The Last Lap

Being poor is expensive

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:05:06 GMT

I have been sponsoring a university student from Moldova; 20 years old and had never discussed finances at home. Every Moldovan understands budgets due to low incomes, but financial literacy ends there. About 2/3 of American 20 year olds are financial illiterates but listening to this Moldovan’s expectations is cringe worthy - get any university degree which leads to a large salary then a ‘forever’ home on a lake with parking for a Lambourghini, and you are not even 30 years old. When he arrived, his first priority was obtaining a credit card and was annoyed by the different interest rates of different cards. Then he spent time focussing on his credit score. He got a part-time job tutoring math students at the college, making 75% of his mother’s income and then was outraged that he had to pay taxes.

He is slowly becoming aware that those with a very large incomes work long hours with a skill that is in demand and the pressure doesn’t end during your working life. So there is little time to enjoy what wealth buys. In Moldova, the average income is $670 USD per month; the average apartment rents for $200 to $310 and food another $500 per month. Cars and computers cost the same as they do in the US. Now try to save 20% after needs and wants to put into savings for future catastrophes. We discuss American financial “Rules of Thumb” but they simply do not work in Moldova. Moldovans live in a different situation. In 2022, the average annual American salary after taxes was $58,389. Depending on all the variables it costs a total of $30,000 to $42,000 for housing, food, transportation, medical, and the rest of the taxes. There has been 13% inflation since then, but one could still put aside 20% into savings and still have something left over for indulgences. The rich spend more money in absolute terms but they have choices. They can spend a great deal of money for an extravagant lifestyle, or spend less and blend in with the middle class as “the millionaire next door”. But the mandatory spending for needs is a smaller percentage of their total income. I tried to continue the conversation with Moldovan reality but there was not sufficient information. So what about the 10% of the American population that is considered ‘poor’.

Accommodation is a killer for the poor. Using Seattle as a 10 year example, the rich person bought 2 houses side-by side and rented them out. The renter initially paid $1600 monthly and this increased to about $2200 in 10 years, for a total of $220,000. The renter was evicted at that time 10 years older but with a good renter reference. The rich guy was net $660,000 richer.

It is hard to assign fault for the food deserts in impoverished neighborhoods. The net effect is that you pay higher prices at the corner store or you travel a much farther distance to a large food store for cheaper prices. Small corner stores generally do not sell in bulk, but the poor cannot afford the initial outlay costs of a trip to Costco where the food would be half the price of the corner store. Even the homeless living in tents have additional expenses for ice for their ice chest to keep food cool, propane for their stoves for cooking, water for drinking.

The social security data show that the richest 1% males live almost 15 years longer and the women 10 years longer than the poorest 1%. Can we blame good, but expensive health insurance for the difference?

Transportation is expensive as it takes more maintenance costs to keep an older car running but how do you put a cost for the hours of waiting for slow public transportation even if it is reasonably available? What is your time worth while waiting for a bus?

Is it better to buy low quality clothing every year or good quality clothing every 5 or 10 years for a purchase price of about double. Can they even afford to maintain their clothing if seams start to separate? The poor often only have the option of 2 bad choices and so have to sacrifice their long term future just to get through the short term day. These choices compound over time and become very expensive.

Payday loans, low credit scores, banker’s charges for overdrawn accounts all add up. They have a multitude of small expenses that nickel and dime one continuously.

So how is the Moldovan prodigy reacting? He is realizing that adulting may not be as easy as he thought. He is thinking about this subject in his spare time. For instance, he asked me one day if divorce was the only instance where someone gets rewarded (with division of assets) for breaking a contract. The message I keep repeating is that wealth isn’t about what you can spend but rather being in control of your life and having choices. In order to accumulate this wealth he will be working long hours and continuously improving his skills base. He may be able to afford the perks of wealth but he won’t have the free time to enjoy them; however, his kids most certainly will.

Transitions

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:22:32 GMT

The ‘wisdom’ tells us there are 3 stages of retirement: go-go, slow-go and no-go. I hadn’t given much thought to transiting to the second stage as I was too busy in the go-go stage. Besides, other than a brief episode of atrial fibrillation, I was physically unrestricted. I wasn’t happy about weighing 20 pounds more than when I retired but was working at it and I hadn’t been sick and kept up the recommended booster shots against ‘flu and Covid. Nothing had changed and aging was just a number. I vaguely thought that I would ease into the next stage sometime in the future, like a controlled motion down a gently inclined ramp until you reach the point where an activity seems too much effort. You are now a go-slow.

I have since learned that the gentle ramp is more like a set of stairs and some of the steps have deep drops. It began as a free-fall, suddenly, with a viral bronchitis which made breathing difficult unless I continually coughed. In 6 weeks it had progressed to edema of my legs secondary to congestive heart failure and oral diuretics were not much use in controlling the edema. This caused profound shortness of breath with any muscular movement. Additionally, the edema was such a degree that any movement such as getting into a car was a struggle because my knees were so tight with edema they wouldn’t bend enough to get in a car. Extensive work up showed all the usual suspects were working well: heart, kidneys and liver. However, your heart is surrounded by the pericardial sac; this holds the heart and attaches the heart to the upper rib cage. Ultrasound showed that here was fluid inside the sac that compressed my heart to a degree that the heart could no longer fill with enough blood for my needs. My heart was getting shrink wrapped. This resulted in a procedure using a hook to tear a hole in the sac to let the fluid out, but it was minimal help. It had now been present for 4 months and as the edema progressed the shortness of breath got worse. Hospital admission for maximal treatment of my edema was successful enough that they decided that they would open my chest and cut a window from the pericardium. The relief of my shortness of breath was notable from the first post op day. I lost the 40 pounds of edema, but all the lying around in bed had resulted in loss of muscle mass and my weight now is the same as in high school. So far it has been 9 months of improvement in strength and endurance.

Mentally, I was fine and scoured the internet for various subjects like AI and the projected/unexpected consequences, thoughts on rebuilding the destruction of Palestinian Gaza, and annoying the Moldovan university student I am sponsoring with financial realities. I am also minimalizing my life by purging things I haven’t used or thought of for 10 years. I have since learned this is called ‘Swedish death cleaning’.

What have I learned as I enter what I hope will be a long go-slow period? The go-go years can end abruptly so do not postpone any physical interests because you have “plenty of time”. Remain curious and act on those interests: take up mountain climbing, martial arts or whatever.

..... and I survived

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:30:22 GMT

Cyclists in Prague appeared slightly different but I couldn’t figure out why. When the same feeling occurred in Budapest it suddenly struck me … no bicycle helmets! They just hop on their bikes without the preparation we have come to expect in Bellingham. Flashback to when I was a kid and packs of us rode all over, including downtown in a major city, generally obeying the rules, because we understood the pain of getting hit by a car. So we paid attention. A herd of kids on bikes would chase the mosquito spray truck down the street and suck up the mist. We all survived that.

A friend was over and we were cooking dinner (actually she cooked and I refilled her wine glass). She asked for a wooden spoon and then commented that it had never been used. I replied that it always made me vaguely uncomfortable. After some penetrating questions, she decided that it was the enforcer of choice if I annoyed by Mother or Grandmother enough. My pure Pavlov response. Teachers threw objects at misbehaving students and if you were in real trouble, there was a public strapping, five on the right hand and 5 on the left. Then there was Mrs. Neubauer who liberally applied her yard stick - anywhere she could reach. I believe the PC term today is somatic punishment and is against the law in 51 countries and the majority of American states. But it sure taught us compassion and respect. And we all survived.

We travelled around in cars without seat belts and I never saw an infant car seat until I was 25 yo. When I was a teen, we all drove in the bed of open pickup trucks. I hitch hiked to school in the morning and eventually all over the country. And we generally survived.

We had candy cigarettes, made clay ashtrays as school crafts, played cops and robbers with BB guns, practiced blowing up things with fireworks and drank out of the garden hose. We watched movies where people were shot with guns or hacked up with swords. Our parents kicked us out of the house at 9 AM to “Go play in the street” and told us not to return until dinner. We never used sunscreen because a good tan was considered healthy. The playground equipment was embedded in concrete reinforced with asbestos. We had unsupervised play with water pressure rockets, target-tipped bows and arrows and lawn darts. We were free range kids. My internet was the library and I spent hours scrolling through it. We learned a lot of lessons and we survived.

A slice of bread (reinforced with iodine and preservatives) was a sandwich, hot dog bun, hamburger bun and garlic bread - all-in-one. Food allergies were unknown. We ate sugars and fats and there were very few chubby kids because we were so physically active. Organic was what your grandmother grew, after she added chemical fertilizers and had sprayed for insects. We survived.

Now that we are living in an enlightened age, and have cancelled all the above, has the product improved? It seems 44% of university students are depressed, 37% are anxious and the list continues with ADHD, disruptive behavior disorders and the rest. Will they survive?

Retirement Contentment Index

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:13:50 GMT

I must walk around with a scowl on my face because I am frequently asked if I am “Happy”. My understanding of happy is there is a lifetime happiness curve, U shaped, with the bottom at 50 yo and peaks at 23 and 69. But after 69 it doesn’t point straight down as there is an almost horizontal line on the right. Also, there is a genetic predisposition to happiness with 30 - 40% of a population finding it is easier to be happy. The rest is environmental influences such as traffic delays, winning the lottery and such. So happiness comes and goes daily but contentment levels out the highs of a birthday cake and the lows of a traffic ticket. So I gave some thought to a Contentment Index. I think this needs to be weighted because some points influence the others.

1. Financial. (50%) This is the big one; the foundation of successful retirement and all the points that follow. This subject is so important that most of the megabytes of retirement advice are about finances. Financial independence allows the individual the freedom to be in total control of what you want to do each day. Keep monitoring your finances and live within your means.

2. Health. (25%) A retiree should shift their focus from wealth to health; take up nutrition courses, cooking classes and such. Keep a regular schedule of physical activity and keep your annual physical appointments.

3. Social connections and new relationships (10%) The office camaraderie is gone and there will be a need to find others with similar interests. Accept that the social group will change every 5 years as people move on.

4. Where you live (5%) Will moving change your support system of friends and relatives? Is scaling back going to effect large family gatherings?

5. Brain stimulation. (5%) “Curiosity may have killed the cat, but a lack of curiosity kills the happy retiree”.

6. Adaptability. (5%) There are 3 stages in retirement: go-go , slow-go, and no-go.

So …. how am I doing?

1. Financially I am doing well and only spend money on things with the potential of improving friendships. Floating in a large boat by yourself is not fun.

2. My health remains good but I still eat preserved foods, drink wine and participate in other assorted sins. I go to the gym at least every second day.

3. Socially, I am gravitating to younger, upbeat, and mentally stable friends. I am avoiding the grumbling, the narcissistic, and the irresponsible. I am saving myself time, because one strike and you’re ignored. There is someone who calls every week to make sure I am not dead and composting somewhere. This person is also a sounding board who makes sure that I stay fairly main stream in my thinking, as long as we avoid certain subjects.

4. Location. In my travels, have not found anywhere better … yet.

5. Stimulation: I am slowly progressing in learning the Russian language and find the treadmill an excellent place to do my homework; in spite of others in the gym wondering about this strange old guy talking to himself. I also have the wherewithal to try new experiences out of my comfort zone.

5. Adaptability. I am in the first stage. I do have plans but they are not rigid as I am working through the alternatives for the next 2 stages.

So, how am I doing? I’m deliriously content.

Aging is drip ... drip ....

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:23:28 GMT

My retirement date is now in the distant past and I have dealt with my post-party letdown. I now have new routines and a new identity and this works for me at present. I feel productive but am having a slight problem with procrastination because when you have all day to do it ….. I do get some degree of pleasure finishing the laundry - wash 22 minutes, dry 36 minutes, folding and putting away 10 business days - or raking the leaves - which way is the wind blowing today?. I now have enough free time to observe the subtle signs I am aging.

Aging is not retirement. One is going to age either in an office or having fun; it will happen.

1. Nobody calls me Bro, Guy or any other term of familiarity. I am addressed as “Sir”. It is not a lack of respect but more that I am no longer a contender. At least I am not invisible. I was on a crowded airport bus and a 50 year old man signaled that I could have his seat. I just pointed to my hair color and then his and laughed. However, the first kid who offers to help me cross a street …..

2. Several months ago I had a momentary flash of pleasure when I was asked for photo ID when buying wine. He just scanned my driver’s license and told me it was company policy that every alcohol sale has the customer’s ID scanned. Now I am noting if I get more than a brief glance after asking for my ID.

3. My friend group has really changed in the past 5 years as they moved to warmer climates or are spending most of their time monitoring grandchildren. Conversation has changed from party nights and big cars to social security changes, pensions and lots of medical talk. There is a reason for senior hour in the restaurants because we will have time to see all the grandchild pictures and we all have to be in bed by 9:30. Does this mean a totally new group with new grandchild stories every 5 years?

4. When I was about 60, I learned not to grunt when I got out of a chair but now I am getting all kinds of strange pains. I have learned that continual attention to changing posture and daily gym trips keeps them minimal. My hair is thinning in tandem with my skin and subcutaneous fat. Healing is taking longer, so I have accumulated enough scratches and bruises to look like I am being beaten and the family doctor always asks if I feel safe! I am ignoring the age spots and keratoses from a lifetime in the sun.

5. I used to be spontaneous but now activities require meticulous planning. Decades ago I spontaneously jumped on an airplane for a weekend special in London, but now I’m concerned about “how do you get from the airport in Prague to the hotel, how much should it cost and where do you find the ride”?

6. I am noting a vague sense of “survivor’s guilt”. I have arrived at this point in my timeline without too much mental or physical trauma and have complete emotional and financial security. I am noting the large numbers of those who are just as deserving but are not in a similar state. I am wondering about the how and why.

7. Now the good news. My medical numbers have always been in the good range, and I am developing nostalgia for french fries coated in greasy brown gravy or for a binge of eating sticky buns. The actuarial tables say I will not succumb to anything food related because there is not enough time for chronic changes to develop. There are also some cancer screenings that are no longer necessary for the same reason. A peculiar situation.

I have no doubt there will be more foreboding perceptions to follow. …. drip by drip, but I am not going to age gracefully. It will be more like fearlessly.

Fire in the Belly

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:56:06 GMT

I paid my own way through university and the main reason I have no fond “alumnus” feelings for the experience was the genteel poverty. Not having enough money to experience the concerts, beer bashes and visiting the student union buildings that seem to give graduates the warm fuzzies. One of the English students in Moldova was having a major problem with confidence and didn’t think she could compete with the “big city” kids at university, especially in an IT program. So I suggested and pushed and cajoled, and then overpaid her for doing some translations for me. She’s got the fire in her belly and she graduated last month with great grades. I am now looking for a similar student to monetarily sponsor, but how do I determine if they have Fire in their Belly?

This refers to someone’s drive or motivation to achieve success. It is not a passion, as this comes and goes. Fire in Your Belly doesn’t ebb or flow, it is a continuous striving. I decided on several screenings to find the proper candidate.

1. They have a history of drive from a very young age. It seems to be in the DNA part of their personality. I am going to ask about the first job they took for whatever the pay was as a child: cutting grass, shoveling snow, baby sitting. A reliable worker who did a good job.

2. They have something to prove to the world or want to show someone is wrong. They have been influenced by role models or groups important to them and they have a goal as an endpoint. I am going to ask who these influencers were and why they were important.

3. They have overcome real obstacles - life changing events such as loss of parents or major injuries. I am going to find out the details of how they adapted to these setbacks.

Additionally:

1. They have a curiosity and really listen to different ideas, read voraciously and test their knowledge or beliefs.

2. They are creative and willing to try something different. They then accept the hard truth, face the reality of failure, and adapt. This is courage.

3. They have character and know the difference between right and wrong, even if nobody is watching.

4. They need to be competent with a large amount of common sense. They are not afraid to surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are and then listen to them and adapt.

What about the late bloomers - those in their 30s who finally see the light of motivation? I don’t know as I am interested in the teenagers. Maybe I need a second fund?

Is Retirement a Jinx?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 23:18:00 GMT

They are now measuring age by the number of years left to live. This makes sense because the life expectancy in this country has increased from 47 in the early 1900s to about 80 at present. In 1935, the minimum age for receiving full retirement benefits was 65 and yet the average life expectancy was 60. Now there is 1/4 of your adult life left once you retire. As recently as the 1960s, it was expected that retirees’ health would decline in a straight line until all systems crashed. Today, medicine has granted the retirees a long period of good health with no limiting events thanks to pacemakers, joint replacements and such. The health line is now horizontal and straight with an abrupt, short term, fall at the end.

Around five years after retirement, the average American has a 6 to 9% decline in mental health, a 5 to 6% increase in medical conditions, and a 5 to 16% increase in difficulties with daily activities from a combination of the above. This all seems to be from drastic lifestyle changes, not the retirement itself. The curse is the result of the transition from work to retirement, not the advancing years.

The key to avoiding the above seems to be to ease into retirement to something and not retirement from something. So, how to do this properly?

Slowly change the established routines to new routines or new habits. Phase back the work load and fill the time with other meaningful activities that you find productive and create a new sense of self-identity. Procrastination is not a routine.

Replace the social contacts at the office with people from a different environment. An 85 year Harvard study found that the hours of working on all the problems of your job are better spent on keeping up social contacts - virtual or other social connections . Or you could get a pet that would depend on you .

Use the new routine to maintain physical activity. Shift your focus from wealth to health. Go to the gym for the physical benefits as well as the social contacts. Continue the routine of regular meals on a regular schedule and don’t have breakfast at noon.

If you have a relationship, involve them in the transition. There will be a new equilibrium in relationships; move-not move, travel-not travel, etc. The statistically highest divorce rate is between 50 and 64 years old and one third of these have been married more than 30 years.

Use your skills, make your own hours, work part-time or volunteer but find a meaningful purpose. You are not retired; you are a consultant. Having a purpose is more important than all of the above bullet points. Regain your respect. One is not retired, but a consultant.

Of course, you could always put the curse on hold and unretire.

Jab and Go

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 22:58:29 GMT

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tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:42:24 GMT

Regardless of its origins in the mid-1900s, woke has now mutated into a plethora of positive or negative connotations, depending on the agenda. However, it is basically a way to divide people into groups with expectations of a certain behavior. I have been grouped as ‘retired’, a mildly stinging but benign label. But now I am also an ‘elder orphan’! A “vulnerable” group of older people who do not have a spouse or children to depend upon. Somehow this differs from a ‘solo ager’ who has never had children. Why? To what purpose? Supposedly, we are 22% of those over 55 years old and we come with a whole list of concerns for the social workers - 23% worry about not having enough money, 25% fear losing their housing, 40% are depressed, with 37% being anxious and 52% feeling loneliness. This is the subject of conversations I have with most of the retirees that I know who do have spouses and kids. So, before we allow the policy makers to look into the problems and solutions, let’s dissect this grouping.

You are going to be solo at some time in your life. Anyone can see this coming if you consider that half the population will be a widow or widower at some point. Life is dangerous and none of us are getting out of this alive. You can mitigate this assumption by surrounding yourself with an expanding group of friends and acquaintances; hopefully younger and interesting. You could continue working at any job, volunteer, take courses at a school, whatever, but keep pushing forward.

With minimal thought, the fear of losing your housing or not meeting your basic needs ought to make you consider that one should do some financial planning before arriving at this point. It might not be as daring, but job hopping before a pension becomes vested or quiet-quitting or living paycheck to paycheck should require more caution. Fair enough, there is a work - play balance, and there is merit in quitting one job for better opportunities in another, but there are also some long term consequences that need consideration. Ponder this. About 30% of millionaires in this country averaged an income of $100,000 a year and one third of these never made 6 figures in any single year. Sounds to me like this fear is a consumption problem.

Depression among the elderly is a consequence of social isolation objectively and a feeling of loneliness subjectively, but is not due to the aging process itself. The group with the highest rate of depression in our culture are those between 12 to 25 years old; well out of ' retired' demographic. Social isolation is a result loss of family and friends, living alone, chronic illness or even hearing loss. Begin with your family doctor to see if there is a need for a possible physical tune up and then get active.

Stressful life events cause anxiety but it does keep you engaged. I am not happy that my body shows the loss of elasticity and the triumph of gravity. But face it, my body is becoming antique and I can’t do the physical things I have been used to. So it takes me longer. But with retirement, I have a lot more time to complete the task. I have no fear of losing my independence because that is why they have French maids. And for any other cause of anxiety, there is always the 4 o’clock martini.

