Multinational Socializing

Last night I met with a group of masters' students that I taught in May.  We went out for some good conversation about life and economic development here, and how to choose a baby name (among other topics).

I met these Moldovans at an Irish Pub, and they ordered in Russian. I drank Czech beer, while listening to them speak to each other in Romanian, as we conversed in English.  I then ate a Greek salad with American television playing in the background (MTV - mostly R&B).  I spoke to the student on my left about her job working for a Dutch furniture company and her trip to Holland in a few weeks.  All that while waiting for the EURO quarterfinal between Germany and Greece.

Fun times during our last week in Moldova...

Istanbul

I took another great trip last weekend, with Strider, to Istanbul.  It is only an hour flight from Chisinau, so we decided to celebrate Strider's 12th birthday in grand fashion.

Istanbul is an amazing city with centuries of fascinating history from the Byzantine empire through the Ottomans (who expanded their reach into what is now Moldova).

Below is the Hagia Sophia.  It is a beautiful cathedral with an interesting mix of both Christian and Muslim icons and art.

Strider in one of the courtyards at Topkapi Palace.  This was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans and it sits on a beautiful peninsula that overlooks the Bosphours River, the Golden Horn River, and the Sea of Marmara.

View from the Palace....

One of the many buildings at the Palace.  I find the choice of words in the description of this room quite curious.  Is this really how rare tiles are referred to?

Another highlight was the Archaeological Museum.  It was remarkable to see so many statues, tombs (like the one below), and other works of art from centuries ago.  Strider and  I discussed whether art today will ever rival what was created many hundred years ago.  Will a museum in a few hundred years have what we call modern art today and will it be viewed as brilliant, creative, and timeless?

The spice market (for me) and the food (for both of us) were also highlights.

I strongly recommend Istanbul for anyone interested in visiting what was at one point a city at the apex of western civilization.

Odessa

Since my formal teaching and speaking responsibilities are finished in Moldova, I am continuing my exploration of this part of the world.  So on Tuesday I traveled to Odessa, Ukraine for a visit with a former Wingate Student, Vasyl and his wife Maria, and a tour of the city.  Odessa is a beautiful port city on the Black Sea, and if it was easier for the family to get there we would all make the trip.

I decided to take the train because the bus is usually a very cramped, body-jolting ride on rough roads and I cannot read or do much in a car/bus.  The train, on the other hand, is not the most comfortable ride (see the nice wooden benches below) but it is spacious and it is relatively smooth for reading and writing.

I had a long bench to myself, but the downside is that it takes a long time to travel 157 kilometers.  With essentially three border stops (Moldova, Transnistria, and Ukraine), there is a lot of stopping and waiting for someone to check your passport, ask questions, look intimidating, and prolong the journey. So after 4.5-5 hours the train finally traveled between Chisinau and Odessa.

Mark Twain said, "I have not felt so much at home for a long time as I did when I 'raised the hill' and stood in Odessa for the first time."  I'm not sure I felt the same, for Odessa is unlike Charlotte, but it does look like a very modern Western European city.  Catherine the Great wanted to build Odessa with European architecture and this style was preserved.  She is revered, in contrast to other Soviet era leaders, for I saw no statues of Lenin, etc.

Twain's "raised the hill" comment reminds me of climbing the Potemkin Stairs which leads from the huge sea port to the heart of old Odessa.  Potemkin was a Russian military leader and lover of Catherine the Great, and she called him Prince of the Russian Empire.  The view from these stairs shows the size of this beautiful port and the Black Sea.

Below, Vasyl and I are standing near the famous opera house....

and Vasyl and his wife Maria in one of the many park areas.

For my friend Trey, you can see Odessa is around 8000 kilometers from Baltimore...

It was a great day in this beautiful Ukrainian city, and I hope to return sometime to take in more of the rich culture there.

Transnistria

Yesterday, seven of us Fulbrighters and a few friends traveled by car (we hired a couple of drivers) to the breakaway region of Transnistria which is an area that covers much of Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine.  Transnistria broke off from Moldova just after independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, and they fought a war with Moldova until 1992.  The Transnistrians claim this area from the east of the Dnister river to the Ukrainian boarder, and although internationally they are unrecognized, Transnistria acts as an independent state. To enter this territory you must show your passport to border guards, and you must pass through a series of checkpoints while stopping to fill out what is effectively a customs form.

Since I am a defacto representative of the U.S. government, the embassy here does not encourage us to travel to Transnistria but they do desire to move this territory into greater Moldova via diplomacy (thus they want to spread goodwill).  The diplomatic relationship is sticky because the U.S. will not recognize them as an independent state (which they claim for themselves) and the diplomats are often denied entry because they will not present a diplomatic passport to the Transnistrian boarder guards.

