So, before we launch into a new school year, I thought I would share a few observations I was treated to over the summer. I had actually started to write about these chance meetings and conversations several times, but life intervened and I didn’t succeed in getting it all down on paper.
Last week though, I was in Chisinau, and experienced my first truly anti-American sentiment during my time here. Typically Moldovans have been very open and welcoming, and I have received nothing but blessings and kind words when they find out, much to their surprise generally, that I am not a Romanian with bad grammar, but actually from America. True, there have been the drunken old men that insist that I am a spy working for the Pentagon, as well as the people that screw their faces up and give me the “you're nuts” look when I explain that I don’t really get a salary for working, but by and large folks have been really positive.
So the other night came as a bit of a shock when, as leaving our office building, several rowdy locals began shouting, “Yankees go home” from their apartment balcony. They mixed in a few other choice expressions that they probably picked up from the latest Adam Sandler flick, or perhaps MTV, but their chorus was fairly consistent and unwavering.
We cast it off as juvenile taunting that was more than slightly vodka infused, but it does make you think what people would say should their polite and hospitable façade be retracted.
While traveling to work in another village this summer, I had one such opportunity, though unfortunately not from an actual Moldovan. This gentleman was a missionary from Ukraine, and spoke nearly perfect English. He picked me out as America by the fact that I have a beard (very un-Moldovan), and the fact that I had a conversation in English on my cell phone before boarding the bus. He struck up a conversation, and gave me what I felt was a fairly honest dose of his opinion on Americans and on the Peace Corps.
The conversation started by his inquiring what religious sect I was on assignment for, as most outreach programs do tend to be religious based here. I explained that I wasn’t a missionary, but rather worked for a branch of the US Government. He countered, rather rapidly actually that I actually was a missionary of sorts, depending on one’s perspective, just perhaps not of the religious ilk. I had to give him that point. Despite the fact that we try to respect the values and ideas of host countries, we are still here on a primary mission to challenge the status quo, to imbue new ideas to the populace. One could argue at first that we are merely trying to teach scientific things such as AIDS prevention and agricultural techniques, but we also are doing things such as challenging gender roles, social norms, and family values. Even talking about democracy is proselytizing in the eyes of some people, depending on how far you want to take the semantic argument. We are talking about possibly changing the whole social structure, and introducing new ideas into the values system, kind of like many religions do. I don’t agree with his point of view 100%, but I can sure see where he is coming from.
As I was reeling from begin called a missionary (not that there is anything wrong with that), he tossed me another curve ball, explaining that the US was in the middle of a campaign of “empire building”, drawing correlations to the Romans, the British, and even the USSR. He argued that we Americans are not going about it in the traditional sense though, by taking over areas and enslaving the population (thank god), but rather through cultural and social takeover of the developing world. His nonchalance at this comment was somewhat heartening, as he stated that he didn’t really think that this was a bad thing, but one of those “great power, great responsibility” situations. He seemed to be very pro democracy, and was very proud to be Ukrainian, espousing many things that he felt were going well in his home country, and great consternation that the same changes had not swept across the border into Moldova.
Unfortunately I can’t do our full conversation and his observations justice due to the gap in time since this occurred, and the fact that I was staring out the window half the time trying to be sure I got off in the right place (I had never been where I was going). Generally though, it was very interesting to be given a new and rather blunt perspective on America and the imprint we are leaving on the rest of the planet in our relentless pursuit of democracy (oil?).
On a more disturbing note, I encountered a chap in the railway station while on vacation. He actually started off the conversation by asking for money. I tried the best dodge in my book by explaining, in the local language and in a mode as ungrammatically correct as possible, that I didn’t speak the local language. Unfortunately, he simply switched to English and began a rant on America, assuming at first I guess that I was British, or perhaps Australian.
I didn’t enjoy this conversation nearly as much as the insightful banter I had with the Ukrainian chap. This guy was an EU citizen, and went off on a rant on how American was a war mongering state. I nodded my partial agreement, but tried to explain that not all Americans were in support of military action in response to world troubles, and that many in fact were not in support of the chain of events that have led to the current sad state of affairs in the middle east.
Unasuaged he bantered on , warning me of the readiness of the EU states to go to war with America WHEN we invade, not IF, not “in some weird delusional alter universe there might be such a possibility”, but “WHEN”, to quote him directly. I tried countering his arguments again, with some points about economic and cultural ties, and the fact that such action would basically spell the end of the world. He was unmoved, and continued his rant, luckily momentarily drowned out by the conductors call to board my train. I politely excused myself and shimmied on out of there. Granted this guy was a bit unhinged, but one wonders about our projection to the world that would give this relatively young man such an impression, especially since he is a citizen of a country we are currently allies with, and have never been to war with. Are we really that scary that people could possibly believe that we would invade Europe?
I’ll keep you posted. Time to get back to prepping for school.