Curmudgeon

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 22:18:36 GMT

It’s raining again, and I need another activity. So I did an inventory and considered all the boxes I tick already: gray haired, gruff, cranky, haven’t handed out candy at Halloween for years, find Christmas carolers annoying, will never be woke, have stubborn resistance to those who think they can change the psychology of people, and have never been a model citizen. I think I’ll work at being a curmudgeon.

One of the nice things about the word curmudgeon is nobody can adequately define it. There are lots of antonyms: affable, companionable, cordial and extroverted. But look at the illustrious alumni: Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx. Not exactly antonyms but are still considered curmudgeons. I would include Dorothy Parker and Fran Lebowitz, but the bonus point is that it is a boys only club. A female curmudgeon is called a termagant.

In order to stand out from the crowd, I’ll need to specialize . Say, catalog the inconsistencies around me.

The United States was founded on no taxation without representation. So why is the kid working at McDonald’s paying income tax when they can’t vote?

Don’t work so hard; stop and smell the roses. Well if you don’t work long hours then you won’t have the money to afford the roses.

Don’t make a large salary and not get enough sleep. But the Covid mess showed us that you can both make less money and get no sleep.

He is homeless because he lives in a tent. Well, hold on, when I was much younger we called that a vacation and I have very fond memories of it.

Study harder; you are the future of your country. But as I have said somewhere, the kids in Moldova are studying English harder so they can get a job in another country.

The Democrats have funded their social programs resulting in inflation and are desperate for more money. I propose a Happiness Tax on single males because they aren’t sharing in the domestic misery. Call it a “No wife, No strife Tax”

I now have the time to consider more inconsistencies.

Too old to retire?

Wed, 04 May 2022 17:16:12 GMT

Retirement is supposed to be a stage in which you have more time for hobbies, more time to try new activities, and more time to do whatever you have postponed. A friend of mine, a keen fisherman, just had a birthday that ended in a 5. We were discussing his planned summer fishing trips and he was lamenting that he wouldn’t be going to an alpine lake as usual because he was too old to walk in, and live rough. On closer questioning: he still remembers why he walked into the room, his heart and knees are good enough to do heavy yard work, his eyes and ears check, check, and he has a good bank balance. He has simply hit a mythical age number inside his head. So, can you be too old to retire and enjoy the benefits?

So where does this ‘acting your age’ come from? I have only heard it used as a scolding to quit juvenile behavior and to act more responsibly or maturely. But is there such a thing as hypermature? I suppose there are certain activities where time restricts opportunities. For instance, having a child as a do-over at my age would cause years of social ridicule and it won’t work because I wouldn’t be around to see if I had improved the product. It is also too late to start my NBA career or become an international star surrounded by groupies. But I can still be a musician emeritus (socially approved), be numbered among the world’s better poker players (generally approved) or start a small store (probably neutral). Maybe one should focus on the journey, not the goal, write your own story and edit it as you go.

I’m too old to worry much about other person’s perceptions of how I should act. Scoffing ridicule is better than being transparent and ignored. I am trying to surround myself with the younger crowd so I take “You’re too old for that!” as a challenge but I may have to modify some of my behavior to be credible with this younger age group. I have never said “When I was your age …”, nor have I chased the clothing trends of tight pants with a cuff above my ankles and no socks. But I have been known to whistle songs from the 60s and say that something is ‘Cool’. However, saying something is ‘Bad’ or calling someone ‘Bruh’ sounds as if I’m trying too hard to be trendy. So I suppose if one wants to surround themselves with the younger generations there will be some modifications. Finally, if the group doesn’t like it, they will just have to deal with it.

So, having no personal cut off time, what is interesting me now that falls within the social norms? I can’t function as a physician, or be any use as an aide worker in refugee camps because I don’t speak the language. However….

1. I hear frequent stories that speaking Russian in Moldova, Czech Republic or Romania is not a good idea because you will be shunned. So English skills will remain very important in the new order that will follow the Russian invasion. Asia and Europe have a large demand for English tutors, but the Covid restrictions are a checkerboard that changes daily so it is hard to plan ahead. Additionally, the schools want paid workers that they can give orders to and I don’t need the money and I will reject any meetings. If I was to brave the high Covid numbers in South America, all the requests for native English speakers need good Spanish language skills, so I don’t qualify. That leaves on-l ine lessons, maybe from a beach .

2. I like to build things and when this invasion is over, there will be a need to rebuild infrastructure and apartments. I won’t literally carry bricks but I’m thinking more of being a foreman who only has to do physical work for a 5 minute demonstration and then direct a team of young, strong people.

3. There is also the world-wide threat of starvation, so I could get into the fields and change the way things were always done - rebuild the soils, purify the ground water, and grow calories. GMO doesn’t matter when people are hungry.

The way I see it, you are either moving forward or falling behind because life doesn’t stand still. Hopefully you have gathered enough experience over the years that you would recognize a mistake and not relive it. So go to the alpine lake and enjoy your retirement. What are you saving yourself for? Do things to outrage your children. You just have to make the decision then just do it and develop selective hearing for the astounded.

Black Swans and Retirement

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 20:16:14 GMT

Since the time of the Romans, it was commonly known that black swans didn’t exist. And then the Europeans got to Australia. They even found a black necked swan in South America. So now the term is taken to mean an event so unlikely and rare that is is unpredictable. I never considered a Corona pandemic, nor an invasion, into my retirement activities, but both are limiting my choices and options and therefore my fun time. Retirement planning now has several more ponderables.

I suppose back swans can be good or bad depending on your point of view. A pig would consider a barbecue bad but the butcher doesn’t care. Lotteries are for people that can’t do mathematics, but my winning the lottery would be a good black swan. That is until multitudes of people find out and try to make themselves my best friend.

One can handle black swan events with broad preparation and most of this comes down to money. The financial advisors have thousands of sites full of advice such as having 6 months of readily available cash for living expenses while you adjust to the change, or making a monthly budget to figure out just how much you’re spending at Starbucks. Last week I got a call from the credit card company about some recent purchases, but I just told them I was emerging from my Corona isolation. However, it tweaked my attention, so I revisited my situation.

The financial changes haven’t effected me yet but I am still keeping a wary eye on inflation and the tax increases that will result from the government’s increasing expenditures. There is a statistical model called a Monte Carlo Simulation which is used to predict the different outcomes of random variables - in my case, the probability of having enough money to maintain my present life style. I plugged in my age, health, age of my relatives at death, my annual expenses, my government pension and my private funds, etc etc. I pushed the GO button and the program ran through 20,000 variables such as inflation would be 2% or 20%, the market would lose 50% or gain 7% annually, etc. It even included the $250,000 that my terminal health expenses would cost. But there were no black swan events that I could identify in the program eg. cancelling student debt, supply side problems, electric cars only. The result? I am good until I am 92 years old.

What was the effect of sitting around having on my health? I went for my annual free Medicare physical and all is well …. except they used the word elderly a lot: remember 3 words, draw a clock, do I feel safe. I was not pleased! Me?! I’ve crossed the geezer line? I’ll show you what this slander means! Time to get a 35 year old “friend”! That should take care of the Monte Carlo results above. I wonder if this would be considered a black swan?

Virtual Zoom classes are OK, but I would like to visit my younger friends in real time. But several of them have missiles raining down on them and this is not my fight. So I am limited to spending a fair amount of daily time sending encouraging emails but I am running out of things to say. Practically, there is not much I can do but I have told them that if they should get to a Western country then I will visit them there so they will no longer be refugees. A couple of my English students have gotten into the Czech Republic from Ukraine and I have finally gotten into contact with them and their life is chaotic and the internet is irregular. The English students in Moldova are doing well; discussion with the kids is neutral subjects and the adults are worried about their friends in Ukraine. I now need to see what the Russians are planning for Moldova.

That takes care of the big 3 variables of a successful retirement and nothing has really changed for me. Can I find a good black swan … maybe find my fun in a different activity? All I can think to do is to ‘put myself out there’ as the kids say. Expose myself to volunteer in other countries or areas where I have no expertise. Try enough things, long enough, that hopefully serendipity gets the timing right.

So I think black swans are manageable. I will survive the Corona virus or an invasion, but now I need a plan so I won’t die overdoing the celebration.

God's Waiting Room

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 17:59:13 GMT

I thought I had checked all the retirement boxes but nobody had mentioned a pandemic. So I find myself with a compacted schedule - busy mornings until 10 AM and long aft ernoons in the rain with no purpose. At least in Moldova, the afternoons and evenings were filled with new classes every hour. I tried to read everything on the internet dealing with international travel but it changes on a daily basis and country by country, so it seems that the adventure is just getting to your destination and back home. And now we have concern over the Omicron variant. I looked into local organized charities but their volunteer programs have been suspended. Now I feel the meter running and I am in a waiting room watching the clock. I hope He is running late!

Time to revisit some of these boxes and the decisions.

Don’t bother with an internet search. Those offering non-financial advice are all young (40s and 50s) and it is like asking a priest to discuss the best methods he learned from the Kama Sutra. The most frequent word they used was “meditation”. I call it afternoons.

I still have a purposeful activity but it is only the first 3 hours in the morning. An activity would be learning a skill and the purpose is to use this new skill to do something of lasting value. An activity that I do daily is Russian lessons, but, until I can get on an airplane, there is no one I can talk to. The students are amused at my attempts to talk to them in Russian but they are on Zoom for English class. I am rethinking my English-lesson videos and trying to make them easier but still interesting, so this is on hold. I tried to improve my cooking skills, but this just gave me more pots to clean. And there are few recipes for just one gourmand, so I get to eat the mistakes for 2 days. Therefore, I need to re-visit this purposeful activity box.

I am doing the “health maintenance” at least every second day but maybe it is time to embarrass myself in a yoga class with the youngsters. I found that I expire a large amount of vapor when I pant on a treadmill and so wearing a face mask is like water boarding. I don’t believe Yoga is anaerobic so I should not be panting. However, I refuse to wear Spandex so the first step is to find out if I can wear my sweats to class.

I expected my network of friends to get much smaller after retirement but, leave the country for three years, and they vanish. Throw in the variable of social distancing and it becomes telephone conversations. My social network is now young kids and young adults in a virtual space called Zoom. But I like their energy and positivity. However, I feel like a wise, old counselor because I have been there and done that and all I can share are the consequences of my not so bright moments. I keep positive with them and keep telling them they are doing fine; and I keep reminding myself that they were paying my pension. I wonder about my poor credibility with them because they can’t imagine themselves in my situation. But this is my new identity.

So, here I am, cooling my heels in the waiting room, hoping he will cancel my appointment.

Report card: year 4

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 21:36:11 GMT

Apparently, there are 5 stages of retirement spread over a period of 30 years.

1. Pre-retirement (15 years) where you start to get serious about your finances and life style. This gets more intense in the last 2 years when the anxiety of a deadline looms.

2. The honeymoon of full retirement (1-2 years) when you are out-the-door. A blizzard of travel, friends, activities

3. Disillusionment where the hype and excitement wears off and the to-do list is finished. You are bored, miss the comaraderie of work friends and start to feel useless.

4. Re-wiring for a new routine and finding purpose

5. Stability with more simplification, more relaxation and more maintenance of your health (better known as your doctor is your new social life).

My pre-retirement run up was almost unnoticed until the final 6 months. A divorce really improved my lifestyle in that I now had the freedom to do whatever I wanted and I found out that that my needs were very simple and I didn’t have to worry about another’s wants. A major improvement in my finances. But in the last 6 months I was pushed to get serious about filling in my days and so here I am …. an English tutor.

My honeymoon was a smorgasbord of new challenges from exploring cultural differences, to new languages, and finding a new career. This ended abruptly with a Covid-inspired retreat home after 3 years.

I suppose I’m in the third stage but it is not disenchanting because I still have 2 or 3 hours of English classes and another hour of Russian lessons in the morning, followed by a gym session. However, the afternoons are longer now that the yard work has slowed down. There is nothing wrong but it is not “right” either. It is now time to make some plans.

I am going to modify my priorities as I feel myself getting into a rut. I am going to challenge my vaccinations and get back to Eastern Europe, back to mixing it up with kids in a classroom. But with a difference. More experiences. Everything is so geographically close that I will do more traveling. Maybe a quick weekend to Italy to see if mamaliga really is polenta. Or check out the Maldives and see if they are as boring as they seem on paper. Find out if I can overcome my fear of heights and go to the top of the Khalifa Tower in Dubai.

I suppose you could say the I am going to find out if one can die from experiences. Fair enough. But can one also die of boredom?

I’ll tell you about stage 5 if I get there.

Teaching financial literacy

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 21:30:19 GMT

One of the challenges of Zoom English lessons is to choose a topic of interest to the student and let the conversation proceed from there. A recurrent question is “how can you afford to travel as a pensioner?” Their grandparents are living on a government pension of about $50 a month and this doesn’t cover their utility bill. The age range of the 4 students are from a 16 year old entrepreneur who dreams of being a predatory capitalist through to a mid-30s self employed single girl who is looking at the future. So I read The Index Card by Olen and Pollack, made a check list of the 10 points to include paying yourself first, paying off your credit card every month, insurance, etc. And I jumped into it.

Point 1. Save 10 - 20% of your income. Initial silence. Then some loud protests that Americans make so much more and they simply couldn’t afford that because they couldn’t afford new clothes or discussion sessions over coffee house beverages or didn’t want to be misers. OK. I backed off and we had a lively discussion about needs versus wants. I discovered that these students have a great need to reward themselves. OK. Backed down some more and brought up the word ‘Budget’. And yes, the word translates into both Romanian and Russian but nobody had ever walked through the steps of setting up a budget. We set up a very basic list of expenses and this became a discussion of how these entries were variable and impossible to fill in.

OK. “Now I want you to record everything you buy in the next month and write it in a notebook.” Discussions about should it be in Euros or Lei and then protests that it was too much work and what was the point. So I used myself as an example. I made coffee twice a day in my office and didn’t buy Starbucks. One latte $5, times 5 days a week times 12 months times 40 years. “Look how much I saved!” The number impressed them but they decided they would worry about it when they got back from their vacations in Egypt, Turkey or Italy in the fall.

I am looking forward to point 2. Pay your credit card every month, in full.

Maybe I'm Vintage?

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 21:20:29 GMT

I was driving down the highway and having idle thoughts about getting a new truck. If I keep this truck for several more years, it will be 25 years old and therefore a classic. Whoa, I am not a classic any more? Vintage furniture is 30 to 100 years old and after that it is antique. This doesn’t sound good. I’m not even sure that I want to be classic. Let’s think about this.

I’m not fan of the popular European synthesizer music, it’s just noise to cover up the lack of vocal ability. Now I’m stateside, I flip through radio stations and it’s hip-hop/rap or alternative rock and the classics are heavy metal from the 80s. “What are they saying, again?” I have lived through the evolution of rock ’n roll, but I can’t discuss this history with the kids as they are beyond disinterested. But then, I can hardly discuss anything with the kids because I need to Google the new slang and I can’t keep up to the translation and follow the conversation. The last time I was in a bar with a house band, I couldn’t talk to the person next to me because of the vibration of the bass through my chest. But they didn’t care because they were too busy staring at their social media. Named dances? Unknown. It is jazz or just get up and wiggle your tush. Furthermore, you don’t even get to touch the girl! I do have a good memory though ….. for the next-day-hangovers and so I am socially restrained.

And speaking of social events, I am becoming aware that the conversation with fellow survivors is now easing into cataloguing aches and pains or the girlfriends of their grandchildren. And I find myself discussing real estate or my garden. No discussion of politics because we won’t be around for the consequences.

I try to give the Moldovan kids some motivation to stay in school and be a role model of what can be accomplished, but “things are different now”. My stories are prehistoric.

Fashion. I did notice that European fashion was skin tight and a mash up of colors. Stateside, the big city office workers also dress in outfits with a peculiar blend of colors. When I went to replace some well worn jeans, my jeans were right in style because now you buy them pre-torn with hanging threads in areas of wear. I can say I dress classically in comfortable clothes.

I’m not sure how many of my skills are relevant any more. I can read a map and not rely on the synthetic voice from a GPS unit, I can convert analog and digital times, and I can work a manual transmission. I don’t do social media because I don’t care what you had for lunch and I am pretty sure you don’t care about my grocery list. I’ve noticed I would rather see someone’s face than the top of their head as they are reading their phones.

Summing the points, it seems I am vintage. I have been called worse.

A hereditary meritocracy?

Sun, 09 May 2021 18:47:40 GMT

I went through the Democrat’s Christmas wish list a line at a time, but then noticed that there seems to be a major item that the social justice warriors would adore.

Now that I have become a sort-of educator, I am preaching that hard work and grit lead to endless opportunities. But this message is not resonating with Moldovan kids, so I started to look for success stories where developing skill sets through hard work and persistence opened up doors for socioeconomic advancement. The area to look for examples used to be one word - “America” - the land of equal opportunity. The Covid quarantine lead to online learning, and this has revealed some basic problems. I am now beginning to wonder if there is a hereditary meritocracy.

If you exclude the East Coast elitist schools with their nepotism and alumnus benefits of networking, then one can speak in generalities. On-line learning exposed regions in the State of Washington with poor internet access and also multiple students who didn’t have the computing power to participate in online schooling; no smart phones, tablets nor computers. Not all educational systems are equal. In the United States, public education is financed with a base amount from the governments and this is augmented with local property taxes. Therefore, we have much higher budgets for the school systems with high end property values which then leads to better equipment for labs, sports and even internet access with advanced computers. Opportunities in life are given to those with more skill sets. These well funded students, with impressive educational exposure and extracurricular activities, are then admitted to well funded universities. There they meet similarly inclined students/future spouses with the same appreciation of education. The increased value (wealth) of these graduates, and their newly formed families, allows them to move into highly taxed neighborhoods and fund well-financed schools. And the pyramid continues upward with each generation.

Furthermore, both well-off parents share an attitude of the value of education and get involved in school administration. They push an agenda that encourages academic success as well as extracurricular visits to museums, music lessons, books, professional instruction in sports, and similar exposure that increases their children’s skill sets. They have the personal income to afford these activities. These offspring are then admitted, on the basis of merit, to higher educational institutes.

Additionally, the parents also come with an attitude that anything can be accomplished and can use themselves as an example. They stay focussed and make decisions with a goal in mind; marriages at an older age, fewer single mothers, fewer divorces and other types of behavior that set up barriers to education. All families have legends of overcoming setbacks and adversity because they kept the prize in mind. These are successful role models.

Obviously, I have not mentioned the hard work of these students, the amount of organization forced on them and the resulting anxiety they have from performance standards. But if we ignor the mental health of the students, have we reached a point where nature and nurture are working together? This question should be giving someone a sleepless night.

How lucky do I feel?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 17:27:13 GMT

I have had my second Pfizer jab with no side effects and the weather has not been cooperating for any outdoor activities. Is it back to Plan A? Time to travel?

Well, hold on! If my immune system responds, then my chances of dying from an infection are very close to zero, regardless of the Corona variant. And if I do get sick, then I could probably be able to stay at home and feel miserable without hospitalization. But remember, it is 95% effective so 1 of 20 people will still have symptoms from an infection. Also, I could still be contagious to others, and remain symptom-free. So there will be no change in my habits of masking, social distancing and washing my hands. “Yeah, I can live with that. I’ll pack some bags …..”

“HOWEVER.” It seems it will take 5 years for every person on the planet to get vaccinated and this doesn’t count a scenario in which people will need a booster shot every year. Then we have the polls suggesting that almost half of Americans “would refuse a shot if offered one immediately”. (NY Times 19 Feb, 2021) Their reasoning seems to be that it is not a get-out-of-Covid-free-card and will not allow the vaccinated to return to a pre-Covid life style, so forget it. It’s ineffective. So who are these Americans to avoid? To keep your social distancing from? Blacks and Hispanics, white people without a college degree, registered Republicans and lower-income households. Damn! That’s got to be more than 50% of the population!

In Eastern Europe there is visceral mistrust of the vaccination due to a multitude of conspiracy theories or just plain misinformation/fake news. “The powerful people are not giving us vaccinations so they can close down the economy, keep us poor, and therefore control our lives.” “The Pfizer vaccination wasn’t tested enough and the Russian vaccination (Sputnik V) is so much better.” Really? More than 1 million Americans per day versus Putin’s daughter? The Netherlands began vaccinations on a Monday and the Ukrainian news on Tuesday was stating that 25% of the Dutch were dying from the vaccination. If one read the Amsterdam newspapers, what they said was “Covid is 25 times more lethal than influenza.” Therefore, I would be living in an area of survival of the fittest.