Before crossing the Dnister river there is a town called Bender (Bendery) which has a lot of historic significance as an important checkpoint into the Russian territories.  A famous fortress is there and this area (although on the west side of the river) is also control by Transnistria.

We were fortunate to travel Andrey, a fellow Fulbrighter, who is a Russian-born U.S. citizen, and he arranged our sight-seeing excursions.  It would have been a difficult day for me to navigate on my own in terms of understanding the history as all signs are in Russian (in contrast to Romanian in Chisinau), and all tour guides have to be prearranged.  We had a really interesting tour of the Bendery Fortress, the construction of which was begun in 1538 by a Turkish Sultan.  It became a major site for battles during the following centuries as the Ottomans battled the Russians and the Russians battled the Romanians, etc.  It is a major access point to the Black Sea in this region.

Below Andrey and I are saluting beside the busts of several famous Russian generals.

We also toured a cemetery in Bendery that memorialized many of the Russians killed protecting this region for the past two centuries.

After leaving Bendery, we traveled a few miles across the river to the capital city of Tiraspol.  The first thing you notice when driving in is the large, state-of-the-art soccer stadium for the Sheriff football club.  Sheriff is a very wealthy Moldovan business man.  After the soccer stadium, what you see is a lot of loyalty to Russia, including many t-shirts that say "I love Russia," and, most especially, the large statue of Lenin outside a government building right near the main square.

The other main tourist destination is the memorial for the victims of the 1990-1992 war with Moldova proper.  It is a beautiful area that is flanked by a wall with all the victims names on one end of the "mall" and a Russian tank on the other end.

In various accounts that I have heard or read about visiting Transnistria, I was told of going back in time to the days of the Soviet Union.  In my brief visit, it was interesting to see the Russian focus everywhere but as one of my colleagues stated it feels a lot like other cities in Moldova. The main difference is that in Chisinau and Tiraspol both cities are modernizing but one is doing so while trying to keep relics of its Soviet past while the other is trying to get rid of that past.

The two flags speak to those differences as well (Moldova on the left).  It was a very interesting trip, and look into how a rogue state functions.  In some ways, it felt like the only people who really care if Transnistria remains separate from Moldova are those in the police/military.  Andrey talked to several people we met, and none of them seemed to want to talk much about being an independent country.

As least now I've been to a rogue state...it should be on everyone's list.

Developing Country: A Continuing Series – Education

I have had a great experience here teaching two condensed classes, one undergraduate class on economic systems for three weeks in February and one master's class on development economics for two weeks in April/May.  I mention the duration of these classes partly because I typically teach semester-long courses and partly due to the fact that the first class (which concluded on March 2 with the final exam) is still not officially closed.

One of the things I have learned here, which has been a major source of frustration, is that one must be very flexible when navigating the education system.  The students in my first course are in their final semester of their degree, and they must complete this class in order to graduate.  Yet, several students did not attend the class at all or they attended only one or two sessions.  In America this behavior would result in failing the class and coming back in fall.  Not here.  The excuses are many, from "I had to work during your class" to "I was in Poland" to "It has been a busy term" to, very sadly, "My dad took his own life in December."

The university has a policy that these students have several weeks, and several chances, to schedule a make-up time to take a final exam and pass the class (the final exam is worth seventy percent of the course grade).  What's more, this is a fluid policy and the several weeks has turned into two-and-a-half plus months.  So I send a student who never once attended the class several articles and slides, ask them to read and study the materials, and then show up at a certain time to take a written exam.  The expectation is that if the students  follow these instructions they will at least pass the course.

As a representative of the U.S., and someone who is here on behalf the U.S. State Department, I am encouraged to be a positive voice in the education system, trying at least to show a different (and hopefully improved) way of teaching, relating to students, etc.  It is unlikely that my lone voice at the Academy of Economic Studies will make a difference, but I'm trying to tell anyone who will listen that this system hurts the integrity of the institution.  The students who worked hard and attended the course everyday are classified with someone who never showed up once.  I certainly had some students who were stellar, and they did far better than those who never attended the class, but what I am learning is that in other courses this distinction (as to whether one attends the course or not) does not have a significant impact on the grade received.

I'm hopeful that positive changes that will help bring some credibility to the higher educational system here will soon evolve in the coming years.  For now, students are continuing to enter the universities here with the option of skating through without anything close to the effort one would expect of a college education.

I'm speaking at a conference this weekend where I will hopefully address some of these issues, and I'm learning that small/incremental changes are the only kind in Moldova.

