"One giant leap, needs two steps back"
Currently serving as a volunteer in the Republic of Moldova
The opinions expressed on this site do not reflect any position of my employer, the U.S. Government, or the Peace Corps.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Halloween and Diplomatic Incidents!
Despite Halloween being an American bastardization of Dia de Los Muertos- it apparently has caught on in Moldova. One of our colleagues that lives in Chisinau was invited to a Halloween Costume Party in central Chisinau. Honestly, I’ve never really liked Halloween that much, but this was a great party! Maybe because I was sober due to a bad cough and throat infection. Though we quickly learned that the super hospitable and kind Moldovan people can succumb to the problems of urbanization.
When we arrived, we were given the last table of the house in a very small club in which space was a premium. There would be a costume judging contest and a DJ I have to say- rivaled any club\bar DJ in America in his diverse and mood specific music choices. 4 young Moldovan ladies showed up about a half hour after us and since there was no tables, asked us if they could put their jackets on our table and order drinks from our table. I of course said yes as most of our party was dancing with me, sick, holding down the fort.
When we decided to go after a few hours and asked for the bill, I noticed that they girls quickly grabbed their coats and left the bar very quickly-running really. We found out that they had charged their entire night at our table from the bar… Yeah ….
It took us too long to explain everything to our server and the girls were gone. He told us that if we refused to pay, he would have to pay and that would effectively wipe out his entire night’s pay. We had our country director’s first lecture ringing through our heads: ” Peace and Friendship!- we are here to spread peace and friendship!” and so…we paid for the Moldovan girls. He was very apologetic and kept apologizing several times but at the end of the day we paid- we lost some money but we at least spread some “Peace and Friendship” as only two things could have happened- that Moldovan bartender would have went home thinking Americans were awesome or Americans stunk and so… Peace and Friendship ….