I am not afraid of contacting Corona on an airplane but the airports are another matter. Swarms of people with different standards. And then there is the quarantine rules of each country that I travel through or to. If I change airports in London, I need a Covid test and then isolation until it is proven negative. The same in Ukraine and Moldova. It would be a days-long trip.

Maybe it’s time to plan a garden for the summer.

"If you were 17 again .... ?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 22:30:06 GMT

Several of the 17 year old English students asked me “Knowing what you know now, what would you do for a living if you were 17 again?” Finally, I am still relevant!

So here are some idle thoughts that I put together as conversational talking points.

*Feel free to correct or add to the list*

1. This is your life and all of the decision is yours and yours alone.

2. What is the difference between a job and a career? One is a paycheck and the other is a goal for which you accumulate experiences and skills. Employers just want a university degree to demonstrate that you have grit and can finish; they don’t necessarily care about your major but they do care about necessary skills.

3. Do NOT follow your passion. Right about now all your classmates are passionate about being world class gamers or making a fortune as a blogger. If you follow your passion, you will find out what “market competition” means on a world scale.

4. Make a list of all the life variables you can think of: do you like money or adventure?, working with people all day or working by yourself?, working with your hands or your mind?, working indoors or outside?, sex or love?, risk or stability? Keep that list and return to it every 6 months because as you gain experiences, the list will change. Also add items to the list that you reject for moral or other reasons.

5. Never lie to yourself. You will make mistakes so don’t let your ego get in the way of learning these lessons. Do not internalize these failures but internalize the lessons. Accept that you are a nerd, socially awkward and insecure. Don’t advertise it but deal with it.

6. You have plenty of time to decide. Life is not a sprint but more of a marathon. There is no RIGHT career path. About 50% of students entering university don’t know what career they want and 70% will change their career plans. Today, people change jobs every 3 to 5 years and their careers every 10 years.

7. Accept change. You can’t control it but, if you pay attention, you may see a hint of it coming in the future. Think of it as a new chapter.

8. Decide where you wish to be in 5,10, 15 and 20 years (for instance, living in a white house in a major city with 2 cars, 4 kids and 2 ex-wives) and that is your goal. But realize that you will not be the same person at each of these milestones because you will change with your experiences.

9. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So surround yourself with smarter, more socially adept people and listen. Just directly ask them for advice and then think critically of what they say. Pass it through your inner filter and decide if it applies to your situation.

10. Get to like education because you will be doing it all your life. Keep your options open and wait as long as your can before having to narrow them. Read, read, read - any subject

11. Work hard and fail fast. Make a great effort to learn a new skill but if it seems impossible, quit it. It is not worthwhile making lot of money in a job you hate.

12. Do not undermine yourself on social media, ever.

Prisoner in Retirement

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:47:24 GMT

Someone said that the Covid quarantine is practise for retirement. But practice? Hell, I’m already there!

My plan A was going well. Live in a country that was unfamiliar, make yourself useful most of the day, go home to your own apartment for sleep, and repeat. If that activity needed refreshing, then there was the option B of traveling around Europe and participating in several weeks of total immersion English at a resort paid for by another. There were a few annoyances with plan A, such as I didn’t speak Russian nor Romanian, but nobody expected me to, so it was working well. Then Covid arrived and I fled to the sanctuary of my home field. There was lots of maintenance to do outside in the warm summer and so the days were good. Then the cold rain arrived.

Indoors, there is little room for spatial distancing, so I am alone at home - no one to talk to ‘in the flesh’. I spend 2 to 4 hours early in the morning doing Zoom instruction but then I’m left with open afternoons and evenings. My world has became virtual. I have Saturday evening happy hours on Zoom, and I have brief talks with fellow food shoppers, but I really need a new plan. Call it C.

What have others been doing? It has been 9 months of shut down so there is now a mini-boom in the numbers of Covid births but also a 40% increase in women freezing their eggs for their future pregnancies. There is presently no way to socially meet potential spouses (to put the best spin on it) and the meter is running. The family law practitioners are also experiencing a boom. Domestic togetherness is best experienced with time outs (?work release?). Some are monitoring the grandchildren with their online education and the others are trying to read everything on the internet.

We are getting sage advice to use the slow down to reflect on what is important in your life. Well, that took 10 minutes. What’s next?

My life has been a series of milestone firsts: my first driver’s license, my first time to get carded at a bar, my first day in practice. After retirement the choice of firsts weren’t so good: my first meniscus repair, my first stress test cardiogram, my first hernia repair. So perhaps I just need a list for Plan C or, better yet, my post-Covid hedonistic plan.

1. Up my cooking game and make an apple pie tasting better than anything my great aunts used to bake. But this leads to the next,

2. Lose my Covid 20. Yup, they closed the gym and I need to lose about 20 pounds. Get some rain gear and force myself to do laps around the neighborhood.

3. Make a curiosity list. How do they get that ship in a bottle? How do they get sugar into a little single-use bag? Why do Russians have so many swear words? Meaningful stuff.

4. Arrange a tour along the Silk Road, or put together a trip along the old Orient Express.

5. Find a pleasant travel companion with lots of energy and curiosity who isn’t bothered by the things that go wrong while traveling. I wonder if there is a web site for this?

Advice?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 20:48:22 GMT

About 10 years ago, I boarded a group of ballerinas from New York City who were in town to give a workshop for the local university. They were in their late 20’s and starting to notice that the osteoarthritis and the muscle tears hurt more. They had finished high school, and some had even danced in Europe, but now they were living in borderline poverty and were facing the end of a career. They all hated the idea of teaching ballet to 5 year olds but they had no other skills. Their parents had told them to “follow your passion.” Was this poor parental advice?

Should the guidance have been more pragmatic or directly objective? Something like “ hunger and poverty are not romantic” or “homelessness and unemployment are not an adventure.” Maybe it could be demonstrated by forcing the child to get and keep a summer job with the understanding the earned wages will pay for the clothes that they wear to school for the next year. Or even better, get them out of their own bedroom, full of video games, with laundry services, for a summer job away from home where they will have to pay for their own accommodation and food. I am sure they would be a little more practical on their return in the fall.

But why do some people love what they are doing for work? I think it is because they are good at it. They are good at it because they spend a lot of time learning it, practicing it and working toward perfecting it. The kids should be exposed to a multitude of subjects and forced to practice it (think piano lessons, for instance) for a period and then be allowed to go onto another subject. You would be giving them exposure to a multitude of different skills. After public school, they can go their own way, do their own thing with consequences, but with limited parental economic support. This also should be part of a kid’s education. If you are working for tuition, then you learn very quickly that you expect value for your dollar.

Somewhere I read of some advice that I’m paraphrasing. “You had better decide what will happen if you are the 1000th best in the world at what you do.” Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev will never starve, but what about these ballerinas from NYC? An engineer, physician, airline pilot or CPA will live a fairly comfortable life even if they are average but an artist, food blogger or video game player will find life a struggle.

Additionally, you had better like what you are doing because you will be doing it for a long time. The trick is to find a balance between the passion for a subject and an ability to pay your bills.

Really?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 19:12:17 GMT

People guess your age using a formula of 3 variable standards: biologic, psychologic and sociologic. They assume a linear progression, arrive at a number, and then total the score to put you in an age category. This results in certain expectations. I caught my toe on a piece of gym equipment and instead of getting a standing ovation of laughter, 2 people lunged toward me looking for damage. Do I need to wear a helmet now when I walk? Somewhere I passed through the stage of being an authority figure and I am now just a geezer to be tolerated or ignored. Enough already! I am going to mess with the formula.

I stood up from a chair and got a sudden pain in my right knee. The only person I know to have blown out their knee doing an Excel spreadsheet. Yeah, this is dangerous. Oh well, if it doesn’t hurt then it doesn’t work. Back to the gym to maintain muscle strength, keep my tendons stretchy and so I don’t grunt when I get out of a sofa. Then there is gym wear. No shirts with loud logos, torn pants, and shoes that have flashing lights when you walk. I can afford well-styled, refined clothes and I’m going to flash them. Out of the gym, I am going to try to keep up to the activities I did at 50 so I don’t walk old, with a forward stoop. Billions of dollars are spent to disguise crow’s feet, turkey necks, age spots and the gravitational face. The advice is often contradictory, such as lots of sun for the vitamin D to avoid osteoporosis but then the UV destroys the skin. We have a pill for vitamin deficiencies and moisturizers for the other. Not for me. My crow’s feet? I won’t do anything. I earned everyone of them by smiling and I will display them as a medal. But I am looking for a dryer for humans; 10 minutes tumbling and you are wrinkle-free and 3 sizes smaller.

So, you think I have a normative psychological age? I am a case of arrested development. Yeah, I stopped evolving about 20 years ago. I have no competitive need to run around with lots of activity. I have been around a while and I already know the path. I am not looking for it. I am going to work smarter and get the job done quicker and with a better result. Learning capacity doesn’t decrease with age but the application of a lifetime of accumulated intelligence will improve problem solving so I will remain interested and interesting. I’ll turn off the TV and continue doing something meaningful. I will remain engaged with younger people in spite of the isolation of Covid. I will keep measuring my personal values against those of the kids and modify them if they seem to have a better idea. I will maintain a sense of self-worth. I can’t wait for the occasion to say “I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive, so pay attention.”

So what is my social age-grade? I went out for dinner with a couple of younger girls several months go. We finished eating about 9 PM and one suggested with enthusiasm that we go night clubbing. I was thrilled when her ride said she had things to do in the morning and I got to go home to bed. I never had to say “I’m too old for that.” No more early bird dinners, I’ll drive at night, I’ll return phone calls …… but will remain game enough even if I do need a nap the next day. I will not let a younger person fill out an application to a website for me because they always comment on how far they have to scroll down for my birthdate and it’s causing them carpal tunnel symptoms. Ha ha, funny. I went to the gym the other morning and it was freezing with a cold wind. I was dressed in my gym strip, fleece and jacket. Behind me was a bouncy young girl wearing a halter top and Spandex shorts - that’s it. Lots of exposed skin. The thought sequence went like this:

Thought 1: “She must be freezing.”

Thought 2: “Crap, I just sounded like my father.”

Thought 3: “Why didn’t I think she looked fit?”

Thought 4: “Time to leer.”

So guess my age. This will be fun!

Reset/Reboot

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:19:57 GMT

I think I’ve been in a time warp. I finally went to the mall and is was empty enough that I could actually hear conversations. Ahead of me was a guy about my age with a young teen and he was obviously saying something to her in earnest. As I passed she said “OK, Boomer.” The tone was dismissive but what did it mean? Turns out it was a put down and it has been used for more than 2 years! I think this is becoming N-word of ageism. Not only has slang gotten ahead of me but I’m out of the main stream.

Am I that socially retarded? I generally turn the TV on for noise and don’t really listen to it. Suddenly I’m aware that Ellen DeGeneres had 5 days worth of guests and I hadn’t heard of any of them! The guests were in ’Superhero’ movies. I haven’t read a comic book since I was 13 years old.

I’ve become irrelevant. I needed replacement t-shirts and trainers (running shoes). Nothing is available without large graphics, glow in the dark colors and a shrink wrap fit. I gave those up about 20 years ago. Now I am paying attention! I bought some wine and the self checkout scanner needed an age check. The 40 year old clerk simply walked up, waved her pass card and continued on without looking at me. I was hoping for at least a courtesy pat down. I’ve also become invisible.

If I can sync my computer, why can’t I sync myself with my actual self image? I mentally think of myself as a peer of the 40 year olds, or at least close enough. Then one of the Moldovan students asked my advice about vitamin supplements for her aging 60 year old parents. JOLT. When I have run into younger people that I worked with for years, they immediately start telling me the stories of their failing grandparents. JOLT. If they ask you what you are doing, you had better have a 15 second reply because it is just a courtesy question and they are being polite. JOLT. I bought myself an extravagant one- person dessert. Reading the clerk’s demeanor, I was waiting for her to ask me if my coronary arteries could handle it. I am never going to mention to anyone I have mid-30 year old pen pals who are curious about American events because I don’t want to hear about May - December 15th relationships. So I am now avoiding awkward conversations.

So, what to do? I got my wrinkles by having fun and laughing, so I will pick up my irreverence game and let my actions contradict my voiced intentions. Sneaky. I’m not going to give advice, I’m going to set a bad example. I’ll become the newest software version with great new features: no political correctness with all the personalized pronouns, no f*@king text speak because I am educated enough to know how to spell, become immature because this is the youngest I will ever be again, and I will demand all my senior discounts. What do I want for my next birthday? A paternity suit. Yeah, I’m going to become an Alpha male.

Now I’m waiting for a Covid vaccine to put this plan into action.

Retiring Small

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 17:26:18 GMT

My father’s generation was the first to totally retire with a company pension and Social Security. The first wave of boomers used them as an example and planned snow birding in the winter for golf and senior’s hour at the buffet restaurants. Theaters, cruise ships, international travel were all on the agenda of the wealthiest generation ever. We had endless choices. Well, that ended fast! What was beer, mama and the radio during the 1930s Depression is now wine, mama and Netflix. What happened?

Although many dreamt of retirement at 55, the reality for 54% was retirement at 66 or 67, with full SS benefits. Now the majority of workers are rethinking retirement due to decreasing confidence in the future: job loss, lowered retirement savings and the stock market swoon last spring. Many are retiring earlier than planned due to lack of available jobs and some are working past 66 to replenish their retirement funds over the next 4 years. This, as 10% of companies have reduced or discontinued matching funds for the retirement plans. About 9% have already broken into their retirement funds and it seems that 21% did not have a fund. Many, grabbing their SS at 62 years old, are now locked into permanently reduced benefits. The gig economy to augment the income gap has dried up.

There is a widening inequality among older workers. “Seasoned” workers with college degrees are 37% of this group and can do their jobs at home - professional, scientific, technical and management. The remainder in retail trades or food services have had their jobs eliminated or risk their health and that of their families going to work. As in the 2007 - 2009 recession, this last group have a higher chance of being permanently unemployed.

Where some industries were on the endangered list due to the digital age, they are now facing extinction. Shopping malls and retail stores, newspapers and printed material in general, restaurant and a movie on Saturday night …. gone. Aside from the fact that nobody will grant us entrance, international travel has too many gates to go through with recent proof of Covid tests and quarantine on arrival. Even travel within the States is a bit of a life or death decision and people are wary. Locked up in a cruise ship with 4000 people is just not going to happen. Authorities opened up Kyiv and restarted their public transportation system in July. Instant gridlock of cars as nobody wanted to risk crowded busses or trains but had to go to work. Will anyone get excited about being in a crowd at an athletic event? Higher ticket prices, staggered arrival times, and cordoned off areas for social distancing ruin the luxury of the experience.

60 is the new 40. Really? with a weakened immune system? I am getting monthly reminders that I need my annual physical. Visits to private physicians and hospitals are down 50% but I have the option of telemedicine. I can just see how that would go.

Dr: “What can I do for You?”

Me: “I need some skin lesions looked at.”

Dr: “Send me a photo.”

Me: “If I could take a picture of my back I could diagnose myself.”

I thought that I would volunteer at Boys and Girls Club. Nope, don’t want volunteers. Take up coaching ice hockey again? Cancelled. Spend the afternoon in a bar? Not available. I suppose I could join a gym, maintain social distancing, get on a tread mill with my mask in place and watch my oxygen saturation fall. So I continue getting up at 4 AM (because of time zones) for Zoom English classes in Moldova and making short videos for English vocabulary. Not a complete prisoner, but restricted.

It seems I will have plenty of time to develop new habits before a vaccine is available. Mean while, it is *SIGH* no wine before 4 PM, no mama and Netflix.

Would-be Educator

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:18:11 GMT

I have continued contributing to the English school in Moldova through the magic of Zoom. I am the conversational guy because I still don’t know the rules of English grammar. The problem is that their culture believes that the teacher chooses the subject. So even though I keep repeating that this is their time and “What do you want to talk about?” , I get silence. So I have entered the field of educational videos just to introduce a topic.

I had a look at Khan Academy several years ago but returned for a long look at what Salman Khan has done recently and what makes his presentations so popular. He is “flipping” the educational process with his videos. The homework is to watch his video and the work at school is exercises to use this knowledge; on a computer. He can then measure each student’s progress daily. Now the teachers can devote their time to those that are struggling. This has arrived in time for the on-line education that is now the standard for most of North America and Europe. The only problem for me is that he is teaching sciences and I am teaching English and I can’t figure out how to apply the template of his video presentations to conversational English.

I tried to do too much initially. The lack of knowledge among the students is depressing, so I thought I could give some general information, such as geography or culture, with the appropriate vocabulary. No enthusiasm from the audience because it came across as a lecture they would hear in school. But I did realize that the most interest occurred when I was talking about my personal life or the local area. So I did about 6 videos and then ran out of subjects. I looked at videos others had done for ESL on specific subjects and found that the ones I liked the best were casual and spontaneous sounding. So I got a tripod and set up my cell phone for a walk around my kitchen - a glorified selfie. Yikes. I didn’t realize how much slang I use. So in a post-production program, I sliced up the video and used a voiceover with a script and subtitles. I have just finished the next video about the names of cookware, so I am waiting for the feedback.

Further thoughts

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 17:12:17 GMT

I have generally been able to blend into whatever landscape I find myself. Walking in Moldova, I am painted fluorescent orange with a big “foreigner” label. I have been told it is because I “walk aggressively”. I have worn my black leather jacket, got a local haircut and tried to shuffle down the street, glowering, but it doesn’t work.

American culture is exported worldwide so people are familiar with the loud, ignorant, obnoxious Walmart characters but they are a small proportion. Before my arrival, the first American in Causeni was a Peace Corps member and she was staying with a family for bed and meals. She was an alternative lifestyle fan and the word all over town was Americans were vegetarian, seldom showered, hairy and didn’t do laundry very often. So the town treated this next American with a preconceived image and a little caution.

As I travelled, I played a game of “Spot the American”. There was the obvious caricature: Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals with socks. But here are some general observations I have made about the majority when I travel.

1 We are generally loud. The whole restaurant is the audience to a couple discussing their travels, or the food or whatever. There is no indoor voice.

2. We are very open. Within minutes of meeting, we tell anyone our life stories and the successes of our kids. The periphery of our friendship wall is very low but when the European gets closer, the wall gets higher and so we are then considered shallow or false friends because we hold back additional personal details. The perimeter wall of Europeans is very high and so we consider them unfriendly because they give no personal details.

3. We are very charitable. We tip well for meals but this is interpreted as rich people throwing their money around.

4. We have world class service at home and expect the same traveling. I believe the title “Karen” is an American idiom.

5. The customer is always right. “Do you have any ketchup for these eggs Benedict?” “What do you mean there were only FIVE choices of potato chips?!” We then complain that the waiter cringed or got offended. Meals are savored in Europe, not bolted down.

6. We are optimistic with a major “can do” attitude. These sound like snap decisions to a European who would ponder the question for a while. Americans have a need for speed and just want to get on with it.

7. We live with more insecurity or change or danger than a European and take chances. We move, often long distances, every 7 years for a better job. New climate, new friends. We walk in places with rattlesnakes and bears. Try explaining to a European that forest fires 200 km away do not worry me! We start businesses using all our savings for capital, and there is no shame in failing.

8. We have huge egos that the American way is the only way. We have no doubts because we can’t see through our collective blind spot. It doesn’t matter that, by whatever parameter one measures, we are falling behind and and are spending the capital of past generations.

9. We are egocentric, never sensitive to another cultures, and don’t care to learn. “I want a hamburger and fries just like McDonald’s” is an order that makes me cringe at restaurants.

The kids keep asking me when I’ll return. Whether from curiosity or a feeling that I have deserted them, I don’t know, but I will assume that I am setting a good example as a foreigner in their country. So I will still smile in greeting even though it is thought a mental problem, make small talk with the clerk so she can laugh at my accent, and speak quietly. I need all the acquaintances I can gather.

Let's do it online

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:57:45 GMT

For the past 20 years I have been increasingly aware of the disadvantage of a university education. The last several months of online schooling (where I have been a tutor, a student and listened to the comments of friends with children in school) have made some things obvious. In public schools the teachers work with the lowest denominator in the class, with all the stop and restart distractions, to the detriment of the motivated kids. The teachers give a structure to the lesson and the motivated kids finish the material in the outline and then wait for the rest to catch up. Put these motivated kids and their motivated parents on-line, and the school day is a couple of hours with time remaining for enrichment. The key here is parental involvement.

The qualified kids are then sent onward for “the university experience”. What is this experience? The students are now semi-independent and sent there to learn self-education, self-responsibility and self-reliance. All in a pressure cooker of deadlines, planning for life’s necessities such as eating and laundry, and the competition for good grades. About 60% will figure out how to play the game and will graduate. Could most of this have been learned with several years of summer jobs? Leaving the comforts of home for several months would be a great motivator for learning to plan ahead with the added benefit of exploring how different jobs actually work. Might even be additional motivation to return to school.