Spring Clean-Up

It has been very nice in Moldova lately as we have transitioned from the coldest winter in Eastern Europe in a generation to what is turning out to be a warmer than normal spring.  When we arrived here in early January, it was striking how dirty and gray everything was.  The streets were full of dirt, mud, and eventually a lot of snow and during the snow melt-off there were small brown steams everywhere.  Also, it seemed that people were not very careful with putting trash where it belongs and keeping things nice.  Part of this is due to typical city living with a lot of apartment and rental housing and with a lot of public property to dump trash on.  It was very hard to imagine that Chisinau would ever look like all the pictures displayed on postcards, maps and the other publications highlighting how green this city is.

Yet, as the weather warmed we saw people all over the city cleaning up.  Some of them were city workers who spent considerable time sweeping the streets and cleaning areas around trash dumpsters and other public places.

Also, we began to see people everywhere painting curbs and tree-trunks white (something they do all over the city) in order to make things look nice.

It has been a beautiful and welcome transformation around here as moods are certainly affected by the weather and springtime here is turning out to be quite beautiful.

Below is our favorite park...

The Registration Process

When I originally accepted the grant to Moldova, one of the conditions for being here for more than six months was that the U.S. Embassy would take care of our registration/visa process.  This was a huge relief because it is expensive and time consuming getting six visas.  We simply had to give our embassy contacts a passport photo of each of us, a copy of our passport, and sign a couple of forms.  Done.

Well, two months into our stay, the Moldovan government changed the process for us and it has turned out to be another one of the joys of living in a developing country.  We all had to go to a local hospital and get our blood typed, sign new forms, pay additional money, and take a trip to the ministry of registration/documentation (or something like that).

So, earlier this week Amy and I, along with Miles and Rayna, traveled to the embassy and met with Valentina (my primary contact there) and then we traveled by embassy transport to the aforementioned ministry building. We ending up meeting with four different people in this building, going from unmarked door to unmarked door.  We ended up having to pay an additional fee beyond the stated amount we were told ahead of time (this was for some sort of expedited process, of all things), and we had to get pictures taken again (for Amy this was the third time).  Throughout this process, Valentina had to talk with several different people, and we just blindly followed her from floor to floor.

The bottom line is that we should receive our "legitimatize" with one month to spare before we leave.  This allows us to exit the country and re-enter (otherwise if we leave we will be denied re-entry), and presumably this documentation is necessary so that when we leave for good we will not have to pay a fine.  After all we have spent, I'm not so sure we'll make out in the end.

Developing Country: A Continuing Series – Entrepreneurial Ubiquity

As I posted earlier, in my research of the informal economy I've been spending time in the open markets visiting merchants of all types.  There are many reasons for the numerous merchant/entrepreneur, some driven by necessity and others driven by the best profit opportunity, but there are people selling things everywhere.  Any place where people gather, you will find people selling agricultural products, household items, clothing, etc.

In addition to the guy (or very often woman) sitting on the street corner displaying their wares, the Magazins are almost on every corner (think mini convenience store).  These are stand alone sheds, or small stores built into the side of a building, and they are available everywhere to provide food items (mostly) in all areas of this city.  Everyone where I have been in the city, there is one of these Magazins (also called an Alamentara) within a few minutes walk.  From our house we can walk to four of these stores in one to three minutes.  One of them sells bread, cured meats, dairy products, canned goods, alcohol, ice cream, cookies, etc. and another will sell mostly produce, and another fresh meat.

I'm still learning about the structure and organization of these myriad entrepreneurial ventures.  Some of the merchants in the open markets have a permit to sell, and the overall market is regulated to some extent by the government.  But, there are many merchants on the street especially in the areas around the open markets.  These street merchants often set up shop on their own, and in many areas they are illegally operating.  This seems to frustrate those that operate with a permit, but there is no enforcement to kick out the non-permitted merchants and if the police do happen by they are easily bribed to move on.

The picture above is favorite shop located about a minute from our house.  It is a little shop that sells Moldovan wine from a vineyard about 45 kilometers away.  The sign says Regresar and I'm sure something is lost in translation because it literally means regression.  This wine is quite good and very inexpensive so we're enjoying this local convenience.

Developing Country: A Continuing Series - Paying Bills

One of the joys of living in a developing country is paying bills similar to American life 50 years ago.  Actually, I'm not sure if this was ever the means of bill-paying in America, but the method here is physically taking the bills to the bank and waiting in line to pay.  This is simply how it is done.  There is no place to mail in the payment (for most this would mean mailing a wad of cash), and there is certainly no online means to pay.

The bills come in the mail as a simple piece of paper (not in an envelope), and there is no envelope provided to mail the bill to the service provider.  So after I collect all the bills for the month I head to the bank.  One nice thing is that banks are ubiquitous here in Moldova (as well as ATMs).  This is likely because the economy is mainly cash based (I've only seen a credit card used twice in my almost daily trips to the store).

