Neighborhood of Parcul Valea Morilor in Chisinau. Shopping bread in the morning, visiting hospital, having police meeting, fighting with embassies. We are living a Chisinau life.
Life which is not that easy. Sometimes I think that people working in shops, restaurants and banks are simply not allowed to smile here. People on the streets are also not really looking on each other.
Nearly all of the young people we asked about their dream situation in next 3 years mentioned living abroad. Best would be in US. All the city looks a bit like this: that its soul is busy with looking for scholarships or boyfriend abroad.
Chisinau is a city of Orange mobile company (I stopped counting how many shops there are on one street!) and money exchange points.
Worth to add that in this “poorest country of Europe” prices are really comparable with Berlin but wages many, many times lower.
While living here we touched many everyday life problems: visiting hospital (where doctors are expecting additional money), being stopped by police (when the thing which works the best is calling somebody who knows somebody who is higher in the system than somebody), fighting for visas (not like Moldavan to European Union but for Russia and Azerbaijan…), finding a proper bank and proper translators (when they don’t announce themselves online but on streets stands), guessing if we should speak Russian or Romanian or walking to small spring for water (because it’s really not fun to drink the one from the tap). For us – all those problems are kind of game (because we will come back home and not have them anymore), but now I can understand a bit more this lack of smile in the public space.
Our first book is out!
We have published our first book (for now just in Polish:) about our Central America Trip.
See, read and order here »
4 Comments
Well, this is it. Maybe it’s all tacky and cliche what I say, but in those kind of countries, you meet people with potential, and it’s all wasted because of the system, because of the circle that is closed, lack of air and place for wings. Tacky speeches, I know, but this is EXCATLY this. And all this, It’s like a fairy tale for us, such a big absurd that you cannot believe. you can’t! You think it’s some joke. Surrealism in realism…
Well, maybe then you can see your friends comming from this part of the world, and you appriacite them more that each thing for them is just double effort than for us. They have to cross their own mind and own perception to get out from the context. Out of the box. And how you can get out of context by only GUESSING there is something else out, but you have never really seen it.
I was once in some country (oh, what was the country????) where I had situation I couldn’t meet my friend in normal way. Such a anger, how can you forbid me to speak and meet with who I want and when I want. And then, no one answer. Doesn’t matter, if do you go into troubles. And how much you cry yourself OUT from anger and frustration, HELPLESS!!!!, and then you think, how this people survive that EVERY DAY?????
Love!
I passed Chisinau this summer as I backpacked into Ukraine and felt the same exact way you felt. First off, when we got to the hostal in Chisinau it was late and it seemed abandoned but we finally got in and realized that it was an old couple’s house. That night the light went out and didn’t come on for the rest of the night and the old woman which slept next to the bathroom screamed in Russian while she slept the whole night. Every time we wanted to go to the bathroom, we had to climb over their bed to get in so it was rather uncomfortable. Topping that off, I was feeling really sick and wanted to go to the doctor but then decided to wait. Another thing that shocked me was that when we went to McDonald’s to use the free Wifi, we saw everyone super dressed up! As if Mcdonalds were the cool place to go. Overall, it is depressing to see a country where there are no opportunities or hope. I’m from Colombia which has many problems of its own but the difference is that Colombia has hope for a better future because there are plenty of natural resources, that if administered correctly, provide opportunities and growth so the country is moving forward while Moldova seems to be frozen in time and you don’t see any possibilities for growth. Another thing that I noticed was people’s mentalities, many of them lived from day to day and just didn’t bother to think ahead. That has got to be depressing. Due to this, I feel tremendous love and empathy for these people because their life is a million times harder.
I do agree and disagree with a lot of points being listed here at the same time. I am originally from Moldova, Chisinau and reside in US for over 7 years now. I did visit it 3 times during this period of time and I do see a lot of improvements in overal lifestyle, income and people behavour. My last visit less then a month ago became a bit shoking for me. Every single aspect of living for my parents, friends, people I just met a few times changed in a very positive way. People became more comfortable financially and therefore seem a lot happier. And even though most of those funds are coming from Moldovian citizens working outside the country – this costant cash flow makes the republic wheels spinning, businesses grow, etc. Although from economic point of view the model when cash is always injected from outside does not seem as favorable as having natural resourses, it is still an effective way of making money especially when you put it on a scale of third of the population. I also met quite a few young businessmen that want to have properties in other countries, or some of them even have it already, but they would never leave Moldova being succesful and being home to wash dishes in the US for a few years before starting making money and being an immigrant which is always a high price to pay even if life seems way better here. To summarise, I became optimistic about Moldovian future, maybe not tomorrow but in 20-30 years it may become a part of the EU and a very nice place with great people to live or visit.
What are the roma of moldova like..I spoke to a romanian woman and she told me..no outsiders…If you are not part of their clan..they will forcefully keep you away from their life and lifestyle?