For all this college pride, students are committing themselves into an institution for years, studying a subject that seldom applies to real life because it is theoretical. They are accumulating a huge student debt but cannot earn a meaningful living that would pay it off. And when they finally get their degree, the education ends.

While they are doing this, “college dropouts” are piecing together information from the internet in a much shorter period of time and applying this knowledge immediately for a practical result. This is dynamic information and is very accessible. Granted, most of the internet content is a distraction but, if you can develop an information filter, it is very efficient. These students will succeed because they have learned to become teachable.

But what about the “necessary degrees” to qualify for medicine, dentistry or engineering. Salman Kahn and his Kahn Academy have enough information online that one could finish the course work in math and physics and then challenge the Engineering exam for professional licensing. The laboratory time would require a classroom presence, but this is now being done at major universities with a hybrid model. Then, all that is needed is a practical apprenticeship, and this is already in place as internships, for instance.

There are only 3 additions to academics I can see for a worthwhile university experience.

1. peer pressure push. At this level, most students are competitive and they can hear the breathing of the student behind them as he gains.

2. reading people. If one takes advantage of the array of different cultures and backgrounds around them, they will learn the quirks and body language of others and learn to read this. A valuable skill.

3. networking. This is mainly an East Coast check box and for this, one pays a premium in tuition. Fine, but I survived this situation on merit.

What of Socialization? Most of this should have been learned in kindergarten. Besides, the kids have changed this venue by transferring it to smart phones and social media. The cross-fertilization of ideas? I cannot think of a better place to meet people with similar interests, think like you and talk like you, than a chat room?

With the continuation of online learning, we will see the result in about 10 years.

Lifestyle and reality

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 21:09:32 GMT

I am always surprised at the perception Moldovans have of Americans. They believe we live in a utopia of restaurant meals, designer clothes and technical advances available to everyone. They believe school is a resort for teenagers who return to upper class houses. It doesn’t matter what I say, this is the first thing they heard or the first image they saw in films, and it is so. They have been incredulous at the presidential pronouncements and are now severely shaken by the events in Seattle. It has been very difficult to explain. I think it is because they start small revolutions that become exponential and so their sense of security that there is an older brother to show the way has gone. What messages should I be giving to Moldovan kids, in English, that may be more realistic? These are idle thoughts.

We are born into families, cultures, countries and histories that play the major role in our outcomes. But life is full of chances and if you are prepared, you can make your own luck. Work hard and continue to inform yourself. Pick up skills, regardless of how useless they seem at the time, because you never know when it might be useful. Many of the presently unemployed just coasted and are now frozen in one occupation for lack of other skills and cannot reinvent themselves. Presently, the community colleges are being overwhelmed with middle-aged applicants whose learning ended before computers became necessary.

Everything comes with a price. It may be hidden, but you must be aware of the true cost. Work long, hard hours and this is time off from your family and friends. Your kids may have the luxuries, but they will only know you as the banker. You will have to modify your culture in places to adapt to an international world. However, if you sacrifice so your children have more choices, then this might be an acceptable price.

It’s perfectly alright to change your mind because circumstances change or, if you’re paying attention, you evolve. Do not get stuck in a situation that you do not enjoy but have to continue because you have no other choice. Keep your options open by making the effort to keep informed, do not get pregnant at 18, and always have a cash reserve. Realize the difference between wants and needs.

Treat everyone with empathy and respect. You know nothing of their circumstances and those you step on while climbing the ladder, you will meet when you come down the ladder. Just because you are paying the bill at a restaurant, do not abuse the server. They can retaliate in ways beyond your imagination.

Consider your personal measure of success. A high net worth is nice but what about the opinion of others; your character, your honesty? What about the ability to do what you want, when you want, and where you want? This is true independence. The pleasure of luxury cars wears off quickly but now you have moved 1 step farther away from success with a depreciating asset.

Never accept the advice of others, including the above, without considering its application to your own values, ambitions and circumstances.

My mid-Corona Crisis

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 21:29:45 GMT

A midlife crisis is old news. I think the new trendy thing will be a mid-Covid crisis and I’m going to start mine here.

I read about a survey of the most desirable consumer activities immediately post lockdown. In descending order: eat at a restaurant, go shopping, get a hair cut. The least common wishes in ascending order were: none of the above, participate in a team sport, go to a casino, travel internationally. I am not a consumer but a replacer, so I suppose that is why I start at the bottom of this list. What about life style changes during Covid? After 6 weeks the commonest changes were: personal care, working from home, shopping on-line and more sex. But 12 weeks into the quarantine: more watching TV, snacking and eating, online activities, working from home. What happened to sex? Meh! No change from pre-Covid. Maybe it’s saturation.

In spite of the enthusiasm of opening up the economy, I am going to remain cautious. Everyone is a potential threat - a covert enemy - and I’m evaluating each person in the food store. I stare at them through their mask and they stare back. Both of us are scoping out. I have no altruistic need to contribute to herd immunity mainly because I am on the wrong side of the mortality curve and I have no desire for a tube down my throat. Additionally, there are more frequent stories of young and healthy adults with lingering lung problems well after the acute phase has passed. Continual poor health is to be avoided.

If Elizabeth Hurley cannot find love in this lockdown, what hope do we mortals have? There is the initial virtual contact online but I can think of a dozen problems with this. If things progress to an actual meet up, it begins with a question. Is this is really the same person behind the mask? Then the mask comes down and the courtship dance begins, at 2 meters. At this rate, it will be several years before contact.

I now have a good idea of how many friends I have that are immunocompromised and I will always remain standoffish in their presence. I never was a huggy, kiss both sides of your face type of person but it is a new social reality. Shake hands? I will pause and evaluate. Isolation tables at restaurants? Romantic. Washing hands? Never lost the habit from work. Social distancing? Always had a large interpersonal distance. I suspect there will be a long period of …let’s call it rolling brown outs, where a co-worker contracts the disease and all their fellow workers are on quarantine at home. Do you risk going home to your elderly grandmother? I do not wish to contribute to my friends anxieties, ever.

I think the trick is to recognize when the problem is manageable, from a credible source. There will always be the independent immortals that refuse to wear a mask, but this is manageable. Airplanes are manageable, but airports for international travel are another matter. It’s the intermingling with people of different standards. I will be watching the results of the summer tourists with interest.

So will I have to adapt? It’s all the same to me. Maybe I don’t deserve a Covid crisis because I didn’t suffer enough.

Connotative and Denotative

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 20:54:08 GMT

The events of the past 4 weeks have been the tipping point and I will no longer use the word ‘privilege’. I have been arriving at this change over the last several years as it has become a term to package a wide range of variables into one neat phrase - generic and abstract. It is a term applied to groups and, regardless of the individual’s behavior, is accusatory. Try to examine each part of the package and one is accused of victim blaming. Another neat phrase. It has become like religion or politics; question the basis and any conversation becomes a monologue of the slighted. Use this word while talking to me and, as of this moment, I will just walk away.

I never paid much attention to my native language but now that I’m an English teacher I should know alternatives. So let’s find a word that can be used neutrally. Advantage is often a word used to define privilege but the common usage of this term signifies that someone is oppressed and this needs redressing. Sorry, on so many levels, we are not born equal. Well, how about bias? Nope. Prejudicial, close-minded, unfair and is generally used to be provocative. Let’s get more precise: sexism, genderism, nationalism and all the rest of the ‘isms’. Now these are words that can apply to an individual. At the moment, they are not as inflammatory and this could lead to a chance of a dialogue.

Now we can discuss the pros and cons rationally. I have ‘tallism’. An advantage when I travel because I can put my luggage in the overhead bins. But then I am in a 32 inch space for the duration of the trip. ‘Sexism’? The boat is sinking and I’m expected to give the women and children the life boats. ‘Whiteism’? In Vietnam, I got the menu with the increased prices. ‘Nationalism’? I have heard my family would have to live in Switzerland for 4 generations before they didn’t stand out. ‘Genderism’ was a good word for discussion until the Canadians added the law of individual pronouns and now have a whole group of the entitled. At the moment I have ‘ageism’. When I was 20 years old and got the attention of the police and then responded with attitude, they would come down on me, hard. Now if I respond with attitude, I’m just a cranky, old geezer.

The "New" Normal

heidi@clicktocallmedia.com (Heidi Powell) — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 18:51:21 GMT

About 3% of the employed worked at home pre-Corona and they predict 30% will continue to work at home. There is already renewed interest in larger houses for his and her offices at the opposite ends of the house.

Now let’s combine this with the recent riots and pillage. The disruptions of the 60s and 70s (Watts, Rodney King) resulted in a flood of people moving to the peripheral communities. And as the people left, so did the businesses because there were fewer patrons at restaurants and news stands. Well, we’ve done it again, except this time there is telecommuting. “I wonder if I could live cheaper in Omaha than Seattle?” Those paying high rents for apartments in the city core have lost their entertainment as the restaurants and theaters disappear with their sense of security. This guts the tax base and so the tax rates will rise because of financial obligations like bonds, salaries of police and the general infrastructure. The commercial properties are abandoned and so the jobs of the maintenance workers, cleaners and retail clerks are gone. Think of Detroit and who was left behind. This is not racism but economics in action.

The business model of education is going to change to a combination of half the kids in class and the remainder on Zoom. The only missing instruction with on-line learning is social interaction. However the kids have already anticipated this with their faces buried into their smart phones, so is this such a loss? At present, in the States, 40% of the on-line students have not shown up and 15% have signed in twice or less in the past 8 weeks! The parents are going to have to assert pressure on their kids at home even if it means a parent works from home to monitor the situation. Schools cannot raise your kids.

The consensus seems to be it will take 10 years to recover to a pre-Covid economy, but is this realistically the “old normal”? Which airline, which retail chain, and which manufacturing company will survive? Will people get out of the habit of professional sports. This is management in a war economy. Will the consumer feel confident enough to buy or will we become our grandparents who were products of the Great Depression? Will introverts allow the world to return to normal? Will I ever touch my face again?

A Usual Retirement

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 18:41:23 GMT

This “normal” retirement is like Groundhog Day and doing some rough math, I have 3650 more mornings. I now have 2 forms of dressing. In the morning it is gray sweat pants and a golf shirt for Zoom meetings. In the evening it is more formal - black sweat pants.

A survey about 2017, found 28% of retirees noted isolation and loss of direction.

Well, Corona set the new standards for isolation but I have been doing work arounds. “Come on over for a BBQ”. In small groups, each sits at the opposite ends of the table, and if you keep your elbows off this table, there’s your 6 feet. Zoom cocktail hour is turning into a favorite, with the bonus of a mute button. An additional discovery is that you had better like the friends you have, because with the isolation, there is no getting out to expand your social contacts.

Using on-line sites to meet single people has it’s problems, but let’s consider the next progression and social distancing. Is this now going to be a zero-touch or even a touch-free relationship? “Yes, you can come over to my place because I have a spare hazmat suit and a long hallway with chairs at either end.” Can you even have a SO without vetting her possibly contagious friends and relatives? A vaccination cannot arrive soon enough.

Now, about the second. It really hasn’t changed but there are larger modifiers.

At present I’m not bored. I have 3 hours a week of on-line English classes in Moldova via Zoom and then I have a daily hour of Russian lessons with Yuri in Kyiv, again on Zoom. If the sun is out, late in the morning, I am off to repair the ignored vegetable garden into becoming productive. I am making it difficult by keeping the garden strictly chemical free and no-till by not using RoundUp and a rototiller. Instead, I annihilate the weeds with a string trimmer and black silage tarps. So that will take care of the summer, however, I know the winter rain is coming in November. I think this will be my ‘usual’ retirement chapter.

The raining days of June are a prelude to the winter rains. Local volunteering is out because there are no meetings and no hands-on helping. To fill in the day, I’ve been scanning the international news for some idea of what to expect from the countries that are re-opening for travelers. However, there will be a long observation period to see how the infection numbers work out.

Home Sweet Home it is. With a good WiFi connection, I am still in contact with a virtual world. I can continue English classes, take Russian language classes, and meet new people. I still have the two essentials - much to live on and much to live for.

And for time fillers, I am going to sculpt the perfect body with 6-pack Corona abs. Then I’m going to shave off my lockdown mustache because with my long hair, I look like a geriatric biker without the tattoos. I will also decide whether the babies born in 9 months will be called Coronials or Quaranteens.

Reality Check

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 11 May 2020 21:10:43 GMT

I have been following the international news and I have become a cynic of the message. There needs to be a frank admission that there has not been a situation like this since 1918 and those-that-want-to-be-elected are generally making it up as they go. Follow the science. This is an RNA virus and a vaccine for this is the equivalent to a vaccine for the common cold, HIV or Ebola. It is a totally new game and a safe vaccine won’t be in place for 18 months. Herd immunity simply means that a very large percentage of the population gets sick and a certain percentage will die. Possibly we could just hope that the virus mutates into something less lethal. If one can control the numbers that get sick, then the medical facilities will not be overwhelmed. Therefore the talking heads need to bluntly state that to get the economy back on track a certain percentage will die. Somewhere I read that I am worth $50,000 to the economy but they didn’t state if that was annual. I certainly hope it’s annual because the median cost for a hospitalized Covid patient is in the range of $15,000. So I am worth it!

If I am told that the situation is better and now life may resume, should I follow the inconsistencies? Will I be the first person in the water? Is someone just deciding the economy is more important than this individual? Every source is lying with numbers. Ukraine is easing the restrictions but emptied mental health facilities in order to have available beds. Belarus is treating the disease with ice hockey games, no social distancing and vodka. Where are the numbers? Sweden trusted their citizens to use common sense and now has “very high” excess deaths relative to Denmark and Norway.

Without a vaccine, this virus will probably become endemic. How good are the antibodies after an infection and how long would immunity last? It is not going to become a distant memory. So what is the new “normal”. Well, we could follow the Swedish model and trust that people will use their common sense. We found out how well that worked with the pool party in Missouri and the results will be available in 2 weeks. Are we prepared for rolling quarantines in which we get back to work and then get shut down when a co-worker goes to the beach and tests positive? We will learn the answer when Germany, Norway and Moldova open up the restrictions June 1. I am going to order some designer masks that I can wear for the next 2 years.

My Retirement Manifesto

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:48:56 GMT

It has been raining for the past 14 days. On my return, I sat down with enthusiasm to do my income tax - nope deadline is now mid-July. Property taxes - nope mid-July. No rush to do anything! Let’s think about this.

This is round 1 of the quarantine so I need some rules of engagement.

1. The stock market swooned and I took a large hit but I am still confident enough about my finances so I CAN volunteer. I have a minimum guaranteed income, flexible income to live a desired lifestyle and Nice-To-Have funds. I am very sorry for those that are unemployed and forced to use the food banks but my ability to make this situation better on such a large scale is limited. I will repair my vegetable garden and donate most of the produce to others in need this year instead of composting it as in prior years. Any contact with volunteer agencies is closed for the foreseeable future.

2. Think positively about aging. OK, I positively don’t like it. However I looked up some numbers about longevity. Up to 2 drinks a day (martinis) adds 10 -15% reduced risk of death. Check. Also 1 - 3 cups of coffee a day is good and, because I drink half decaf, that’s covered. Those who gain a little weight after retirement but are not obese live longer. Lightly check that box. About 45 minutes of exercise daily is optimal. OK, I need to look up the definition of exercise.

3. Expand your circle of friends. I looked into adopting a dog from a local shelter and found out I am too old so I couldn’t get a puppy - they don’t want it back when I die. Crap!

4. Develop a hobby - learn to cook more than basic food. Pulled out the Magic Cauldron, better known as a crock pot, and discovered a truth. You can’t cook for one. I now have a 5 gallon drum of leftovers.

5. Become an efficient spender. I’ll swallow my pride and make a list of, and insist on, senior discounts. Senior hour at the food store, however, is a tough crowd. Tried it once and almost got between 2 ladies having a cart crashing brawl as to which one had to move for the 6 foot distancing. I’m a coward.

6. Give up your Freedom of Face. The surgical masks I have at home I gave to the medical personnel and made myself a mask from an old t-shirt and a coffee filter. Felt very strange walking into the bank lobby with a mask. (I did have an appointment)

7. Keep a routine. First, check the day of the week, the date and who is president.

8. No alcohol before 4 PM in Your Present Time Zone.

9. Enjoy your own company. Maybe I am just antisocial enough that they had a lock down and I don’t notice the difference or maybe I just have a Quarantine Personality.

Corona and Me

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 20:19:39 GMT

We had been following the international news as the politicians struggled to balance science with economics and the Americans grabbed toilet paper. It hadn’t effected Moldova yet but the leaders were watching the scoreboard. At that time I was renewing my residential permit; got the same paperwork from 2 years prior updated and submitted it 6 weeks before the expiration. Nothing was done for 4 weeks and then they wanted more information and on every Friday meeting thereafter they added one more item for clarification.

Meanwhile, I am watching Europe shut down and begin an Italian style quarantine. Ukraine announced they were sealing their borders and Moldova suspended flights to and from Europe. Monday, March 9th, was a regular work day and then at 5PM, the Minister of Education suspended all schools for 10 days. Overnight I had nothing to do as Svetlana scrambled to put her classes on-line. The workers at the school site were sent home with the roof partially finished. I thought about what a quarantine means, looked around my 400 square foot studio apartment and headed for the exit.

I was going to return to Seattle April 4th via Kyiv. I cancelled those tickets and changed my flight from London. There were lots of warnings on the airline sites that any flights may be cancelled. I still had an appointment Friday the 13th with the resident permit people but they added another clarification and I wasn’t going to wait. Vladimir and Svetlana were worried about my risk of catching the virus, my being on the wrong side of the age curve and my Seattle destination being ground zero for the virus in the States. However, I had already been a guest at a Moldovan hospital and thought an American experience might be a change .

Sunday, I caught a flight to Istanbul then onward to London. The flight from Istanbul to LHR was full of British and Americans running home. Some swabbed down their sitting area, another covered all her area with plastic lined sheets that one uses to change diapers and another had a full hazmat suit that she didn’t remove. My flight to Seattle was Tuesday and so I killed the day in London. Eerily quiet. Portobello Street was closed but I found one open antique dealer who was originally from Italy, She was laughing that her sister in Milan could only go outdoors to exercise her dog. She was now renting her dog to her neighbors in 15 minute blocks of time and the dog was getting very thin.

The passengers on the plane to Seattle were all returning Americans who had had interrupted vacation plans. There was no service on the short flights to Istanbul and London to “protect the flight crew” but there was service from London to Seattle. The passengers reaction was all over; most had gloves and masks and I was sure another was trying to hold her breath. Immigration in Seattle was a form asking if you felt well, your seat number and they did a temperature scan. They handed me a form requesting the I self isolate for 2 weeks. This was fine with me because it rained for all but 3 days after my return. Stopping for food at Safeway on the way home was the first time I saw empty shelves.

Shortly after I left, Moldova ratcheted the shut down one click at time. All workers and their families were to stay in their apartment or house except for buying food. The police drove up and down every street, everyday, with loud speakers reminding people to stay indoors. All flights into Moldova were cancelled except for chartered planes returning citizens who had been working overseas and were now unemployed. This meant lots of people were arriving from Italy and there was no quarantine for them so they simply scattered to their homes all over the country. There were hospitalizations for pneumonia in Causeni and the 7 ICU beds were full - at one point all the beds contained sick physicians! Easter is probably the biggest celebration of the year and goes on for 10 days over 2 weekends. It was cancelled this year, even the blessing on Sunday morning before the sun rises. Instead, the priests drove around the town in a pickup truck and blessed those standing beside the road in front of their houses.

My source of news for the previous 4 months had been the BBC or CNN. American news and the internet was filed with drama, misleading information and conspiracy theories. Personally I like the Boomer Virus conspiracy in which the virus was made in a lab by Millennials to kill off my age group so they could buy our houses cheaply.

Report card (year 2)

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 11:00:18 GMT

Spoiler alert; I think I got it right …. to this point .... for me.

I no longer celebrate birthdays. If I don’t know when I was born then I don’t have to act my age. I don’t know about age appropriate; I take risks and accept the set backs with the successes. I hang around young people and do what they do - no happy hour dinners and no senior matinees. I’m not worried about my second childhood because I’m ‘way beyond that.