But back to bill-paying.  I found out the hard way that it is unwise to wait until the day the bills are due (or the last couple of days) and head to the bank.  My first bill-pay experience necessitated that I wait in line for 45 minutes.

Picture the scene of walking into a bank with only two teller stations open and a room with people everywhere.  No organized lines, but somehow each person seems to have knowledge of who is next and to which teller they are waiting.  I have little ability to ask questions and figure out the chaos, but I know which teller I want to handle my transaction (she speaks a little English) but I don't know how to get there.  So after 45 minutes, and one loud irate woman (not directed toward me - thankfully), I finally forged ahead to pay my bills.

I learned my lesson from this first bill-pay experience...go to the bank in the morning, mid-week, and well before the due date.

Soviet Order

Even the parks are created with trees in nice neat rows...

...yet you can't always keep track of a stray acorn.

Research on the Informal Economy

This week I started a research project with a few students in which we are trying to get a handle on the behavior of entrepreneurs in the informal economy (those that sell household wares, agricultural products, and other goods bought at wholesale and sold in an open market). We are trying to get an estimate on how these folks behave in terms of taxation --and evasion -- due to the fact that their work is hidden from formal government reporting. 

Previous research proposed that these entrepreneurs will maximize their private returns regardless of the cost to society (by avoiding taxes), yet this belief has been questioned recently and seems to be more complex  here in Moldova. 

So in order to get a better idea of how these entrepreneurs behave, we set out in one of the large open markets near our home and began to survey them. I had my two students conduct all the interviews/questioning (in Russian or Romanian) and we are pleased with the response rate so far. Most folks answered the questions (we didn’t ask for any personal information) and they appeared to be very forthright. I think my students explaining that we were not from the government and have no interest in reporting anything except cumulative data helped the merchants' willingness to respond. 

The open market commerce here is quite significant given the great strides in development that has occurred during the past decade. It has been within the past 8-10 years that grocery stores became prevalent here in the city of Chisinau, and they are still only common in the cities throughout the country. Yet, many people still shop and sell items in these street markets. In the market that we walk to, it is quite a picture in contrasts as on the same street where people are selling everything from valves for plumbing to vegetables to shoelaces, there is also a nice grocery store and a high-end electronics store. Also, right across from where people sell any cut of meat you could want, out in the open, a new, really nice specialty meat shop/deli just opened last week. It will be interesting to see how long the open markets last as the economy continues to grow and transition.

We have another scheduled survey at the biggest marketplace in Chisinau next week, so hopefully we’ll have some more data to work with.  It will be interesting to see what we find.

New President

Today proved to be a historical day in this country; after 3 years of functioning without a President, a new one was finally elected.  As I drove through the city this morning, I could see the excitement building as Parliament was attempting the vote.  I have never seen so many policemen per square foot before.  It was actually a little nerve-racking because I noticed they were stopping hundreds of cars, asking for documentation presumably, so I detoured around the main street.

By the time I got back down with a camera, they had shifted.  Here are many of the police gathering outside of a theater... I'm not sure why.

 Many of them were in riot gear, and they were bringing in trucks like this:

 Here are some of them lined up in the park near the Parliament building.

 The first time I went by, police were standing about every 5 feet all the way around this:

Hundreds of people were just waiting around the government buildings, and we heard there were some protests and possibly even riots.  I heard some yelling as people drove by in their cars.

There are definitely some polarized viewpoints in this city -- hence the gridlock that has prevented any political party from gaining a majority and successfully electing a President all these years.  I was pleased though as I walked around that many people seemed to be satisfied with the outcome.

So today was monumental.  The man elected is "pro-Europe" and the communists party members are upset at his victory.  We hope he can unite this country and help it to move forward.

Moldovan Culture and the Importance of Language

I've mentioned previously the unique challenges of language understanding and learning, since the language here is either Russian or Romanian or a combination of both. What I find really interesting is that language is such an important part of the broader culture that is Moldova, and I’m sure that this is true for many other cultures as well.

As an American, I’ve never taken seriously the effort it takes to learn another language. I know many Americans study languages, but the old joke about language* is believed by people throughout the world (the stereotype has proven true often enough).

As I’ve been reading and talking with people here, I have come to appreciate more and more the role language plays in cultural identity. I’m also convinced that one is missing a lot when learning a language if they never have an opportunity to spend time with those from a foreign culture who speak it.

One book that has been highly enlightening to me is titled The Moldovans by Charles King. In tracing the history of this land, King explains the cultural battle that went on here between the Russians and the Romanians and how this battle was fought by trying to control the language spoken and read. During the prewar period before the Second World War, six separate alphabets had been used here. Then during the Soviet era, the Cyrillic alphabet was standard, but increasingly Romanian was spoken and written (yet still with Cyrillic letters).

