel as general laborers because otherwise they had no work at all. For example, the team of workers who wallpapered Mr. Saitsky's house were engineers.

David Gutnik was one of the first local employees of Fluor Daniel. His English wasn't all that strong at the beginning. Many of his expressions seemed to be direct translations from Russian, although that is an assumption since I wasn't familiar enough with idiomatic Russian to be sure. Two of the phrases we heard often from David were "Let me know your mind," and "That is a very difficult question." The latter expression was one used by many of the local staff in Moldova. Because of the frequency of its use, we had sweatshirts made up with the Russian equivalent, Это сложний вопрос, underneath the State Department seal with the words U.S. Embassy Chişinău, Moldova circling it.

David Gutnik with Peace Corps Director Mary Ann

David was not a very big man, quite a contrast to many of those he introduced to Tom as candidates for the construction crew. But David had a very big personality. No one dared get in David's way.

One of David's responsibilities was to locate additional staff for the project, and he took that responsibility very seriously. When Fluor Daniel set up a kitchen operation in order to be sure that all the employees had a good breakfast and lunch without having to spend more than an hour away from the site, David found the kitchen staff. And as the Fluor Daniel operation shut down and the kitchen operation no longer needed so many women, David made it his responsibility to find other jobs for the women, most often as maid and/or cooks for the Americans who moved into apartments or houses. As Alex and I came closer to moving into our fourth residence, a house just beyond the embassy wall, we knew that Tatiana was the next women David planned to ensure was hired, so Tatiana became our maid. Tatiana and I had a system where she helped me with Russian and I helped her with English - at least vocabulary. I took magazines and catalogs and stuck file labels under pictures of items. I wrote the English word for the items on the label and Tatiana wrote the Russian word on the labels. We built a dictionary that way so that I could leave messages for her in Russian. Tatiana was a professional baker. Since we didn't really have the need for a full-time maid, I left money for her to buy what she needed to do some baking and cooking for us. We ate very well our last five months in Moldova.

Once the Fluor Daniel operation ended, David was one of their staff whom the embassy hired for the general services office. David was so eager to please that he annoyed some people. But David's attitude was so positive I could never be displeased or annoyed with him. He was one of the most memorable of the Moldovan staff and I cherished the relationship that developed between him and us.

David Gutnik with Sandra and Alex in Abu Dhabi

For years after we left Moldova, we heard from David at the Christmas and New Year holiday time. David also made sure that the others he had introduced us to kept in touch with us, sometimes, we thought, writing the letters in English on behalf of others. David came to visit us when we were in Abu Dhabi. He tried so hard not to be overly impressed by Abu Dhabi and the contrast between the sights there and in Moldova. He had traveled to Israel before his trip to Moldova which gave him the confidence to consider himself a world traveler. During his stay in Moldova, the public affairs officer, Jonathan, hosted a murder mystery dinner party that had a Roman theme. David joined us as our guest with a smile that never left his face.

A few years later, we heard that David had died.  There were rumors that he had committed suicide. I miss him.