Leisure is a diversion from work: no schedule, no deadlines, no stress. There was no dwindling of my familiar way of life and then a change by default. It was an abrupt, planned change to new challenges - a new profession, new language, different environment. I returned to Bellingham in mid-October with 4 jobs to do. It was raining and cold when I arrived and when I left. I made the various appointments and then waited for the scheduled time. As I worked my way through the job list, I found myself saving a job so I would have something to do the next day. Cutting grass doesn’t take as much time as I seemed to remember from when I had a deadline to get it done on the weekends. Now a small job expanded to fill the day. One of the jobs was raking up the fall leaves. There was a 4 day break in the weather and I tackled the yard like a starving man. Suddenly I found a challenge - how high a pile of leaves could I make? It was self- imposed out of boredom. I couldn’t wait to get back on the plane and return to activities which are rejuvenating and motivating.

Meaningful is difficult to measure, and the end result may not be known for years. How ever there have been a few bright spots. One of the students, who is sincerely motivated to learn English, entered an international contest and part of the testing was conversation. So we spent weekends talking with her and she placed 23rd. Another student had a serious lack of self confidence. I just nudged her along over a 2 year period and she now wishes to be a translator. A third was confused about university courses when she finished the public school here. She didn’t feel she could compete with students from the big city. Several pep talks and she is now in a university engineering degree. Small pleasures but a warm fuzzy feeling.

I never felt my identity was linked to my job so the transition to being an English tutor or glorified teacher’s aide was seamless. I did get a TEFL certificate for appearances, but most of my training was hands-on. Slow my speech, no slang, try to recognize when the students are bored and then change the approach. Students like expected routine so do not go off topic with extra information even though you find it interesting. It’s showtime, so try to remain enthusiastic and don’t sigh. I am becoming an educator.

If anything, my world is getting larger and I have more international interests. There is a stalemate civil war going on 25 miles away, and the Crimea is just a little farther down the road than that. Lots of countries are trying to nibble away Ukraine, both the eastern and western borders, and so there are daily updates. All this is novel to me as I was raised in unappreciated security.

I think I am preparing the basis for a long term legacy. The public educational system here is substandard by any measurement and so I am financing a school building. Up to date audio-visual, a library of English books and hopefully a computer lab in nice surroundings, with Wifi. There is room to expand the number of classrooms as presently there are more students applying than there are available positions. The students will have every preparation, but they will have to supply the grit.

There are downsides.

Realistically, I knew that friends would continue their lives and have little time for me when I reappeared after a long absence. I hadn’t considered the extent of these changes. The retirees who move out of the area to be closer to their families or turn into snow birds and spend their winters in the sunbelt areas. Those who stayed are either attending all their grandchildren’s athletic events or are part-time nannies for the grandchildren and are stuck in this routine without time to play with me. The younger friends are on a circuit of PTA meetings and soccer practices, so dropping in on them is not going to happen either.

I make sure that I have structured time with deadlines. I have discovered that if I do not intentionally make this effort, I can be a world class procrastinator and just idle along. I have not discovered the addiction of video games nor binge watching TV series, but I did watch very video clip on YouTube that involved ice hockey. I have guilted myself into not doing that again by finding on-line Russian language tutorials.

I was warned about being isolated in a ‘foreign country’ by several people and I think they were talking about female companionship. I am not interested in joining the family of a female my age - her kids, her grandchildren and their activities, her hobbies. The younger women are still getting their kids launched and again I am not interested in reliving teenaged angst. But I am not alone and do have a family - Svetlana, Vladimir and 300 or so kids of various ages. I find myself getting into their lives. There is a memorable line in the movie “Good-bye, Mr. Chips” (1939). It is the story of a life-long teacher in a boys school. When Mr. Chips was on his death bed, someone stated it was a “pity that he had no children”. He replied “But I have had thousands of them”.

Lessons Learned

heidi@clicktocallmedia.com (Heidi Powell) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:42:05 GMT

1. If you are living for a period of time in a non-English speaking country, learn some phrases in the local language quickly and get good at body language. The locals will enjoy correcting you and appreciate your interest in their culture.

2. Match your personality to the activity. I have not spent any time contemplating my personality….. I just knew that sitting around wasn’t going to work. Two years later I am pleased with the choice because it is a new challenge in a field I know nothing about, it is variable day-to-day and having to remain alert to cultural differences allows no down time.

3. Limit your cyberspace or TV time. Use the screen for reading, information, or keeping in contact through emails, but avoid video games or endless Facebook time because it is addicting.

4. Busy work fills time but for most people it is not fulfilling. I think I am using my strengths to cause something positive. Happiness is not a goal but a consequence of fulfillment. But how do you measure this? I am still working on a score card.

5. Maintain a schedule or regular structure. At minimum, retirement is slightly disorienting as one loses track of time ( “what day of the week is it”, “when is dinner”) but this schedule should not control my life. So I set a goal or priority and when that is reached, then have a period of no obligation such as wandering around Kyiv until I’m bored then I return to another goal.

6. Always, always make time for physical exertion. It is said you lose 5% of your muscle mass per decade from 30 years old onward. But now research seems to think you can actually increase it with strengthening exercises without the use of anabolic steroids. About 1 degree of flexion is lost yearly but one can even recover some of this by daily stretches which will improve posture and decrease injuries. This is very real.

7. Do not abandon your home base. This is not the territory where I would want a serious medical problem or long term care. There is some comfort in having a place of refuge.

8. Keep reconsidering your priorities of all the above.

Kyiv, the tour

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 11:51:35 GMT

The highway into the city from Boryspil Kyiv Airport is well maintained and lined with new buildings that contain car dealerships from all over the world. There are a dozens of cranes in any direction you look erecting multistory apartments., but not as many as Minsk. I stayed at the Holiday Inn just south of the city center and within easy walking distance of the core. It was just across the street from a walled and guarded military base. - possibly Ukrainian border guards.

The hotel clients were Western European, Oriental and Turkish businessmen and they were all busy. I spent several evenings drinking with a New York realtor who had left Ukraine 25 years before and was making his annual visit to the friends he had left behind. He tipped well as a way to distribute his success and was bringing lots of gifts back to his village to share his good fortune. Interesting story as he arrived in NY speaking no English and simply worked his way up by hard work. His wife was visiting her family in Riga. Spent some evenings with a retired DEA officer from Yakima who was consulting with the Ukrainian government working on their constitution.

Monday morning, the guide, Yuri, found me. Yuri was raised in a Russian military family mainly in the Kamchatka Peninsula. We walked around the highlights of the city center - the churches, the Golden Gate, and various museums. It took a while for me to realize that these churches were only 250 years old as the city had been sacked or destroyed many times. They were often rebuilt from the original plans and incorporated what was left of the original foundation. The museums ranged from fossils to Soviet style toys and school books. We walked past Soviet style housing and past very high end houses owned by the oligarchs. Yuri had lots of energy but was solicitous and kept asking if I was tired from walking. I wasn’t tired but we stopped multiple times for coffee so I could get some insight into the culture and to get the history in some sort of sequence.

The buildings in the central area are a mixture of 1880s French architecture and the building next door is Soviet functional because it is sitting on a lot where the previous building was destroyed during the last war. One doesn’t see Soviet 4 story block apartments until you are well out of the city core. These need cleaning and a paint job but no major repairs. There are 3 high-end shopping malls downtown amongst the older markets and stalls. These malls are populated with high end stores.

Another day of tours of heritage buildings. There is an outdoor museum started by an individual to preserve the past. The site is large enough that film companies use the buildings as scenes for historical movies. There is a large collection of non-working wooden windmills, a small village of preserved houses of various social status - adobe (mud and straw) one room houses shared with livestock to wooden houses of 3 rooms. Each house had a tended yard but mainly grew roses. The most interesting never-thought-of-it was the “courting house”. Ever wondered how the boys and girls got together during courtship? There is a house for that and then it is later used as a place for the parents to negotiate the terms of the marriage. ?bride price? We then went to the Cossack Village. The fort was vertical poles with sharpened ends as is seen in the western US and Canada and battlements on the inside. There is a reproduction Orthodox church and farm buildings. When I left I was still not sure what a Cossack really was.

It was suggested that I do not attend the Independence Day Parade due to possible violence. So, Yuri has a dacha in a village 90 minutes outside Kyiv that he used to use for visiting tourists and we travelled there. There is a large reservoir on the road there but very few boats were using it inspite of the hot weather. We spent the afternoon cooking a Cossack meal on an open flame with a cooking pot. It was based on hominy. There was a horse paddock and stalls and we had long discussions of how to shoot a rifle accurately from a moving horse.

We also visited ‘The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War’ at the base of The Motherland Monument. The Monument is a 52 meter free-standing statue, the largest in the world. (take that! Statue of Liberty) The lobby of the museum was taken up by vehicles shot up or destroyed in the present civil war around Donesk, with pictures of the soldiers who were driving these vehicles. It is much more thorough than the similar museum in Minsk with more national rather than Soviet artifacts. There is also an outdoor display of all the motorized tanks and vehicles from WW2.

I found another museum in the hills overlooking the Dneiper that few Kyivians know exists. It was a storage area for armaments inside a fortress on the hill that overlooks the Olympic Sports Center. The museum there is a large collection of military uniforms through the ages and the weapons used. It is worth the trip.

I requested we stop at Babi Yar, the site of the mass murders of Jewish citizens, Russian soldiers, Romana and Ukrainian citizens. The name ‘old woman’s ravine, has been around for 500 years. It was variously an orthodox Christian and a Jewish cemetery. It was first used for executions by the Soviets of Ukrainian intellectuals and nationalists prior to WW2.

Yuri and I discussed the atrocities of one ‘civilization’ against humanity. The pogroms through the ages, the Settlement of Pale limiting Jewish residence to a particular area, to the outright expulsion of these citizens. There is the Hunger Plan of Stalin denying food to the population of Kiev with the resulting mass starvation of hundreds of thousands, the forced evacuation of the citizens to labor camps and concentration camps. I asked him about his feelings of the massacres of so many citizens or their banishment to gulags and he stated that “some had to die so those left could advance civilization”. I am still searching for a reply.

A question

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 11:32:15 GMT

Do you spend your time thinly as a tutor for many kids or do you concentrate on one kid and give them a quality education by bringing them back to Bellingham? And then have the kid reject your efforts and go their own way? I admit I have heard more stories of the second scenario.

As people have become accustomed to me, I hear the parents say they would prefer to send their kids to a university outside of Moldova where they can get a quality degree, universally recognized. To do this, the kids should be speaking almost native English as this is the universal language of instruction in a number of Western European and North American universities. The public schools and Svetlana’s school teach to the Bac or baccalaureate exam that is taken to get out of grade 12. It is academic or book English, not conversational. To enter an American university, you need to pass the TOEFL exam and 30% of the grade is conversational English. The only way to get conversational English is total immersion in an English speaking country.

The American government sponsors a number of selected students (?20) for a high school exchange year with an American family and these kids return with an excellent grasp of conversational English. It is called the FLEX program, and entery into it is by examination and interviews with obscure standards - it is competitive. But what about the kids who don’t make the cut? How difficult would it be too privately sponsor a student? I live in a large house, I already pay Bellingham school taxes, and the bus stop to school is 200 yards away. But, I am a single male. Is there a way around the dirty- old- man label if this student should live with me? Am I prepared to go through the teenaged habit again of thinking they’re independent, and rebelling?

Schools in Western Washington take pride in diversity. Oh, really?

Bellingham schools only accept students from 9 programs in the country and these are on the State Department web site. These programs also provide over seerers for the host family and the foreign students, which means they like the kids to remain local. The closest approved program is in Idaho. The school classes also have to be baccalaureate approved so they meet international standards and the credit can be transferred world wide. There are only 2 classes in Bellingham, grades 4 and 5, and the closest high schools that are Bac approved are in Mukilteo and Bellevue. So it seems I would have to adopt the kid in order to get it a local education.

Consequences

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 07:42:38 GMT

Moldovans are the biggest consumers of alcohol in the world at 18 liters of pure ethanol per citizen and this is 3 times the global average. Most of this is home brewed wine, beer and spirits.The UK came in 11th at 13 liters, most of which was beer. The life expectancy of men is 57 years and that of women is 71 years or 10 years less than Italy or France. Is it culture or despair?

This is a cash society: cash cards or lei, and nobody, not even the bank workers, has heard of a check. Half the cash I use for purchases is not declared to the taxman. I had no problem transferring large sums into my personal bank account but when it came time to take it out, the bureaucracy habit kicked in and I was asked how it was going to be spent. I debated telling her “it was none of her business” but I mumbled a vague answer instead. The answer was not recorded on any form that I saw; just bureaucratic nosiness and intimidation. The banks failed in 1991 and then 1 billion dollars was stolen from the banks about 5 years ago. Some minor people got jailed but the main oligarch is known to be living in Miami without any consequences. So the people stuff their mattresses with idle funds.

Everyone admits that the public educational system needs drastic improvement but there is no money because the tax system doesn’t bring in enough funds. The teachers are under paid without any professional respect from the population. The system has barely progressed from the Soviet habit of seniority and tenured positions, so their effort is indifferent. The degrees from the universities are not recognized in the West and it is common knowledge that your grades can be bought. However the Minister of Education gets upbeat reports of how well the system is doing, totally ignoring that this relative to a standard set 30 years ago. It is delusional.

The outlying villages have schools to grade 9 and then the students continue high school in Causeni but they have to get there by public bus. If the student cannot afford the bus ticket, then his education stops. There is a lack of qualified teachers in the villages and rarely is there an English teacher. If a 15 year old student is sent to a high school English class, he may not have had any English instruction but he is put in with his age group who may have taken English for 8 years. Parents realize this problem. Some students move to Causeni for the week and live in BNB, some are shipped to Chisinau for the school semester and some are sent to Romania to live with relatives and finish high school.

Ukrainian history

heidi@clicktocallmedia.com (Heidi Powell) — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:03:36 GMT

First some ground rules. Now that the country is an independent recognized state it is called Ukraine. THE Ukraine is the Russian name for the Borderland province. The capital is KYIV as Kiev is the Russian name.

Ukraine, the Borderland, is the western edge of the Western Russian Steppe and nomads were unhindered by natural barriers in their travels. These nomads wandered into the area from Thrace (Cimmerians, Bulgaria, Greece), Scythians (Persia), Sarmatians (Persia), Alans, Goths (Germanic) Huns, Bulgars and Avars. Each dominating the previous. Tribes of Slavs from present Poland and Slovakia settled the western portion and the Turkic Khazars the eastern portion and the Dneiper River was the center. Then the Swedish Vikings arrived down the rivers as traders and became the Varangians or Rus, as they called themselves. They were the rulers but were slavicized and evolved into the Kievan Rus and these ruled the area until the Muscovy Romanov dynasty in the 1600s. There are 18 distinct groups that make up the citizens of present day Ukraine.

The conquering Varangians brought cohesion to the East Slavs in their kingdom and these were the Kievan Rus. There was forced conversion, at the point of a sword, of the citizens to Christianity in 988 AD. The elite Varangians and the Slavic land-owning boyars were united by a common language, Church Slavonic. There were books in this language and a codified set of laws was written in this language. The peasants still spoke Old East Slavic.

Internal fighting weakened the Kievan Rus and then came the “Golden Horde” or Mongols who conquered the eastern area and Kyiv . The western area became Galicia and formed alliances with the areas of Poland, Hungary and Romania. Some peoples fled Galicia because the Poles, who were Roman Catholic, persecuted the Christian Orthodox religion and formed Ruthenia to the east. The Galicians come under the Western influence of Poland, Austria and Muscovy and the eastern bank came under Tsarist rule.

Cossacks were freemen beyond the rule of the tsar and banded together for self protection in the frontier to the south and west. They were only linked to Ruthenia by language and religion and were defenders of the Ukrainian Orthodox faith. They were the refuge of peasants fleeing the Huns, serfdom in Poland or Russia or the actual slavery of Turks. Because of this diversity, they developed a tradition of equality with a democratically elected leader of each district who then elected an overseer of all. The tsar crushed the Cossack state and Russian imperialism lasted until 1991. Galicia was eventually transferred from Poland to the Habsburg Empire.

The Romanovs began Russification of the area by granting the Cossack elites ‘noble status’ but the peasants retained their unique identity through folk traditions. A broad number of peoples migrated to “New Russia” so the urban and industrial areas became culturally Russian. Galacia, because it was not culturally repressed by the Austrians, maintained Ukrainian nationalism through literature written in the vernacular. After WW1, Galacia was returned to Poland and the Red Army conquered the territory of Ukraine.

After a brief period of ethnic tolerance by the USSR, the Soviets organized a famine in 1932-33. Ukraine survived this and the atrocities of WW2 that followed, and post-war Ukraine thrived economically with a Russian overseer. The population was Russified again but when the USSR collapsed, the Cossack heritage of democracy, liberalism and religion resurged. In 1991, for the first time, there was a Ukrainian citizen.

Kyiv history

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 10:25:39 GMT

I think this is the sequence. This is a natural place to put a city. The hills are defendable and the Dnieper River in the valley is a major trading route from Constantanople to the Baltic Sea. Kiev is a city that keeps rebuilding itself as various armies plundered and pillaged it. Founded as a Slavic town, it was conquered by the Swedish Vikings (Varangians) who gradually became slavicized. It was the center of the Kievan Rus and was burned at various times as the Varangian rulers fought for control with each other but was then was completely destroyed by the Mongols. The city was then marginalized by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Grand Duchy of Moscow and lastly the Russian Empire. It was Christian Orthodox from 988 after the citizens underwent forced baptism at the point of the sword but the city became a center of Orthodoxy and preserved this religion from Polish Catholics and the atheist Soviet Union. It prospered from the Industrial Revolution and remained an industrial center after the Russian Revolution. The city was destroyed again in World War 2 but was rebuilt. One can still see the architectural contrast between the repaired buildings of the 1850s architecture next to a new Soviet functional building.

The appearance of the citizens on the street of central Kiev is not the same as central Minsk. Whereas the Minsk citizens are stylishly dressed, the Kievans are more haute couture, whose work clothes are American party clothes. The hair dyes are more subdued than Minsk but the tattoos are complete arm sleeves in bright colors. Hair is styled and the fingernails well maintained. They may be riding electric scooters or wheels, but the footwear is high style. Young business men are wearing tight tailored suites with pants down to the mid calf so they can show off the tattoos covering their lower legs and nobody wore visible socks. I saw a blouse with a bar code 3 inches high across the back from shoulder to shoulder. Nope, it was a tattoo seen through a very thin blouse. My iPhone wouldn’t read it.

The Gulliver and Ocean Malls were high end clothing stores with western prices. These people put a lot of money into their cars. The hotel wages were about $500 per month but they had to commute by bus and tram 90 minutes to work because they couldn’t afford the apartments closer to the town center. Some the girls augmented their salaries turning tricks, but because they had day jobs they didn’t consider themselves prostitutes. There were photo shoots all over town. I was walking down a major street in the central area when I glanced at a guy artistically putting a piece of thin fabric around the feet of a manikin. Took 2 more steps and thought the manikin looked very real and it was the front of a restaurant. I looked back and it was a full nude photoshoot on the main street at 10 AM. Very cosmopolitan.

Summer travels

heidi@clicktocallmedia.com (Heidi Powell) — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 09:53:19 GMT

Well, that didn’t work out. I scheduled 2 weeks of immersion Russian in an English school where there would be 4 hours of classroom instruction in the morning and then you wander around in the afternoon with a tutor speaking in Russian - street Russian. There were not enough instructors so they cancelled my 2 weeks. I now have tickets and reservations for 2 days in Minsk so I then made arrangements for 10 days in Kyiv.

Minsk was very hot and a different picture than February. It was summer with crowds of people walking in the central parks - locals and a few tourists. Well kept flower beds, grass cut with mowers and everything repaired. One gets several blocks from the main roads and things are more standard Khrushchev Soviet apartments that need a cleaning and a coat of paint; but no real structural repairs are needed. I walked to the National Library building and through the adjacent mall. People were buying things, were well dressed and there were new apartments going up all over that section of town (it is on the road out to the airport). The roads were in good repair. And washed down daily. The girls in the central core of the town had very bright dyed-hair colors and were moderately stylishly dressed. Met a guy in the hotel who was a resident of Toronto but was designing video games in the Philippines and had been transferred to Minsk for 3 months. They are starting home grown computer applications. The cab into town was twice as expensive as the cab back to the airport.

There was an amusing incident at Minsk Airport security. The screener wanted the paperwork for my pacemaker and couldn’t speak a word of English. I had lost the paperwork a year ago but a female in uniform noted the incident and brought me around the magnetic detector. She then looked around for a male to frisk me but none was available. I talked her into doing the pat down. Finally, a female rub down. Success! You gotta love the Belarusians.