Interestingly, the path of standardization of the language during the 1960s-80s was more toward Romanization. Linguists wanted to purify the language (instead of simply promoting the hodgepodge of two languages spoken in the villages), and Romanian appeared the more culturally relevant path. As King puts it, Moldova nation-builders rejected an independent Moldovan culture based on the language spoken by the peasants (this impure mix of languages). Thus, in terms of language “a distinct Moldovan culture was more stipulated than cultivated.”

In most places we take as given that cultural identity simply forms and evolves over time passed down from generation to generation. I am no expert on culture, but I would not have guessed that government would try to use language in such a way as to direct people toward a specific identity. I know there are many ways in which government attempts to promote culture in terms of education, art, music, food, etc. but learning about the role of language here in Moldova has been very enlightening.


*What do you call someone who knows three languages, trilingual; what do you call someone who knows two languages, bilingual; what do you call someone who knows one language, an American.

Some Things I’ve Learned from My Students

• Moldovans must be entrepreneurial and work with/around the system in order to get things done. The government here still stifles people and ideas with a lot of bureaucratic hoops (and corruption) to jump through if one wants to start a business, enter a specific industry, etc.
  
• Most systems here are slow and archaic yet people do not complain. Little things like registering for classes, getting in and out of the classrooms, waiting for an elevator to creep up and down many floors, paperwork, more paperwork, etc.
  
• They speak in both Romania and Russian in the same conversation, even in the same word.
  
• It’s hard for them to leave the country and travel to Western Europe or America. Visas are denied for little reason (I guess one benefit of EU membership would change this…yet then they are stuck with the Euro).
  
• A licensure degree (Bachelors in the US) here is not as valued as it should be. Unfortunately the system accepts everyone, and many “buy” their degree (some professors find “paying for the grade” as an entrepreneurial opportunity).
  
• Most Moldovans are very proud of their country, yet there are many ethnic ties to either Romania or Russia and these ties do create tensions.
  
• American professors (namely me) are very different from their Moldovan counterparts. My teaching style is much more friendly and interactive (I hope that’s a good thing).

A Night Out

This past week Amy and I, and two kids, went to a performance of traditional Moldovan dancing. It was a great experience of the local culture….

Observations From Teaching

I have finished my first class here in Moldova and I’ve been very pleased with the students and the entire experience. The students have been very engaging, eager to learn, and grateful to experience a new professor and an American-style course.

Here are some things I’ve learned about the students here:

• Most are very proud of being Moldova and around 60% of my 80+ students plan to either work or continue on with a Master’s degree and stay in Moldova. This is very heartening as many intelligent students want to leave for Western Europe or the US. 
• About 80% of my students have spent summers in the US working and traveling. 
• My program, International Economics, attracts a lot of women. 
• A majority have read all the material and come to class with papers I assigned highlighted, notes in the margin (or in a notebook), and questions ready to discuss/ask. 
• The students did very well in the course. Maybe I’m a an American novelty, but I was very pleased with the effort and thought put into answering questions on the final exam.

Microfinance in Moldova

I ate lunch yesterday with an American, Mike, who is working with a small microfinance company here in Chisinau. He was hired for a six-month term to help create a strong company via process improvement, team building, organizational development, etc. It was very interesting to learn from him about this industry here.

Micro-lending is exactly what it sounds like…simply providing access to capital on a small scale, typically for individuals to get resources to start or expand a business. Mike said there are about 50 such firms here (which seems like a lot for a population of approximately 3 million), and these firms are not like banks in terms of how they invest.

Mike’s firm primarily lends to individuals working in the agricultural sector (many with mom-and-pop gardens or small plots of land), and the lending process is interesting because they do not yet have a credit rating system as we do in the US. So, individuals seeking a loan must put references on their application as well as have a co-borrower. Mike told me that the loan officers must check with the references and simply ask whether the borrower is a trustworthy person, if they owe anyone money, do they go to church, are they in good standing in their community, etc. It sounds a lot like rural community banking in the US a few decades ago.

Most of those seeking these micro-loans are trying to sustain their small business of growing and selling fruits and vegetables at a market (and not necessarily selling to a wholesaler), and Mike said it seems that most are not likely to grow their business in a significant way. This begs the question: what is the goal of the loans, in the long-run, for these borrowers?

Micro-lending is a very big and growing industry around the world, and it has done much to provide capital at reasonable interest rates to individuals who are trying to make it, yet I wonder about the long-run effect on economic development. Not that it will hinder development, but here in Moldova, Mike’s firm in particular is simply providing capital to small family growers that appear to be on a simple path of sustainability.

The broad goal of micro-lending is to bring in poorer borrowers who don’t have access to capital, which will then generate economic growth from those borrowers. The effects are said to be direct (purchasing capital equipment or services), indirect (use of those dollars downstream by vendors or others), and induced (overall spending of a region increases because overall earned income rises). It would be interesting to study what the impact of micro-lending is here in Moldova, because some studies indicate that micro-lending in certain regions generates a doubling of the dollar-lending impact (or a multiplier of two). Thus, every dollar lent to local businesses spurs about two dollars in economic activity. The problem though with this type of analysis is that it is very difficult in a developing country where the data are much harder to come by. It may be that this sort of impact is more likely to occur in a developed county where micro-lending is also very prominent.

This is another research project that would be interesting to dive into…

Trust in Post-Soviet Moldova

There are a lot of remnants of the Soviet past here in Moldova and many challenges to living and working in a developing country. We are in the capital city, so while these challenges exist, they are nothing compared to the underdeveloped villages and towns throughout the country. Many places lack clean water (or running water), suitable infrastructure, access to healthcare, etc.

Another aspect of life here, which in part is due to the Soviet past, is the lack of trust among the people. This lack of trust is coupled with a very low income level (approximately $3,300 per capita in US dollars), and the result is that simple things that I take for granted in America take a lot of my time here.

Francis Fukuyama has written extensively on trust and the development of social capital, and it is very evident how important these concepts are for a stable and development economic system. Social capital arises out of strong horizontal relationships between people beginning with the family but extending beyond to the myriad relationships developed through various ties (friends, colleagues, associations, religion/church, etc.). In the Soviet system these relationships were undermined in favor of the vertical relationships of individual/party/and state. Consequently, trust beyond the family is still significantly lacking in post-Soviet economies.

An example of this from my teaching: my current course requires that I give three lectures each week to a large group of students and then I meet with four separate smaller groups twice a week each --all packed into three weeks. Each of these meetings is in a different classroom and often I have to move to different buildings. Some of the classrooms for the seminars and all of the lecture rooms have overhead projectors for displaying PowerPoint slides and thus are kept locked. OK…this is fine so far. The issue is that at the entrance of each building there is a desk staffed by different men (I would say most are in their 60s), and at this desk the professor must obtain the key to enter the classroom containing the projector. In the larger building (which is actually very new and quite nice) there is a set of seven books, one for each floor, where the professor must sign in and out the key each time they use a classroom. The students typically gather in the hallways waiting to enter the rooms as the professor must arrive key in hand.

After each class meeting, the professor must make sure every student has exited the room (and keep out all the students waiting for the next class period) and walk back down to the front desk to sign the key back in. In the meantime, the next professor is often there waiting to sign the key back out in order to conduct the next class. This all must happen, typically, in 10 minutes (the time between each class period), and it often requires walking down/up many flights of stairs due to very slow and very overcrowded elevators (no ADA in Moldova – or all of Europe for that matter).

I am often rushing up and down seven flights of stairs and between buildings in order to get and give keys and begin the process again. Of course the men guarding the keys don’t speak English.

An easy solution: how about use the same key for all the classrooms and give one to each professor? Or why not put key-code locks on the doors and give the professors the code?? Again, the trust factor simply has not been established here…professors are not trusted, students are not trusted, and there is no trust that one will not pay off the other to obtain access.

It is fascinating to live in a place that has so many evolving institutions -- both formal laws etc. and informal behaviors – like trust --especially compared to my experience back in America. We Americans take many things for granted which provide a certainty in our lives that many countries simply do not experience.

Another Russian Protestant Church

This past Sunday I took Rayna and Colsen to another Russian-speaking church where our landlord, Victor, is one of the pastors. He, and another gentleman I met named Paul, have asked me to come and visit their church and they would translate for me. They have a really nice church building (built by Victor’s father), and so on a cold Sunday it was nice to have a warm place to visit. Many buildings, especially where there are large spaces, are not adequately heated.

As the service started, I was pleasantly surprised that after singing the first song in Russian the second song was sung in Romanian. This was “pleasant” because we are learning Romania and I could actually understand some of the song and read some of the words that were projected on the screen. Looking at Russian words with Cyrillic letters is like Greek to me (as the saying goes). I’m sure there are many obvious grammar rules and songs in the Russian language that are consistent (unlike English), but reading and listening to Russian song or speech is still a mystery to me.

