Day 254 - The Nicest People In the World

Before I left for Moldova, Mom told me she had met two people who had been to Moldova. One was a young man from Moldova then living in her hometown, Hawley, Minnesota, with a Future Farmers of America exchange program. Folks from Hawley told Mom about him when she told them I would be moving there. They described him as a very nice young man. The other was a woman connected to Mom's church who had been to Moldova with a church program. She described Moldovans to Mom as the nicest people in the world.

Moldovan staff from the embassy at dinner
at a local restaurant

Moldovans are very nice people, more like midwesterners than New Yorkers, or at least stereotypical New Yorkers, and not at all like the stereotypical Soviets or Russians we had heard about in the news.

My impression of Moldovans also fit the description Mom heard. For example, whenever the ambassador made an official call on Moldovan government officials with a demarche, the fancy name for presenting an official position or making an official request, the Moldovan response was most often to ask her what they should do or say. They didn't begin from a stance that they should oppose whatever the U.S. said. They asked for her opinion.

One time several Moldovan government officials arranged to meet with U.N. officials in Vienna. They flew to Vienna for the meetings, but the U.N. officials told them they didn't have time to meet that week. Instead of demanding that the officials meet with them while they were in town, they flew back to Moldova.

On another occasion, the Moldovans pressed the ambassador for specifications for the wall that OBO had insisted in the lease that the Moldovans build around the embassy property. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) seemed reluctant to provide the specifications, probably because our enemies could use that information when planning attacks against us. DS preferred to have Americans with security clearance build walls or erect fences.  But the Moldovans continued to try to do what they had promised. It took the ambassador's determination that we shouldn't require the Moldovans to build the wall without specifications as they didn't have a lot of spare cash to waste. She told OBO the clause about building the wall should be removed from the lease and that building the wall should be added to the contract for renovating the embassy.

Map of Bessarabia. The green, yellow, and
magenta areas make up what was Bessarabia.

Much of the rest of the world didn't think Moldova would last. Moldova, along with a chunks of Ukraine and the breakaway region of Moldova known as Transnistria, had formed an area known then as Bessarabia. Bessarabia had been part of Romania before the end of World War II.  Many therefore assumed Moldova would be absorbed into Romania. But the more-than-40 years of separation from Romania led to different cultures developing. The Romanians had a reputation of being very clever, able to take the advantage of others. Romanians seemed proud of this trait. In response, most Romanians distrusted everyone. But Moldovans trusted one another. And that meant we were used to trusting those around us, too.

An example of the difference in the cultures happened when Alex and I took another of the Americans at the embassy, Sarah, with us to Iaşi.  Our first stop was at an official money exchange at Piaţa Unirii in the center of town to get Romania lei for our shopping trip. Just before we entered the exchange house, a young man approached Sarah and asked her a question in Romanian. Sarah spoke Romanian very well, so she answered his question and then continued into the exchange. The young man followed and got in line behind her. But instead of making his way to the counter after Sarah, he followed us out to the plaza where vendors had stalls set up like a flea market. Sarah saw a table with books and found one she wanted. But as she put her hand into her pocket to take out her cash, she found another hand there and it was removing her cash. She turned around quickly to chase him and shouted that he had picked her pocket. No one else made any effort to stop the man. That isn't the likely scenario had the same thing had happened in Chişinău.

Image of Blair House by afagen,
via Flickr.com

When my tour in Moldova ended, my next assignment was with the Bureau of Near East Asian and South Asian Affairs. In that position, I had responsibility for arranging the logistics for middle east peace talks. One set of those meetings was held at Blair House because President Clinton was expected to take part. Blair House is the official guest quarters for state visitors. The manager of Blair House had met most of the leaders of countries over the years. During a lull in the activity during the talks, she and I engaged in a conversation where she asked a predictable question: where had I served overseas? I listed my assignments in order, ending with Moldova. At that point a very large smile appeared as she told me the president of Moldova and his wife had been guests recently. "They are the nicest people in the world," she said.