The trip to Kyiv was the best trip I’ve had in years. Got row 1 and an aisle seat, the guy next to me was an American professional photographer and interesting to talk to, my luggage was the first off the plane and customs almost waved at me as I went through. The cab driver was very honest and he got a very good tip in Euros. This was a good way to start a visit; the gods seemed to be smiling.

My perspective (18 months)

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 07:21:27 GMT

Low fertility rates and outward migration have resulted in a population loss in Moldova, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Lithuania of more than 20% in the last 20 years. Belarus and Ukraine are on a similar path but it is not as steep. The families cannot afford to replace themselves with more children and the employment prospects are better elsewhere. It is estimated that 1 million people work outside Moldova and more than half are women 15 to 44 years old - the breeding age. The divorce rate is over 50% and the birth rate has fallen 6% in the last decade. So who is left? Those without job skills sufficient to compete, the physically disabled and the elderly. Are these the citizens voting to return to a failed Soviet system for an increased sense of security?

The culture expects the off-spring to be the caretakers of the parents; your family is your pension plan. Yes there is a minor government pension but it is not enough for a month’s food much less utility bills and clothes. There is no social safety net such as nursing homes for the elderly who can no longer work their gardens nor gather wood for the winter heat and so they must rely on a lifetime of friends and money sent from overseas. There are not enough skilled workers who would get good wages and then pay taxes to support the social safety net. Causeni has 3.3 family physicians per 10,000 people and the WHO standard is 7.2; and 27% of these remaining medical personel are past retirement age. The rest have emigrated for a higher standard of living. There is a reason this country is not being flooded with refugees from the Levant - there is no welfare.

What about the overseas workers? The women are the maids and caregivers to the elderly in Italy, Israel, Turkey and Spain. The men are the laborers and semi-skilled construction workers on sites in Moscow, Romania, Italy, Ukraine and Portugal. I read that 150 Moldovans were killed erecting the Olympic facilities in Sochi. This work is dangerous and there are no basic safety standards. Daily, I watch workers in Causeni cutting steel or concrete blocks without any eye or face protection, inches from the blade, with a mental cringe. They all wear flip-flops on the construction site. What percentage of these workers send home sufficient money to support their families? How many just start new lives in their new countries and erase previous commitments?

Those Moldovans that survived the genocidal policies of the Soviet system have fond memories of the security of the ’80’s. Free apartments for the workers and a car if you were especially productive. A yearly vacation to the Black Sea, money in the bank if you were careful, and a good government pension with a smaller but free apartment when you retired. The Soviet Empire disappeared overnight in 1991 and Moldovans arrived at the bottom with a jolt. In the morning your bank account was gone, the cows on the communal farms were stolen and the machinery was looted. Your job and seniority were gone and the means of production didn’t exist. After 80 odd years of being told what to do, suddenly one now had to make decisions for themselves. You could buy your apartment but the bank account was gone. Life was now supported by your network of people you trusted. The ‘elected’ officials were the same people that were close to the power in the Soviet system but now they just had a different title and grabbed the state owned assets. . Additionally, the massive bureaucracy remained with corruption and bribes. The last 30 years has been stagnant.

Moldovans had an agricultural economy with some industrial production in the area of Transnistria. They marketed their products in Russia, but then they showed an interest in joining the European Union. Russian customs agents found any sort of reason to prevent the products from crossing the border and the economy was slowly strangled. Russia also increased the price of natural gas as further punishment. Then the Russian population that was the major ethnic group in the south eastern region (Transnistria) decided to secede and join Russia and this lead to a limited regional civil war. Most recently Russia wanted a year round port into the Black Sea and, with the help of the ethnic Russian majority, took over the Crimea region. This also served as a Russian buffer zone.

There is great attachment to the land, a patriotic pride of ownership of the land, but 50% of the population would like to leave. So the kids are left by themselves in the family home or raised by indulgent grandparents and are envied by their peers because of their stylish clothes and electronics paid for with money from overseas. About 16% of the Moldovan GDP is from money sent back from overseas but it is spent on consumption and not the means of production. To add some perspective, in 2018, the military budget was 3.1% of the American GDP. About 30% of the emigrants return to Moldova after having left ‘permanently’ because the reality didn’t match the dream.

Culture and Celebration

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:13:24 GMT

Easter is probably the most important celebration of the year among the Eastern Orthodox. I was informed that my attendance at church was expected but it wasn’t what I anticipated. It was a blend of religion and culture. One got the impression that the rituals had been around for centuries and had survived the attempts of the Soviets to eliminate it.

People make this trip home for Easter, and their ancestors, from wherever they may be in the world for this is a 2 weekend Easter celebration. However, most do not know the location of their ancestors beyond 3 generations back as there was forced migration from other Slavic areas and they lost contact with their origins.

The ritual is roughly like this. The house gets a total cleaning on Wednesday and Thursday, no surface is untouched. Then there is 2 days of cooking special foods for the feasting after the services. This is a solemn occasion without loud talking, joking and such. The lighting of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem is televised on Saturday and the flight of all the aircraft carrying the flame to all points of the world is monitored. (Must give the FAA major concern). Services inside the church begin at 23:00 and end at about 03:00 Saturday night to Sunday morning, hymns and liturgies. But most of the faithful congregate around the outside of the church in places that they have stood with their families all their lives. In Causeni it was 2 concentric circles around the outside of the church. Everyone brings a basket with candles, bread and other important things which they place on the ground in front of them to be blessed. The candles are light from the Holy Fire brought from Jerusalem. The procession starts at 03:00 down the path between the circles, lead by men carrying icons such as one sees on church walls and in homes but these are on poles. There was also one cross on a pole. The priest then walks behind the leaders using a sheave of reeds, like a broom, which he dips into a pail of water and flings this water over the people of the outer circle to his right and then reverses his route and waters the people of the inner circle. Any candles doused by the water are re-lite from the Holy Fire of others. It is finished before sunrise. Then everyone goes home to rest. Later in the morning the feasting begins with dishes that seem to be more cultural than religious.

The next Sunday is Easter for the Dead. One goes to the cemetery during the week after Easter services and cleans up the ancestors’ graves by pulling weeds and adding a layer of soil. On Sunday they bring bread, wine and small gifts to the graves of their ancestors, put the bread on the grave, give small gifts to passersby in remembrance of the ancestors and then drink wine from a small glass after spilling some of it on the grave. There is no mention of any personal stories of the ancestors but people wait for the appearance of friends who are visiting their ancestors, to catch up, as they may not have seen them in the last year. There is pity for the graves that are not cleaned up as it is felt that the descendants don’t care. It seems to be a cultural thing that nobody discusses death, even at a time removed from Easter and definitely not in the cemetery itself.

The cemetery in Causeni is on a hillside overlooking the valley and the gravestones date back to about 1850.

After the cemetery, one goes home for more cultural food and the exchange of small memorial gifts.

Because of the dates of Easter, Victory Day followed on Thursday. This is the celebration of the Nazi defeat in WW2 and no mention is made of the Soviet presence that followed. After the morning military celebration the afternoon is Moldova Day. The day after is a holiday but no one can remember why. Maybe завтра Day (translation: tomorrow).

Nuances of Culture

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 15:47:44 GMT

The kids saw me for the first 3 days after I had returned to Moldova and then I disappeared for 2 weeks. One asked Svetlana where I was and another kid answered that I didn’t like Moldova and had left. These kids are sensitive to anything that feeds their inferiority complex. They interpret the visiting English speakers as leaving because they don’t like Moldova. When I announce that I am leaving to take care of business in the States, they want reassurance about when I will return.

One of the more advanced students, an adult, asked me again (for the 4th time) what I was doing in Moldova when I had the resources to go anywhere in the world. I gave her the same answer as the previous times. I am here by choice. She still won’t accept that answer. There is an embedded belief that everything is better elsewhere, particularly in the West. I have tried to tell them that they are starting a new country, put in the effort to get it right, but they feel hopeless against the system of corruption. I tried the line of doing it to improve the lifestyle of their grandchildren but then they reply that they would like to improve their own lifestyles and I can’t disagree with that.

I follow an internet feed called Quorum in which people pose a question and it is answered by individuals from all over the world. Someone asked if it was better to go to medical school in Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus or Russia. All 50 replies said not to go to medical school in Eastern Europe as the degree was not recognized anywhere in the western world and there were no jobs in their countries. It wasn’t worth the effort.

I think people are becoming accustomed to me as a foreigner. I am hearing more discussion about sending the kids to university in the West where the degree is worth something because the university system in Moldova is corrupt. Apparently, one bribes the professor with cash before the exam or you will fail, regardless of how well you know the material. I have only heard stories like this, of parents bribing the teacher for good grades, from Saudi Arabia. I suppose now we can add the States after hearing of the admission scandals involving the elite universities. Except for donating money for a new building with the expectation of benefits for their offspring, our system is more transparent and if you are caught the penalties will be harsh.

I believe the difference is the West has a more level playing field than the East and that has been evolving since the signing of the Magna Carta. The corruption is a legacy of the Soviet system and its beaurocracy. The question is how to clean up the establishment of these countries peacefully, without beheading a few heads of state.

If these kids are going to foreign universities then they need to speak almost native English because it is the language of instruction. There is an American sponsored program of high school exchanges. A select number of students go to a home in the States for 1 year and return speaking native English. They are then more likely to get into Western universities. However, they all take ‘soft subjects’, for example international studies where they are essentially networking and complaining of the stressful academic load of 5 hours of lectures a week! Am I just making it easier for the better students to leave the country? I dunno. Back to work

Things improve

Tue, 21 May 2019 22:43:13 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

It was a teaching hospital and on Monday they appeared. I was assigned a nice but slightly nervous female resident who spoke rather good English. There was no physical exam though she did listen briefly to my chest after I pulled my shirt up and she did inquire about my other meds. She never asked if I was still taking them (they were in my shaving kit and I was self-administering them). She checked my temperature with an axillary (armpit) thermometer and popped an oximeter on me while she took my blood pressure. The only sputum sample taken was the beet stained sample taken at the original hospital 3 days before and the culture or microscopic results never showed up. Axillary temperatures were also taken by the nurses. They pulled the thermometer out of a pocket and I kept wondering who had used it before me because I saw no sterilization.

The resident informed me I could walk around, even outdoors, but to use the stairs because there was no draft in the elevator and she was worried about me picking up something in the air. God bless her, she typed in the password, in Cyrillic, for the WiFi system and so I rejoined the world. I was given a face mask but my wearing it was voluntary. So I wandered around the hospital grounds where only half the patients were wearing face masks. The hospital was on a busy street in downtown Chisinau and the patients were out in the streets, among the regular citizens, buying food and cigarettes, with or without a face mask. If a really sick patient needed to go to another building for additional tests, then his friends tied him onto a stretcher and the 4 manhandled him out of the hospital, through the grounds and into the other laboratory.

I am feeling good, losing weight, getting hours of naps, all my lab work is good, my oxygen saturation is 99% and I’m ready to go home. I was then informed that they needed to check my pacemaker. They haven’t put a stethoscope to my heart yet, but whatever. I get a resident escorted trip down the street to the cardiology building and again go to the front of the line. Everything is the same as it was a year ago and I have 8 years left on my battery. .

The next day was Thursday and it is grand rounds with the head of the hospital. I am half asleep and in marches 15 female residents (apparently the males are on a surgical rotation), a female head resident and the director. Crap. As I am scrambling to sit up it occurs to me that I haven’t had a shower in 6 days, haven’t gotten out of my clothes in 6 days, and my hair is standing straight up with enough grease to lube a car.

The head is a cardiologist, very personable and his English was good. Once he found out I was a physician from Seattle that was the end of discussing my problem. It turns out he had just returned from Olympia where his son works as a cardiologist. (We could have been on the same plane). But he felt I should stay to get some spirometry done. About 30 minutes later the resident returned and walked me down the hall to see the head of the Institute. He shooed out the residents, closed the door and asked if I minded some talk. Hell, at that point I would talk to anyone. We discussed the natural wonders of Washington State from the Canadian border to Portland and Mt St Helens, practicing medicine in the States and his return to visit his grandson again. I invited him to visit me on his next trip. It turned out that I was the first American in the institute (?first one that survived?) so we had a photo shoot of me and the boss, and me and the residents, for posterity.

The next day I have my spirometry in a different building and I walked there escorted by my personal resident. We pre-paid for the test ($5.00) and I went to the head of the line of 20 people. Again, I’m feeling awkward but they had bland faces as they stared at the obvious foreigner. But the test was good, that box was ticked and then they informed me I wouldn’t be discharged that day because they needed more tests. I am now getting the impression that they are thinking of reasons to keep me.

The waiting room for spirometry was an eye opener. In Eastern European fashion, those that were wearing masks, pulled them to one side and spat on the floor. A lady with a pail of what smelled of chlorine, walked up and down the hall, took her ladle and drowned each patch of sputum.

The next morning they drew 4 tubes of blood and I waited, packed and ready. My personal resident escorted me to the cashier window in another building after I had exchanged US dollars for lei. I got a receipt, found my way back to the ward, gave it to the nurse and walked out with my X-rays and some follow up oral prescriptions. I left the hospital before I called Vladimir for a ride home because I was afraid they would find another reason to keep me. However they already had 2 more people in face masks in the other beds before I got my luggage out.

I posed some gentle questions to the residents about the state of medicine in Moldova and it was interesting. One had a mother who was a physician and realized the limitations of the system she would be working with for the next 40 years. The head of the institute is a political job and the last head tried to change procedures and was gone for rocking the boat. However, if I was in an impoverished country with limited funds for a system that expected free care I’m not sure what I would do differently.

The initial ambulance, 5 outpatient days, the second ambulance, 7 hospital days, the cardiology consult, and the adventure came to $107 USD. The relief of getting out, priceless.

PTSD and TP

Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Two days later I get moved to a different wing. They cleared out a 3 bed room of the 2 occupants, moved them next door, and I got the customary stained mattress with stuffing showing through at the corners. They covered the sag in the middle with a stained, thin cushion and then covered both with a sheet. They pulled the stuffing out of the duvet that one of the displaced had been using and covered it with a clean cover. And the adventure continued. I spent the next 4 days listening to the 2 displaced patients hacking and coughing in the room next door and thinking that I had not seen the walls and other surfaces sterilized.

Because the majority were there with active TB, I was in almost reverse isolation for the next 48 hours, still getting IV push antibiotics and the 90 minute Vitamin C drip twice daily. Each treatment with a new stick with a metallic needle which was pulled out when finished. All from the meds I bought at the pharmacy in Causeni and brought with me. No WiFi but Vladimir did pack some books, organic juice and apples for me.

I felt I was safer keeping my clothes on and lying on the top of the duvet. I slept off and on listening to the 2 displaced guys next door go through some serious productive coughing episodes all day. But, this was the VIP section and I had my own room.

For lack of anything better to do, I began running comparisons; Eastern medicine versus the 5 star system I was familiar with. There was no ID bracelet on anyone. Twice daily the med nurse came in with a tray loaded with little shot glasses full of meds and a piece of paper with a name on it stuck inside the glasses and demanded “Familia” or my surname. My name wasn’t in the glasses and so she left.

Breakfast 09:00, and the “dietician” delivered a cup of sour cream or a bowl of possibly oatmeal with the obligatory 2 pieces of bread covering the top and she kept the bread in place with 2 thumbs, ungloved. She placed it on the unsterilized night stand, did almost a curtsy to the foreign VIP, and backed out of the room. Lunch was about 15:00 and was some sort of soup with the bread as a cover for the bowl held in place with the same thumbs, no gloves. I did wonder where else those thumbs had been. My table was the night stand for the bed and this was never wiped down. There was no dinner.

When one is getting IV’s, you become acquainted with bathrooms. Mine was just outside the room. The toilette had no lid nor seat, no cover for the guts of the toilette, the water piping was exposed and the peeling paint revealed rust. There was also some scattered torn up pieces of what had been a magazine just behind the toilette. I’ve roughed it with outhouses before. There was a functional sink and a push dispenser for soap but no towels so if one washed their hands it was drip dry. I found no shower. So about day 5, I asked the head nurse in my broken Romanian about toilette paper. She stated “it isn’t a gift in this hospital” but if I was to give her 5 lei (30 cents) she would go to the store and buy me some. I gave her 10 lei for 2 rolls and she was amazed and asked me what I would do with the second roll. To my great relief, she returned with toilette paper in 5 minutes. Interesting paper; very similar to 300 grit sandpaper.

Big improvement in my stress level.

So, this is free medicine

Mon, 20 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Landed in Chisinau Tuesday for the final day of snow and went to classes the next day. Noted was slightly unwell on Friday morning and it then got worse as the day progressed and by that evening had aches, chills and it seemed like the ‘flu. But I’d had my shots. So curled up in bed for the weekend and was feeling much better by Monday except I was running a temperature. Vladimir got concerned and so brought one of the English students, who was also a physician, and she called the local ambulance. They arrived with flashing lights and a thermometer (forgot to pack one?) and my temperature was 104F. The ambulance crew felt obligated to do something so I got a shot of Chinese made vitamin C in my right buttock and they left. Then it was a private car to the local hospital ER and was shepherded through the system by the physician/student. The chest Xray showed right lower lobe pneumonia and the fun began.

The ER wanted to admit me but they would need to order the antibiotics and they wouldn’t arrive until the next morning. I countered that I could go to the local pharmacy and have the same antibiotics by the next morning. Besides I was drenched in sweat and wanted a shower. So I signed out AMA with dire warnings that I would be responsible for the out-patient bill and I went home. I showed up at the hospital the next morning with a sack full of IV antibiotics, oral antibiotics and an oral antiviral as well as vitamin C: injectable, oral and IV (cost: $40.00). Being shepherded through the system by a physician is embarrassing as you go to the head of the line. I tried not to look at the people I was queue jumping; their faces were curious but accepting. So morning and evening for 2 days I got OP meds supplied by me. The most annoying was holding still for the 90 minute infusion as 2 of the meds were IV push. Found out on day 2 that this infusion was just vitamin C.

On day 4, I am feeling good. All the boxes have checked normal but the repeat CXR showed the pneumonia was now translucent but still present and possibly spreading. The original physician then consulted 2 pulmonologists who, looked at the CXR and back at me and then at the lab work and back at me again and kept asking me if I was sure I felt alright, no shortness of breath, fatigue and all the rest. Every test was back to normal except the CXR. They then decided that they wanted to admit me so they could “analyze” me. For what? I couldn’t see why this couldn’t be done as an OP. Then the head of medicine for the hospital appeared and informed me that I may have an exotic virus that I picked up at some airport in my travels and I was infecting the town. OK, I’ll play nice. Admit me. It took 2 1/2 hours to find a bed in an isolated room in another building and it was memorable.

The room was in an older part of a separate contagious disease building and had been abandoned so it was used to store old beds and equipment. There had been no repair or cleaning of the room since the Soviet empire dissolved in 1991 and the linoleum on the floor was peeling and there was peeling paint on the pipes. The mattress was stained, torn at the corners and had a large sag in the middle which was then covered with a smaller mat, equally stained. A duvet was placed on the top as a cover.

I then got my IV push antibiotic and my 90 minute Vitamin C drip. I was given a bowl of borsht and 2 slices of bread were covering the top of the bowl. This was delivered by a worker who held the bowl with both hands and the bread on top with her 2 ungloved thumbs and she plopped the bowl onto the night stand. The nightstand did have some dust on it. The beet soup and bread were excellent. Shortly afterward, they brought some cup for a sputum sample to see if they could culture the pneumonia. So I did my thing and it was reddish colored from the borsht and I pointed this out to the head nurse. The radiologist/student, some sort of a hospital admin and the head RN drifted into the room and then the head of medicine showed up. He announced that I had broken an international law by being admitted to the local hospital in Causeni and Americans could only go to an approved VIP hospital in Chisinau. We then waited several hours for an ambulance to show up to transport me to Chisinau. Meanwhile, Vladimir went back to my apartment to grab some clothes and my shaving kit. There was a retired MD in the ambulance who went on these trips to make sure no one died. He proceeded, in a loud voice, to tell everyone what they had done wrong in working up my pneumonia. I made a point of asking him, through a translator, in front of everyone, what he would have done differently, and he got very quiet.

So we arrived in The Pulmonary Institute in Chisinau about 20:30 and they insisted I call the American Embassy and inform them I was there. The watch commander at the embassy didn’t know what to do with the information.