Anyway after a couple of songs and a couple of long poems in Russian (apparently anyone can notify the pastor if they want to recite a poem during the church service), a man stood up and presented a sermon in Romanian. This was another pleasant surprise. My friend Paul translated this sermon to me and I could make out some of it on my own. It was a short, concise sermon and relatively to the point. I learned during this part of the service that the church is trying to reach out to Romanian speakers so they are conducting part of the service in Romanian. BUT, to my surprise this Romanian sermon was not a substitute to the standard Russian parts of the service.

After the kids were dismissed to Sunday school, I thought “This is odd…the kids are leaving so close to the end of the service,” and then there was a time of announcements where a gentlemen told of an upcoming women’s meeting that day at noon (the service began at a little after 10 and it was about 11:20 at this point). Rayna and Colsen stayed with me because Sunday school in Russian would be a challenge, and I thought the service was about over. To my surprise after a time of prayer the SECOND sermon began in Russian (the Romanian sermon was simply an addition to the standard service). Well, I thought that this is OK…I can handle another sermon with two kids starting to get a little impatient (because they can’t understand anything), for the service should be over soon…the women have to meet in 30 minutes and they will need time to get to where they are going. Well to my surprise the Russian sermon was a little over an hour, and then we had to have a closing hymn and prayer.

We ended up hanging out in the lobby for the last 30 minutes as the kids had to go to the bathroom and it was too disruptive to get in and out of the service (and they had lost patience listening to a very passionate man speak unintelligible words for 30 minutes).

Another interesting cross-cultural experience…

Getting around

This morning I had two major goals when I left the house: 

1.) Go to the university to teach my classes

2.) Go to the coffee shop afterwards to buy some sandwiches for dinner.

These seem like simple goals, but I had not accounted for the foot of snow on the ground and the complicating factor this would be for all the public transportation in this city.

After digging myself out of the house and trudging through the unplowed streets, I made it to the stop to catch the meshruka (mini-bus), but all the buses on my route were full.  So I walked another quarter-mile to the next bus stop and got on a regular bus, which I thought would drop me off about 5 blocks from the university.  But instead, the bus went part of the way there, and then went in a different direction.  I got off this bus and stomped through more snow, about two blocks, to get on another mini-bus, which then took me to my usual final stop.  I arrived at my class just a few minutes before it was scheduled to start, after my 65-minute journey.  (The trip usually only takes me about 20 minutes.)

After my classes were over, I headed back out into the streets, which were bordered with snowbanks up to 5 feet high on both sides.  I went to the ATM, only to discover that it was out of service.  Fighting through more drifts, I reached another ATM, which worked, and then hailed a mini-bus for a ride to the coffee shop.  As the driver sped crazily, as if trying to establish his position in a NASCAR race on the slippery roads, I soon realized that I was not going to end up where I wanted to be.  I bailed off this bus and took another 5-block snowy walk to reach the coffee shop.

After finally accomplishing Goal # 2, I trudged another 5 blocks to the grocery store, and then, with 6 bags in tow, I gave up on public transportation, and negotiated a taxi ride home with my remarkable Romanian skills (saved myself 10 Lei).  Somehow the cab driver managed to drive up our very deep street, and Strider had spent some time shoveling our walk, so the last part of the trip was the easiest of the day.  Eight hours after I left the house, I was happy to finally return home alive, contemplating how much money I could make selling snow-plows in this town.

My first week of teaching

I started teaching a course in comparative economic systems this week to a large group of 3rd year undergraduate students. Moldova has adopted the standard European process of higher education which means that students earn their license degree (read bachelor’s degree) in three years post high school. So my students are in their final term and are set to graduate in June. This course is a very condensed semester course that I’m teaching in three weeks, which means I meet with these students a lot in these three weeks and they have quite a bit of work to do in a short time. This week I adapted what I would normally do back in America to the course structure that they asked me to do here, which meant I met with the large group for three 80 minute lectures. Also, I had four seminar sections that I met with two times each for 80 minutes each time. It was a busy week...

Here at the Academy of Economic Studies courses are taught with a lecture section and then a separate seminar section (which I think is common in Moldova and many countries in Europe). Back at Wingate I would normally combine these formats into each class meeting. Another interesting aspect of the course is that the students in each of the distinct seminar sections have been together in their respective sections since they began their studies three years ago. When students enter the university they decide on a particular discipline, they are assigned a group of 25 or so peers, and they move through the entire program with these fellow students. Some of these students shared with me that this is one of the frustrations of their system compared to the American system. They must choose their field of study from day one and it is very difficult to “change your major” (something that American students do frequently). There is not a common core of courses that all students take, but each course is specific to one’s discipline (thus no movement between disciplines). One student shared that she thought she wanted to earn her degree in international economics, but after a year in the program she learned that it was not for her. She decided to stick it out and is hoping to earn a master’s in communication in the US.

