Throughout most of Moldova, things are written in Romanian with a good amount of Russian and a smattering of English and French. So, even though I understood very little written word, I could make out some information as I walked about. And, I could at least try to sound out words. In the region of Transnistria, all . . . well, okay, 99.99% of any text, anywhere, is in Russian. It’s not only a language I don’t know, but it is the Cyrillic alphabet which makes no sense to me. I had no starting point to begin sounding out words. It’s so very strange to feel so completely illiterate.
But, that is certainly the way I felt.
Illiterate or not, it was love at first bite and first site in Tiraspol. One of my embassy friends, Sandu, told me that I should eat “zama” while in Moldova. It’s a very colorful vegetable soup with a hint of lemon and a dollop of sour cream. Anything tastes better with a dollop of sour cream, but zama really didn’t need it. I told Sandu that he had to call his mother and get her zama recipe. Now that’s something to look forward to with my recipes!
And as for love at first site, I met the children at the deaf school. The school is actually part deaf school and part orphanage. So, much to my surprise, some of the students could hear and even speak a little English. That was totally unexpected. They might have been shy for a couple of minutes. After all, my interpreter told me that my visit was like meeting someone from another planet. But, they were all smiles by the time I headed back across town to work on the mural design.
The mural design needed work? Wait a second! Didn’t I work on the mural design before ever leaving the good ole U.S. of A.? And, wasn’t the mural design approved? Problem was, I never saw any dimensions for the wall we were going to paint. Of course, I could fit my art on the width of the wall, but it was much narrower than the director had in mind. The whole design needed a work-over, but there was no pain in the process since I found a café that served cinnamon cappuccinos.
And, as for working with the kids at the school for the deaf / orphanage, it could not have been more positive. We communicated with a little English, a little Russian, a dash of signing and a whole lot of laughing. The kids could not have been any more charming. At the end of day one, one of the participants asked if I would also stay at the orphanage. I passed on that adventure but it didn’t take long to find the kids simply adorable.
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