I was examined in admission by a guy (possibly a physician) who found a stethoscope, listened briefly to my chest and said “allergies”. I looked back at him and said “Nyet”. So they loaded me, with 10 kg of my luggage on my lap, into a wheelchair. This would barely fit through the doors but they gave it to the smallest woman to push while the large males walked ahead and pushed the elevator buttons. There was also a threshold at each door that she could not get me over without help and again no one gave her a hand. So I got up and walked behind her.

I was put in the isolation ward and these people take isolation seriously. No WiFi, no English speakers, just the food person and the nurse for the infusions. About this time the cannula for the IV’s clotted and so it was a metallic needle stick twice a day and this kept being displaced as they insisted on using the inside of my elbow. Lots of extravasated infusion. Vladimir tried to visit the next day but was turned away. It then occurred to me that there was no intake history and physical (it was the weekend and everyone in medicine knows nothing happens on the weekend), no ID bracelet and I’m now thinking I was there because of the borscht colored sputum sample which did resemble the hemoptysis of TB. However, someone was writing orders because I was getting twice daily heparin shots into my shrinking abdominal fat. Across the hall were 2 patients on respirators, wasting away.

a side adventure

Sun, 19 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Flew Seattle to London and then on thru Warsaw to Minsk. The only unexpected border event was that I had to buy health insurance at the Minsk airport for my 4 days there. It was €1 per day, VISA accepted.

The ground of Belarus, White Russia or Northern Ruthenia has had centuries of armies moving through - destruction and rebuilding; the winner enforcing their language, religion and customs on the people. The Soviets took them over in the 1930s and the educated were executed in the Great Terror and the remainder were deported to Asia. This was colonization and Lenin and Stalin enforced their will with secret police, executions and more deportations just to convince the citizens that their way was the best.

Minsk was flattened in WW2 by the German army moving east and later by the Russian army moving west. There were only 3 buildings left that were restored. Stalin decided to rebuild but not reconstruct the city. He favored wide boulevards, grand buildings and wide squares, parks and a small lake. The Museum of the great Patriotic War and the Minsk Library are impressive, grand buildings. Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus for the past 25 years and is a huge ice hockey fan. The arena he erected for the World Ice Hockey Championship is an impressive facility in the central core of Minsk. When you move away from the well kept and clean city core, there is row after row of Soviet designed, high density, apartments in poor repair.

The population seems energetic and smile easily but very few speak English. The hotel front desk all speak good English and when I enquired where to purchase something, one of the front desk actually left the desk and walked me to the shopping mall next door. The mall offers all types of western goods of high quality but the wages are so low that I wondered if anyone can afford these. The waiters I talked to all wanted to improve their English skills and move to Western Europe. Food, utilities gasoline, rent and transport are about half of Seattle prices but cars, computers and clothes are about the same. There are lots of Chinese and they all speak good Russian according to those I talked to, but they are resented because they do not look Caucasian and are ruining the uniformity of appearance. Go figure!

I have been enjoying the early morning goings-on of the boys and girls arriving and departing the hotel. One girl was hauled out of the back seat of a taxi by her feet, skirt over her head, and then could barely balance long enough to pull her skirt down into place. Then we have the passionate farewells of uncles and their nieces as they get into separate cabs. I’m sure there is a story there.

The first day went to Nesvizh Castle, the Radziwell family castle from the 1530s. The Radziwills is a prominent clan from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland and maintain their prominence to this day. The castle was originally medieval but then rebuilt after several military destructions. The Russian Army took it while forming the Russian Empire and the art and furniture was distributed amongst Catherine the Great’s friends. It was last used as a sanitarium by the Soviets. The government of Belarus is now trying to restore the original furniture which has been scattered all over the world. A bedroom suite was purchased at auction in New York. There is a large collection of weapons dating from about 1500 to the mid 1800s. I saw no pictures of the family.

I can’t help looking at these castles, churches covered in gold foil, and thinking of some poor, damned peasant or serf getting taxed to construct these for someone’s ego.

Mir Castle has been rebuilt in various styles from its origin in 1520s. After destruction in battles, rebuilding, then abandonment for a century, then used to house Jews from the area prior to their murders by the Germans, the Soviets used it for housing until 1956. It is now a complex.

The Museum of The Great Patriotic Was (WW2) puzzled both me and the driver who was Belarusian. It is mainly Soviet with Belarusian contribution as an after thought. I expected more exhibits of burned out Belarusian villages, Belarusian partisans, German atrocities but there were exhibits of Soviet commissars to keep the thoughts of the soldiers pure, and lots of old Soviet military supplies.

Spent 4 days in Minsk, returned to London via Warsaw, and onto Chisinau.

19:30 to 11:00

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 18:54:22 GMT

I have already mentioned my social isolation in Moldova, with no one to talk to after school hours, and this has several reasons.

The system functions on networks of friends and acquaintances that you can trust and who can bring their skills or time to aid you. I believe this is a legacy from 250 years of Russian and Soviet influence where the system was against you and so one was suspicious of outsiders. Any person is mistrusted if they are not in the circle. I am an alien that people can spot 2 blocks away. I’ve never had a good explanation of this other than a vague comment that a foreigner walks “aggressively”, whatever that means. I have tried a convict type haircut and wearing a black leather jacket but I might as well be covered in fluorescent paint because it is not a camouflage.

The next point is that my Romanian and Russian language skills are non-existent. Romanian is the official language but Russian is the lingua franca and I am surrounded by Russian speakers. Every one wants to speak to me in English to practice their skills and not stagger along giving me baby Russian lessons. Fair enough, that’s what I am doing here. Then there is the smaller problem that conversational Russian is like English. Rapid fire, jamming words together so you can’t decide where one word ends and another begins, and then they throw in slang. All I can say is “Da, Da, Da” but I’m never sure what I have agreed to.

Did I mention the communication on RussianCupid is, well, Russian? Now Google translate is better than nothing but it is very shallow. Enter a section of the Russian language email and “They said what?” So I found a person to translate and am now spending a small fortune to this person so she can retire to a yacht on the Mediterranean.

I am beginning to understand the problems of learning English from the student’s side of the desk. It is time to personally be on the receiving end and get serious about learning the Russian language. I am sitting in the rain, bored because nothing is happening quickly, and so have the time.

How to do this? I need conversational skills. I don’t care about getting the verb tenses correct as long as the listener gets the idea. I need a warm body to talk to who has Russian and English skills. On-line tutoring of foreign languages is a huge subindustry and so I did an Internet search, and the tutors are all over the map, literally. I worked out the time zone problems and paid for a beginners session of 10 lessons. I got very lucky. Her English skills are better than she thinks, she teaches English and German and is in graduate school for a linguistics degree. The first lesson was the alphabet in Cyrillic. Name that letter and what phonetic sound it represents. This caused a brief episode of depression and panic - how the hell was I going to do this? So I reverted back to university habits when I was memorizing long lists . Get out the scrap paper and start to write. Luckily, the weather turned wet and windy, so I spend 14 hours over the weekend memorizing the Cyrillic alphabet. Major confidence builder as the old geezer seemed to have some brain cells that were idling and had nothing better to do than absorb Cyrillic. Poor weather became a good thing and so I was spending 3 or 4 hours daily with the homework. I tried to do the lessons every day but found it was too much to absorb, so every second day it is.

The tutor is fun and we have fallen into a pattern of her giving me homework and I, in turn, give her some English slang or pronunciation as her homework. We now start each lesson with her doing some review and I questioning her about her homework. We will see how this works out when I am back in Moldova because presently we are 11 time zones apart and in Moldova I will be 1 time zone away.

There is an interesting aside to this. I used to walk anywhere from 6 to 10 miles a day in the office (pedometer readings) but now I sit for 3 or 4 hours and am gaining about 2 pounds a week. I have developed a paunch that the gym is not curing and a reduced diet seems to make no difference. I figured out that by the time I speak sufficient Russian, I will be 450 pounds! Damn.

After school activities

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT

So what did I do after school hours? I was complaining to another English speaker about my lack of a social life and she suggested a meet-up type site where people who are interested in Embroidery for instance, can get together. So I found a dinner site in Chisinau and put in that I was looking for someone with some English skills that I could take to dinner. Didn’t read or maybe understand the site. It was linked to RussianCupid. I was swamped with 300 messages from 20 year olds promising me things that were anatomically impossible. WTH. “Come on, I have grandchildren your age”. “But age is just a number”. “Yeah, sure”. Then there are the links to affiliated sites such as ChinaCupid, ColumbiaCupid, etc. My email runneth over. Then the sad stories began. Their mother needed an operation, or their dog had bad breathe and they just needed a little money. Okay, game on. I particularly like the entries from the States who insist they are native English speakers. Especially when they call it a cheque (note the spelling) - goodbye and ghosted. I was warned by Vladimir that they were gold diggers and I responded “I certainly hope so”. I have become a gold digger’s digger.

I had never been on one of these sites before but I think there is a difference from an American site and this gets us to a cultural, or a reality, check. In Eastern Europe equality is the law, on paper. However, culturally, the male is lord and master. He expects privilege. He comes home from work, flops down on a chair to rest and expects his wife to cook and fed him, care for the kids, do housework and breed babies. And this is after she finishes her regular job that is needed to pay the expenses. There is a huge alcohol problem among the men and their life expectancy is 57 and the women live to be 77 years old. Divorce is about 50% but there is an additional 20% rate of desertion, but then the women are left with kids and not enough income to feed them. Also culturally, any woman unmarried by 24 years old is considered to have a major defect and there is no hope for any woman 35 years old. The women do not like these odds and so they are on these sites. Their photographs are professionally shot and alluring. For some reason, men anywhere else are considered a prize - China, Turkey, Italy - anywhere else, because they have a reputation for helping with the housework, helping with the kids and not hitting their wives. And North America is the gold ring.

I have been reading articles about these ‘mail order brides’ and most of the information is feminism prejudice. Money grubbing, green card seekers who will divorce you once they have citizenship and marry up the economic scale, slavery, blah blah. Rumor, innuendo and anecdotes. I have found only 2 articles where the authoress actually interviewed these brides after they had been in the States for several years and came away believers. The divorce rate among heterosexual Americans is around a high 50% but amongst the so-called mail-order brides it is less than 15 %.

Return 3.0

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT

SEA to LHR and STN to KIV and he’s back. The temperature is hot but there is now an air conditioner in the main classroom so paper no longer curls in the humidity. The mothers put their kids in strollers about 3 PM after their naps and walk around the central park gossiping while the toddlers play in the dirt. These kid’s immune systems must be fantastic as nobody observes the 5 second rule here and there are feral dogs and cats all over the park.

Svetlana believes her family’s English skills are improved since the visit but Vladimir’s English is now tourist level. He began showing interest in learning English about the first of the year - never took English in school and didn’t attend Svetlana’s classes. He decided that if he wished to talk to me and manage a language school, then he needed to pay attention. So we talked between classes with the aid of Google translate and he got better and better. He started to drop into my apartment at 8AM for a coffee klatch English session about early November and his vocabulary improved 6 words a day and we were discussing fairly sophisticated subjects. By mid-December, he was good enough that he was noting the different accents between me and another volunteer from Brighton, and he was noting that Laramie from St. Louis used a different vocabulary than I did. So his verb tenses were a little off, he could still communicate sophisticated ideas. Svetlana always believed that the basis for learning English was academic English lectures with rules and exceptions to the rules, but Vladimir was learning through conversation alone. At the end of the semester, testing time, and I did note that he was quietly taking the same exams as the kids and passing I was very impressed, but more about that later.

So the fall classes continued but on Saturdays, 5 groups from the outlying villages attended school for English lessons and instruction on the culture of the States - geography, fast foods, Halloween and such. The groups were 5 students and a teacher from each village and there were no English instructors at these villages. We threw a Halloween party and the next weekend these students were to throw their own party in each of their villages. These agricultural villages have been around for centuries and are dying. Rather sad because there is nothing left but grandparents and kids as the parents are overseas working.

While all this is happening, Svetlana organized a trip to Switzerland for forty 16 and 17 year olds for 3 weeks. This is sponsored by the Pestalozzi group from Switzerland who has been doing this cultural exchange since WW2. I couldn’t go because I was not Moldovan. Chaperone for 40 teenagers? Yeah, right. But these are not American kids. They were so well mannered that the Pestalozzi Group invited them back for this summer and again next fall.

I never considered how deeply a teacher gets into the student’s lives. I discovered that one 14 year old girl, whose parents were working overseas, was living by herself in her parent’s house, shopping, laundry, homework and also caring for her 8 year old brother at the same time. I then had 2 similar kids pointed out to me. These kids are resilient and put our pampered, privileged kids to shame but I do wonder what their future will be. Why can I do? The last person who tried to reform the world got hung on a cross. (Spartacus, the Thracian, of course).

Had a surprise visit from one of the NES from Romania a year ago. Good fun. As we walked around town checking out the sights, The locals were watching every move. Must have been on Facebook because all the kids knew about it before classes

And there was a wedding

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

. Vladimir and Svetlana had been a couple for 4 years and both had had their matrimonial stories (and haven’t we all). It was announced in Bellingham that Vladimir and Svetlana were getting married in September after I returned and they did. Apparently this had been tentatively scheduled for the past year but now the cultural aspects surface. The Republic of Moldova only recognizes the civil part of the ceremony but the culture doesn’t believe you are married until you have had the Christian Orthodox ceremony. The godparents stand up for the couple in the church ceremony but they had to have been married in a church ceremony. Vladimir’s godparents had their civil ceremony the year before but couldn’t have the ‘real’ wedding until Vladimir and Svetlana had been churched. Vladimir and Svetlana got churched Friday morning in Chisinau and then got the civil part done at the beginning of the reception in Causeni Friday evening. And the civilian judge did her part of the ceremony in English for the two volunteers. I was touched. The godparents got churched at 08:00 Saturday morning with the godparents in attendance.

Moldovan receptions are a feast with continuous dancing. The beat is always a hora but more of a large circle and this rhythm only changes occasionally. I was the only single male there, so when the beat changed, I tried to talk the younger girls into a Swing dance. For all the dance lessons these girls had taken, they were very resistant, except Patricia. She picked up the steps in about 3 bars. Then the beat went hora and when it returned again to something like a Swing dance, Patricia’s mother and I won the Swing dance competition, (just don’t tell anyone that we were the only people doing a Swing dance). There was red wine, white wine and the ever popular cognac flowing freely all evening. I was pacing myself well until they put a table in the middle of the hora ring and pulled people off the line for cognac shots with Coke chasers. I didn’t lose my motor skills until I got home.

The next day is another cultural event in which the new wife shows her cooking skills over a cauldron of chicken soup. I never did figure out the nuances of this. Every guest showed up for this.

Post script. I began thinking that there had to be some dance step other than a hora one could do to this beat and I think it is a Melbourne Shuffle dance. A week later I tried to show Patricia how to do a Shuffle dance and ruined my right knee.

The Visit

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 18:18:17 GMT

If you were raised watching films staged in New York or Los Angeles, with lots of conspicuous consumption, what would you expect of 3 weeks in the Pacific Northwest?

They were surprised by the greenery as they were expecting concrete and asphalt. There were long stares at the forests, mountains and rivers and taking pictures of every animal - squirrels, chipmunks, and frogs. They noted the silence of Mt Baker even with masses of tourists present. The clean air and the clean water without trash visible anywhere.

Water. Moldova has no seaside, the occasional lake and the only river forms the eastern border and it is like the Mississippi - rolling mud. The girls spent most of their free time on the lake with toy sized kayaks, or fishing. They caught a fair number of pail sized crappy but nothing large. We walked several beaches and skipped stones.

They noted the large distances between people. Moldova is grouped into villages of 10 to 50 houses and they are every 10 or so miles. Here you can have a single house in the middle of 100 acres. They also noted the 15 mile drive to the stores where they are used to dropping into a store 2 doors down. We did a side tour of neighborhoods of small houses to give them some balance to preconceived ideas.

They noted the houses were built of wood and the interior of the house was more loud than the concrete houses back home.

They finally got some perspective into the size of the US. Vladimir wanted to go to Yellowstone until he found out it was a 2 day drive to get there and it was a similar distance to Disneyland. Besides, I’d been told it took $70 per hour to keep the kids entertained at Disneyland and that got his attention. Their last comment was that they could cover the Puget Sound area on the map with their thumb print and there was lots of space still visible.

They noted the young age of those holding signs for charity at the roadside or the young age dumpster diving in Seattle. In Moldova, these are the elderly or seriously disabled. They were told at Boys and Girls Club that every second child in the US goes to bed hungry (I seriously doubt that number) and were rather disdainful of the parents as there is great social pressure in Moldova to take care of your family. They could see no reason for hunger nor unemployment with all the help wanted signs they saw. It gradually dawned on them, over a series of discussions, that Americans work hard, long hours with no guarantee of success. Those that beg are doing it by choice. That marketable skills get well paid but that the job can disappear with the next recession. There was some disbelief that one had to pay property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and the like. Their understanding was that you didn’t really own your house if you had to pay the government tax yearly for the privilege. So we discussed the condition of our roads, the state of our schools, and the money sent overseas to other countries for various reasons. I think that getting one’s preconceptions rearranged was a confusing experience and I’ll be interested to hear the followup when I return to Moldova and they have had time to sort out their thoughts.

We did the Cascade Loop thru Winthrop and Leavenworth, Mt. Baker, Seattle twice and a whale watch. The Gates Foundation presentation is really well done and thanks to the Boys and Girls Club for a tour. I had spoken to Svetlana about needing a chaperone if I was doing one-on-one English tutoring with a girl, but seeing long glass windows at the Boys and Girls Club into all the classrooms for teacher security really drove the point home. We did a special trip to Walmart for selfies but a trip through the Nordstrom flag ship store was rejected. The Boeing Future of Flight was really good. The first morning in Bellingham we tried IHOP and the parents were appalled at the bill, so after that we ate at the house or packed home made meals. Certain family members put Nutella on everything, but I guess it she was on vacation.

Beef is promoted as a health food in Moldova, and as Vladimir is the trained chef, he was let loose with the BBQ. They like their beef really well done. This contrasts with the barely warmed bacon he cooks for breakfast. Also, all breakfasts include sausages, which to us are good old fashioned weiners. Cholesterol and preservatives be damned.

The Moldovan wedding was great but my Romanian and Russian language skills were not up to the task. Although they did their best to include me, I was the alien observer, . This is a very hard working group; half of them were students who overstayed their visas and so were illegal. They were university educated but made a good living driving tractor trailer rigs and at the rate they are progressing, they will control the trucking business of Puget Sound in another decade. They were living the dream, houses and cars, with the cloud of an ICE decision over their heads. Now, godparents. They are slightly older than the bride and groom and essentially responsible for setting up the Romanian Orthodox ceremony and the reception. The ceremony is 1 hour of standing in front of the priest as opposed to the Protestant 10 minute quicky. The godparents at the reception then start a public bidding event for the largest wedding present so one needs to choose a certain net worth couple. Then the godparents and godchildren cover each others backs for help with projects and such - sort of an always on-call best friend.

A few things didn’t work out for this trip. There was a thick smoke haze from British Columbia covering most of the state for the first week. There was no orca sighting on the whale tour but they did spot the tail of a pilot whale. No one caught a large salmon because the the water was warm and so there was no point to go fishing, although we did eat store bought salmon (both steaks and fillet), It never occurred to me that they would converse so much amongst themselves in Russian. Not sure we improved anyone’s conversational English skills.

Well, now I return to Causeni, and I need to pack the cool to cold clothes. It seems I have been volunteered for 3 hours a week sessions of English classes in an adjoining village and nobody in the village speaks any English - students, staff nor parents. I have been told I will have help preparing each lesson but I am not sure I can ad lib well enough. I think a good English teacher needs to think of 3 or 4 different ways to say the same thing in 10 minutes but I am not sure I am that glib. I tend to be more cut and dried than that - say it once and get onto the next topic. I will have to plan a lessons with redundancy, repetition, encouragement, cheering and high fives - sort of a soliloquy of prewritten verbiage because I don’t think there will be a conversation. Bless Google translate. (This piece of software is the beginning of world peace).

Observations

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

The work in Moldova is always just a bubble off and slightly short. With political fanfare, the main streets of Causeni got repaved but the next rain filled up the dips in the road where the puddles had been before as there was no attempt to regrade the surface. When it rains in Causeni it is of monsoon proportions, so these puddles last several days or until the next rain as there is no effort to improve the drainage to a storm sewer (but I'm not sure I've ever seen one). The buildings in Moldova are made with concrete foundations and superstructure with an infill of stone. I was watching a small store front addition. The concrete was poured into the forms one pail at a time from a small mixer on the ground and if the day ended, they continued pailing it in the next day even though the previous concrete had set. When they strip the forms, there doesn’t seem to be much adhesion between each day’s pour, and there is exposed rebar because they do not vibrate or somehow get out the air bubbles. There is also a nasty habit of starting a job, tearing everything up and then leaving for an indeterminate period.