I learned a lot this week about Moldova and Moldovan life. The perspective of this young generation of Moldovans is very interesting as they view life here as much better than it was just after independence in 1991 (when they were very young) and much better than life under communism. But, they all recognize that they still have a long way to go and there are changes that many people don’t like. Progress has brought in a lot of wealth, but there is still a lot of corruption and opportunities are still very limited for some. Most young people have a strong distaste for government as they see it…people who are trying to maintain control and power by limiting progress (for example it is very hard to start a business here especially if you are trying to compete in an industry that is being protected by the government). Many of these students want to be a part of making their country better. It was cool to hear that probably 60 percent of the students hope to stay in Moldova and work immediately or earn and master’s degree and then begin their career. It’s also interesting that around 70 percent of the students have been to America through a summer work and travel program.

It has been a great start to my teaching responsibilities, and I have really enjoyed my students thus far. They have been very energetic in the seminars, and both their written work and their dialogue has been very thoughtful. Also, as I have walked around the room in each seminar almost every student has a copy of the reading assignment for that day that is underlined and written on. I hope the novelty of having an American professor (and their willingness to work hard) remains for the next two weeks…

Winter

Of all the experiences we've had here in Moldova, and of those to come, I'm quite sure we will remember the European winter of 2012. While we have been reminded from family and friends back in Charlotte that "winter" in NC is quite wonderful this year, we have been in the throes of a deep freeze. I have talked to at least 7 or 8 Moldovans recently and all have mentioned at some point in the conversation how cold it is. I imagined that these past 10 days were standard for the month of January, but everyone I meet indicates these days are much colder than "normal."

One young woman that helps Amy around the house with the kids, etc. says that we’ll have this weather for little while and then winter will be over (next week).  I’m not exactly sure what that means, but for her when the temps get back up into the 20s I guess we’re headed into spring.

In the meantime, we are enjoying mornings with this scene:

...where the window squeegee is stuck to the window due to ice INSIDE the house.  Yes, Moldovan homes are very poorly insulated despite the fact that we are currently at 47 degrees north latitude (whereas Charlotte is 35 degrees north).

So, we will continue to make the most of this adventure especially as "winter" comes to a close this week while the forecast calls for highs in the teens and twenties.  Strider is doing his best to remain tough and act as though the weather is like it is back home...

Language Learning

We started this week learning with a Romanian language tutor, Olga. She is a really nice lady and, from our first lesson, a great tutor. Romanian is a Latin-based language that has some similarities to other Romance languages such as Spanish and French. As I indicated earlier, everyone here in Moldova speaks or understands Romanian, while many speak Russian as well. We decided to study Romanian because we are also studying Spanish (or at least it is part of the kids school curriculum the next few years), and the alphabet is easier to grasp then the Russian Cyrillic letters.

The language history of Moldova is another fascinating piece of cultural history here. Since the Moldovans have been under the control of the Romanians and the Russians (later the Soviets) they have borrowed from both the Russian and Romanian languages to create what can be referred to as Moldovan (yet is essentially Romanian today). The result is that in many places, especially in rural areas, you will find Romanian writing/signs etc. written in Romanian yet using Cyrillic letters. This is obviously very confusing for a non-native speaker.

One account of the Romanization of the language is that during the Soviet era Stalin actually encouraged the use of Romanian as the official language in order to gain influence in Romania (Russian controlled Moldova for much of the 19^th century). Thus, Moldova has had times were the policy has shifted from children being taught in Russian and then times where children are taught only in Romanian. I may post later on Moldovan history, but this territory has had a long history of cultural influence from the Romanians even when the area was controlled by the Ottomans (1538-1812).

A Museum Trip

Rayna, Colsen, and I ventured out in the cold yesterday for a trip to the National Museum to learn a little more about this land we are inhabiting. It's been really cold here (highs in the mid-teens), so any trip out requires bundling up quite a bit (because any trip requires a good bit of walking). So, we walked to the main street near our home and headed into town on a Marshrutka (mini-bus).
 

The statue of a tree above is in the main hall and each branch represents something about Moldovan history or something about the country.  One of the branches and the central "trunk" of the tree represent a wild Buffalo which is one of the old symbols of how Moldova was named.  Prince Dragos from Romania was hunting with his dog, Molda, and the dog was gored to death by a wild European bison (an aurochs) in a mountain stream.  Dragos named the stream in honor of this his favorite dog, and this area thus became Moldovan land.  The aurochs head is an emblem on the seal of both Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

The other picture shows the kids with Stefan cel Mare (Stefan the Great) who was the great prince of Moldova during the second half of the 15th century.  He is quite revered here. 

And finally, here is a topographical map of the country, and a rendering of a traditional Moldovan wedding celebration. 

A good day spent learning more about Moldova!