February 19, 2009
We have spent the last two evenings with Oleg, Natasha, and Vitali Turlac. Tuesday night we went to a Moldovan Folk Music concert. It was at a beautiful theater built during the Soviet era. The concert was to raise money to maintain the grave sites of Moldovan musicians. There were a lot of speeches about the various musicians and about their folk music. The concert started at 6 pm and the first intermission was at 8:30. Oleg asked us if we wanted to leave but we were enjoying the music and told him we would like to stay. We stayed for another hour and Oleg said it was time to go. He told us it would probably go on until midnight! We really enjoyed the music but were ready to leave after three and a half hours!
They had a number of soloists playing various instruments and singing. After each performance people would bring flowers on the stage for that particular performer. There were mostly violins in the group with a guitar, bass, two trumpets, two pan flutes, two clarinets and a couple of other instruments that I didn’t recognize. The conductor was a famous violinist before he became the conductor and his signature is leading the group with one hand and a violin in the other. He would lead for a while and then he would play the violin with the group or the soloist. He was very animated and fun to watch.
Wednesday night we went to dinner with the Turlacs. We ate at The Grill House. I think it is interesting that a number of restaurants have English names. Also while we were there the wait staff sang happy birthday to someone and they sang in English. The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere and good food. There was a trio (piano, guitar, and bass) that played during dinner. We had a very pleasant evening.
Every time we are with the Turlacs we learn more about this area and its culture. Both Oleg and Vitali seem to know a lot of history. I did not remember that Romania was not a part of the Soviet Union until we started discussing the Moldova/Romania connection. I wondered why Romania was not a part of the union and Oleg explained that in Romania’s case the USSR was satisfied to just be able to control it.
At the concert they pointed out that they were probably the only Russian speaking people there since the concert was of Romanian/Moldovan folk music. They also speculated that most of the people there would probably favor reuniting with Romania. He also said that if the concert were a Russian group only Russian speaking people would be there and if it was a Jewish group only Jewish people would come. I believe now that the division between Russian and Romanian speaking people is much stronger than I believed before.
We saw a political sign on the way to CTE this morning saying defeat the communist and promoting the National Democratic Party. Moldova has a democratic form of government but is among the few or maybe the only former USSR country to elect a communist government. Everyone I’ve talked to believes that although there will be an election and a new president this sprung there will be no change. The president cannot be elected because he has served two terms but the communist party will be re-elected and nothing will change.
It is hard not to become pessimistic about change here. Systems theory would be easy to teach here because the problems are so systemic. It’s really hard to figure out where to try to get hold of things. I’m really impressed with those young, educated folks who decide to stay here and work for the betterment of their country. That includes the Turlacs and our students. Life would be so much better for them in another country. I try to encourage the children in Alex and Lucia’s family to stay in school but it is hard when they don’t see it paying off in better jobs/income. I tell them that things in Moldova will not always be this way and that they need to be prepared to be the leaders. I don’t think my words have much effect on them. I don’t know how much I believe them; but I want to believe it is possible.
Dear friends and Coalition Partners:
