THE EAST OF EASTERN EUROPE

The security man of the bitumen reservoir wore camouflage military clothes and cap. He was very, very drunk. Probably you have received some e-mail with videos of someone very drunk, doing silly things in some distant factory no longer in use in some isolated place in Russia. Here the situation was the same.

I told the director of the company to be careful because that man could fall and drown in the bitumen that remained liquid with a heating system. In a country without rules, safety and health will not be the first to arrive.

From the afterward´s conversation at a good local restaurant (fish eaten with the hands, I did the idiot asking for a knife when neither the fork was needed), I realized that the monthly salary of that drunk man was a thousand or Moldovan lei which is equivalent to the change of 60 euros.



This is Moldova, the poorest country in Europe. To give you an idea, the annual per capita GDP is 1,950 euros per person. In the next former Soviet Republic, Georgia, is 3,400 Euros. Outside the former USSR countries we have to Bosnia and Herzegovina with some 5,900 and inside the EU, Bulgaria is the poorest to € 8,900 annually. In Spain we are in the 22,400.
In practice, leaving aside the numbers, if you see a child next to a Romanian or Bulgarian road, that child in Moldova may be younger, had no shirt and go barefoot too.

When I landed in Chisinau for the first time about three weeks ago, I saw that on the airfield track the grass growing and the airport services had cockroaches. Back to the hotel after my first walking tour in the capital, after seeing many prefabricated-based communist buildings and lovely old houses abandoned by lack of money to rehabilitate, I felt my whole body itched.

Chisinau has many trees, It´s say it is the greenest capital in Europe. On the weekends, the parks are filled with newly married couples making "books" of photos.

There are many shops with wedding dresses, wedding agencies and XXXXXL limousines.
Apart from marrying there are other prominent business such as currency exchange, mobile phone stores (one after another on Main Street Stefan cel Mare) and agencies to help to migrate to the U.S., Canada, etc ...

When I opened a bank account they asked me what I was doing in Moldova, they wanted to leave as soon as possible. A year ago something similar happened to me when I was crossing the border between Bulgaria and Romania. The customs officer, read that I was from the Canary Islands and asked me how in the hell I was there and not in my homeland.

Near Parliament Square there is a huge advertisement of the serial "Prison Break," which seems quite symptomatic.

In the services of the official buildings you find piles of A4 sheets printed on both sides waiting to be used for drying hands. That's recycling.
In the taxi stop you find people expecting to share the trip.
The houses usually have two consecutive doors one just after the other.
If you're looking for dance classes, most likely you will find academies with specialties such as Go-Go, Lap-Dance, Pole and Strip dance.
If you are looking for public swimming pools, the classic type is from Lenin's grandmother time, with corks hanging from old tiles and half full. Some warn that they don´t have hot water. I've seen people swimming in lakes, but in a no-sea country and without wastewater treatment plants, It´s to risky.
The roads are very bad, as in Romania and Bulgaria or even a little worse. Police, just the same. Still they don´t understand that they must serve the people and not vice versa. After three years in this part of Europe, nothing new to tell.

In the villages, surrounded by green meadows there are many cows, goats and horses. It may seem a contradiction but anywhere else I've seen such happy and healthy looking animals.

Today August 27 marks the 20th anniversary of independence of Moldova from the Soviet Union. It will be five free days (from Saturday to Wednesday) which will be fatal to the economy. In the center there is almost more military and police than citizens, but It´s understood because their presence is mandatory. In a bilingual country, there are posters in Romanian that say "Love your language": The soul is Romanian but the technique is Russian.
There are also many flags of the European Union, which is the political promise and hope for a better future.

Two weeks ago, a television channel of Moldova stop me for a interview at the doors of the hotel. I had to say what I liked from the country and the capital. Having been only three days I said that everything seemed very green, that I liked the parks and the people were very friendly. The wine was very good and the candies too.

I didn´t say the best: That this country can only go forward.

Dedicated to my friend Natalia Frunze, who was the first to speak me about Moldova, and wishing her all the luck in the world with the delivery of her first child.