The banking system is interesting. This is a cash society. The banks and citizens have literally never seen nor heard of a check. We I showed them a check book, they passed it around. If you send money into the country from your job in say Italy, you make sure it is less than 100,000 MDL (Moldovan lei) or you need to explain to the bank and the Moldovan Central Bank where it came from. The government is truly afraid of money laundering but I think the bank is just nosey. Support from abroad seems to be a satisfactory answer. So, if you get money from abroad, you keep it in Euros or USD, in your account. Then if you buy a major purchase, say a house, you go to the bank for E40,000, in a big bag, for the closing. Then the seller needs an affidavit that the money is from a house sale. Then everyone returns to the bank to convert it into lei. You gotta love the bureaucracy. If it is a more official transaction, like dispersing money for a government registered NGO, then it has to be in MDL (Moldovan lei) and their highest denomination is 500 lei. That could be a serious suitcase of banknotes!

I tried to open a company account. Got the business charter translated to Romanian, got apostilles of everything the Secretary of State of Washington State had and translated that into Romanian. But now they want an apostille of an apostille of the Corporate Charter setting up the company. Hmm. I am not sure it is worth another $500. I will deal with this through company minutes.

Let’s build a school. There are enough programs in the school and only 24 hours in a day, so they need more space as there is something going on 7 days a week. A joint venture of a building and a language school renter seems like a logical idea. There is white money and black money in Moldova and this will be built white with all the necessary permits and no bribery or ‘gifts for friends’. This will be built to American standards with disabled access, 3 classrooms (will require another teacher) and a computer lab. After some peculiar negotiations, the land was purchased.

Further Observations

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The work in Moldova is always just a bubble off and slightly short of finished. With political fanfare, the main streets of Causeni got repaved but the next rain filled up the dips in the road where the puddles had been previously as there was no attempt to regrade the surface. When it rains in Causeni it is of monsoon proportions, so these puddles last several days or until the next rain, as there was no effort to improve the drainage to a storm sewer. The buildings in Moldova are made with concrete foundations and superstructure with an infill of stone. I was watching a small store front addition. The concrete was poured into the forms one pail at a time from a small mixer on the ground and if the day ended, they continued pailing it in the next day even though the previous concrete had set. When they stripped the forms, there didn’t seem to be much adhesion between each day’s pour, and there was exposed rebar because they do not vibrate or somehow get out the air bubbles. There is also a nasty habit of starting a job, tearing everything up and then leaving for an indeterminate period.

The banking system is interesting. This is a cash society. The banks and citizens have literally never seen nor heard of a check. When I showed them a check book, they passed it around. If you send money into the country from your job in say Italy, you make sure it is less than 100,000 MDL (Moldovan lei) or you need to explain to the bank and the Moldovan Central Bank where it came from. The government is truly afraid of money laundering but I think the bank is just nosey. Support from abroad seems to be a satisfactory answer. So, if you get money from abroad, you keep it in Euros or USD, in your account. Then if you buy a major purchase, say a house, you go to the bank for E40,000, in a bag, for the closing. Then the seller needs an affidavit that the money is from a house sale. Then everyone returns to the bank to convert it into lei. You gotta love the bureaucracy. If it is a more official transaction, like dispersing money for a government registered NGO, then it has to be in MDL (Moldovan lei) and their highest denomination is 500 lei. That could be a serious suitcase of banknotes!

I tried to open a company bank account. Got the business charter translated to Romanian, got apostilles of everything the Secretary of State of Washington State had and translated that into Romanian. But now they want an apostille of an apostille of the Corporate Charter setting up the company. They are unimpressed that the State of Washington and several American lawyers have found the paperwork satisfactory for the past 20 years. Hmm. I am not sure it is worth another $500 for an apostille because then they will find something else. I will deal with this through company minutes. Everyone has an ink stamp which they use in addition to their signature - a sort of notarizing. So I did a one-up-manship and got myself an official paper embosser. I am going to emboss the hell out of the company paperwork. Back to you, Moldova.

So let’s build a school building. There are many programs in the school and several more on a wish list but there is only 24 hours in a day, so they need more space as there is something going on 7 days a week. A joint venture between a building rental company and a language school seems like a logical idea. In Moldova there is white money and black money. White money has all the permits and an accountant and black money is cash under the table. This building will be built white with all the necessary permits and no bribery or ‘gifts for friends’. This will be built to American standards with disabled access, 3 classrooms (will require another teacher) and a computer lab. After some peculiar negotiations, the land has been purchased.

This and That

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 01:12:22 GMT

Every village, town or city has a patron saint. Nobody can explain why certain saints are linked to a particular village but on that saint’s day, the citizens get the day off work, with pay. The day off is determined by the date the Orthodox Church has determined is that saint’s day. If you are from Causeni and work daily in Chisinau, you get the day off with pay. June 12 is St. Pavel Day, the patron saint of Causeni. I wandered through town in the morning and all the retail stores were open, staffed by locals, so wasn’t

sure that I might be early. Portable rides had been unloaded from the back of trucks then in the afternoon the rides began to move; roller coasters, bumper cars, and such and a large food court in the sports center, pony rides, horse drawn carriage rides and the like. Lots of kids with painted faces and henna tattoos. About 7PM, every politician showed up on stage for a monologue (I’m assuming about how good a job they are doing but it was all in Romanian or Russian) and then there is a major band on the stage for music and dancing until 1AM. I left at the start of the politicians’ spiel. The next day was very slow in town.

I saw the first European toads hopping through the town center in April on my return. When the weather warmed up more, there were 2 inch toads all over but I never heard any boys advertising by croaking such as we hear in Washington. However, there were quiet goings on as about the first of June, large numbers of 1/2 inch ?toadlets appeared all over. Apparently the toads protect themselves with bufotoxin which is absorbed through mucous membranes as a form of digitalis overdose - stings the mouth, excess salivation, cardiac problems, and goodbye. The feral cats and dogs ignore these toads so I believe their only enemy is the Michelin tire as the toads fearlessly hop down the middle of the streets in 2 jump bursts.

I have also seen the odd lizard in the grass bordering flower gardens. Green and maybe 6 inches in length.

I would have thought that with all the feral cats and dogs around we would be up to our elbows in puppies and kittens. I have only seen 3 kittens and 1 puppy so far. There is a lady in an apartment above me who throws enough chicken feet out the window to feed at least 6 dogs daily. I have not seen the cats being fed yet. The garbage dumpsters across the central playground are well scavenged by dogs, cats and people.

The apartments are 5 stories high and there are no elevators. I have been told that the apartments are more expensive the higher you go. The way I see it, you are paying more for the privilege of carting yourself and the groceries up and down these stairs daily. With the temperature in the 90’s, the top part of the stairwell is very hot so I would assume the apartments are a similar temperature. Go figure.

Just on the fringe of the bazaar, there is a line of elderly men and women sitting on the curb of the sidewalk and selling vegetables and fruits, potted flowers and hanging baskets from their gardens. The peaches are small sized this year and they are only charging 6 lei per kilogram or 50 cents for 2 pounds. I make my order in sign language and flashing 2 fingers and they flash back how much with their fingers. It always causes a burst of Russian amongst them but I haven’t any idea of what they are discussing. I do not know how this is worth their while but they are there day after day for 10 hours in the sun. The road into Chisinau is lined with walnut trees, the kids at the side of the highway are holding up plastic bags filled with shelled green walnuts, about 2 kilos, for 50 lei. I have been told the are there all day and they buy ice cream with the proceeds. There are also individual tables along the route of the elderly selling squash, honey, wine, and dressed rabbits. Lots of cars stop to shop. Then there are the herds of goats or sheep right up against the highway grazing on the grass. There is usually someone, mostly children, watching that they do not cross the road into traffic. At the end of the day the goat are milked by the family caring for the goats that day and that is their share for a month or so.

Most of the kids in town seem to go to summer camp for 2 weeks. Apparently, in the Soviet past, each kid got a free week at the beach for their health and this habit has continued. Some of the camps are themed such as song and dance instruction but others are just ‘wander around the woods’. I have been told that the fees are very low if the parent belongs to a union as the dues pay for the camp. So the kids come and go from the English classes depending on their schedules. Several families leave for the beaches in Bulgaria because accommodation is so cheap.

We have had several volunteers cycle through. The first was a 28 year old banker from Dubai who has an Indian mother and Iranian father but spoke only English. She is seriously considering switching careers to become a language instructor. The next was a Peoples Republic of China Mandarin instructor who works for a Spanish company teaching languages, Mandarin and Spanish. She works from anywhere on her computer so is just traveling around. She was promptly put to good use giving daily Mandarin lessons for the month she is here and the local TV station interviewed her for her 15 minutes of glory.

The deep end

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

On our return and 3 days later, Svetlana left for a week of continuing education in Slovakia. I said I wouldn’t mind starting a walk-in class for conversational English while she was gone. So I was given some paperwork for a A2 level group and told to go for it. These are beginners but apparently A2 means their English is go enough that they can get by in the tourist business. Because of the summer scheduling, I was given an 8AM start time because a room was not being used. On Svetlana’s return, she added an intermediate-advanced class for drop-ins at 09:30. Now this group has been taking English for about 4 years and can carry on a conversation, but their verb tenses get mixed up and they have no idea about slang except what they may have gotten off the internet.

2 beginners showed up for the first class. One was a 14 year old family friend and only appeared intermittently, but the other 14 year old is grimly determined. She catches the routier bus in from Stephan Voda, a small village about 25 minutes from the town center and she appears on time. She is painfully shy and it took me a week to get her to smile. One cannot ask these students to suggest a topic to converse about in English because they like the teacher to give them a subject. Then they answer in monosyllables with frequent use of Google translate. So I have to do a ‘lesson plan’. I did push one of the students to tell me what she was doing that afternoon. She reluctantly answered that she was braiding garlic from the garden. She was amazed that I had done this in the past. I guess I ruined another illusion. I generally get hungry about 9AM, so we continue English class while we pick up some placenta and a drink. The betting from Vladimir is that they are is class from 30 to 50% for the free food.

The intermediate to advanced group are both visiting grandparents for the summer - one from Chisinau and the other from Odessa. Both had been to Svetlana’s classes in prior years when they lived in Causeni. One was chatty and the other very quiet. 3 boys show up intermittently so I think this is parental pressure and not my superior teaching skills. I try to find conversational subjects which also contain useful information, such as the 9 countries of North America or the history of the industrial revolution but after 2 weeks, we settled on verbal drills from the internet. The internet is loaded with these exercises, from multiple sources, and they are free.

The Moldovans are coming

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Back in March, I explained frequent flyer miles to Svetlana and Vladimir and suggested that they should be used to show them the Pacific Northwest. Moldovans need a visa to be a tourist in the USA and it costs 2 weeks wages, per family member, to apply. If you do not get the visa, then you are banned forever. The odds of a whole family getting visas are very slim because the US Embassy generally wants the applicants to prove that they will return to Moldova and so often give visas to the parents and keep the kids hostage in Moldova. So, the whole family got all their paperwork in order and applied.

They got an appointment for an interview of each family member by a Moldovan on the embassy staff. I went along just incase I could be of any help but remained on the street outside and tried not to look like I was casing the place. They emerged an hour later, they needed non of their extra paperwork they had brought and everyone got visas for 10 years!

So, they want the whole American experience in 2 weeks. Now I’m not particularly sure that drive through fast food eateries, drive through coffee kiosks, or drive through grocery shopping are a cultural highlights. This family also has a ton of energy and do not waste vacation time by hanging out. There are requests for sea and lake fishing, tours of both universities and possible arranging some continuing education course work, shopping, driving a lawnmower, shopping, Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon tours, shopping, and the various nature walks. There is one vote for a cowboy hat and a horse ride in Montana and another vote for Disneyland. So, we had a geography lesson about distances in North America. There is nothing with fins that swims they will not eat so salmon and halibut and carp are on the menu. I keep telling them mamaliga may not be available and I have a freezer full of beef, but this doesn’t phase them. They want to do their own meal preps but also want to eat out a lot - chain restaurants, roadhouses, pancake houses, - the whole experience. I have no idea about our wine versus theirs but I am sure to find out. They had their first trip through Starbucks on the trip and thought it ‘interesting’ so I am not sure that was an endorsement.

Greece is a Beach

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

All Soviet bloc countries end school the last day of May and the end of the classes brings the exams, even for our school. Frequent discussions with Laramie whether these are tests or evaluations. These are tests with a final grade ranging from 1 to 10, just like the public school system, on a certificate of attendance. It matters for applications to camps or international programs and they have to take the grade back to their parents. These are the first exams I have proctored but it somehow never occurred to me that someone has to grade all 350 of these. My bony butt got numb.

There are at least 10 of these students and their families emigrating from Moldova to Germany, Sweden or Italy now that classes are finished. They are leaving to “better their lives”. From previous experience, Svetlana says that about 3 students will return when the reality of being an immigrant becomes obvious. I am not really sure what they expect but I think the majority believes it will be instant increased standard of living viz. things - cars, separate detached house, designer clothes and a 40 hour work week with vacation time and the disposable income to spend at the lake or traveling. I have had several conversations with the teenagers here and in spite of my telling them it is not so, they truly believe that they will go to a European university, travel 10 months a year and the finances for this will be there. They just refuse to believe the reality.

It concerns me the the Moldovan system is losing their brain power but I did the same thing - voted with my feet for the ‘better life’. I am not really sure what the better life means for most, but in my case it was financial and slightly political.

The family graciously invited me on their annual vacation. So the van was loaded up, the dog dropped off at Granny’s, Iulia stuffed into a nest in the back surrounded by luggage and we were off. The roads were bad until we stopped in southern Moldova, near the Romanian border, to visit the great uncle who is a retired agricultural supervisor. Amazingly gracious in spite of his asking me why Americans hate Russians. His garden is modern with drip irrigation, cloches and plastic coverings, and free range organic chickens. His grows everything and his crop is about 6 weeks ahead of what it would be in Bellingham. He also makes really good red wine which I ordinarily do not like. I showed my appreciation and he gave me a large bottle for the road. We were then off to spend the night and next day in Varna, Bulgaria. Svetlana arranged an apartment rental for the family and a 5 star hotel for me (Iulia was initially thrilled when we pulled into the hotel parking lot as she can count to 5). It was apparently early in the season and the beaches were not jammed but there were more people than back in the March visit. It was drenchingly hot and I was wearing jeans and a shirt. So I picked up some shorts, a hat and a swim suit at a small WalMart - type food store so I was now sweating in different clothes. I was a little embarrassed because I knew we were about the same latitude as Turkey and I knew Turkey would be hot but I never thought this through. So I slathered myself in sun screen and burned the tops of my feet through the flip flops. From Varna, we passed through the mountain range separating Bulgaria from Greece into the northern Grecian province of Macedonia….not the country. The cereal crops were ready for cutting and the fruit stands at the roadside are loaded with nectarines, peaches, raspberries, plums and strawberries.

Svetlana arranged apartments. Spent the night and then explored farther down the road. She arranged apartments in Kassandra, Chalcidice, Greece - the middle finger of the peninsula. Full occupancy with Russians. Off to the beach which was probably 150 meters from the hotel - across the road, along a few steps and then 125 meters vertically down. The beach is gorgeous - white sand, peacock blue water until you reach a certain depth and then Aegean blue. There I learned another lesson. Wear your flip-flops to the water’s edge if the sand is so hot that you can see heat waves. So now my feet are sunburned and sand blasted. Then we had to walk vertically up to the main road again - all 250 steps. The apartment was great but I had a Goldilocks experience. Could not figure out how to start the air conditioner the first night and it was hot and muggy. Then the next nite set the temp too low, but I eventually figured it out.

We used the apartment as a hub and checked out the beaches of the other fingers. The beaches varied from powder sand to small sharp pebbles and the water temperature and color varied also. Apparently, the hotels on the beach have the ability to keep people off the beach in front of their hotels or they can charge for the use of their section.

Spent the day at a water park in Thessaloniki and then moved on to a hotel in ????? And then to another apartment in Pieria. These beaches were more crowded but mainly retirees with a smattering of kids and grandchildren. They had never heard of skin cancer and they were here for the sun - bring it on! Rather nice collection of actinic keratoses and other undefined discolorations. This beach had plenty of ways to spend your money as the area is for tourists. Sunburned feet are healing and the feet are toughening up. There were multiple cultural exchanges happening with visiting Bulgarian and Polish groups dressed in national costumes.

We did a day trip to Litochoro, better known as Mt. Olympus. The legend and geography were not what I remembered. Mt Olympus is a collection of peaks but there are actually 2 peaks, almost the same height, the highest points in Greece. Lots of trail walkers with their packs but I don’t think they reached the top as it was covered in snow. The mountain is limestone. It rained a little on the trail up the mountain but just enough to dampen things, so when we reached the parking lot we decided to visit the church of St. Dionysius which was down the mountain slightly. This monastery was destroyed by the Germans during in 1943 and they are rebuilding it. We then decided to walk down the hill from the church to a small hut where St Dionysis spent time in seclusion thinking great thoughts; about 20 minutes. This is when it started to rain, really rain. The path became a small stream. We gave up after 20 minutes without seeing the cave or hut, but walking back up the hill with 20 pounds of water soaked into our clothing was a treat. Considering my past, I’m surprised that I wasn’t hit by a lightning bolt in addition to the drowning from the Greek gods.

Then it was back to Varna, Bulgaria for 3 days. I was in the Just Hotel, a boutique hotel that was just rooms and wine. The beaches were filling up relative to the past week with Russians on packaged tours. Some sections of the beach were topless but I didn’t notice. The tattoos were out in full display and I kept wondering if there would be regrets in the future. I never saw any t-shirts or blouses with any writing on them that was any other language than English.

On the return to Causeni, we stopped off to visit the same great uncle. Again he was welcoming and he and I had several glasses of his newest wine pressings and I was sent home with another bottle. It would be fun to get him over to the wineries in Eastern Washington, even just to prove to him that Americans do not hate Russians.

Round 3

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 04 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT

I have now been back 3 weeks. It is June 1 and this is Children’s Day but no one can really explain it to me other than it has been celebrated for 70 years in the Soviet bloc. Public school finished yesterday and there are lots of kids running around in dress up clothes with balloons.

This is a beautiful country in the spring when the land dries out and everything is green. Flat plateaus with gentle slopes down to the streams or brooks. It apparently resembles Illinois and but it is much more intensely cultivated with more varied crops than Southern Alberta. All covered with cereal fields, sun flowers, fruit orchards or grapes. The soil has been well cared for, dark with good tilth. The huge potholes in the roads are being slowly repaired but travel is still a slalom course as the cars weave down the road to miss the bigger holes, their shock absorbers destroyed. When they drive, the cars still make 3 lanes when there are only 2 marked lanes.

While I was gone an American volunteer showed up. He had an ex-wife who was Romanian and had spent 4 years in Romania as a child as his parents were missionaries there. His Romanian was excellent but he got into a religious tangle with his host family and he left early. Another NES showed up for 2 weeks from the University of Edinburgh where he was writing his master’s thesis on international terrorists. The kids did not seem to have problems with his accent, and actually didn’t notice it.

I think that some of the students, of all ages, were surprised that I returned. We went through the ‘why aren’t you on a beach?’ talks again. Several commented that it was nice to have someone present for a longer period than 2 weeks because they got used to my accent and rhythm of speech. Several more wanted specific reassurances that I was going to be here for 3 months. An adult questioned my motives for being in Moldova 3 days in a row. When I could go anywhere and do anything, why was I here? I still don’t think she found the answer satisfactory.

2 days after I arrived, there was the ending ceremony for the BNF program that was funded by the American Embassy. The embassy representative who was to be present cancelled at the last moment but the local TV station showed up. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0zVWPptGiw

The final project for each participant and one of their nonparticipant friends was to make a 2 minute video, subject of choice. The kids watched all the videos and then voted for their favorite. There was a tie for first place, but guess who came in third? The link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvZfTu6lEnw&list=PLaAmLQZi2ymyPf6R9SG6fAn2ZGxJIAjB4&index=30... .

I didn’t get a chance to give my acceptance speech. Everyone got a participation certificate and a memento (coffee/tea cup that changes colors as it warms up).

The TV announcer has a degree in linguistics and also teaches English at the local elementary school. She invited Laramie, and included me as a tag along, to a multinational presentation she had the students put on. There they dressed in representative garments from Germany, Mexico, Moldova and such. Laramie and I then went to the front of the class with a world map and pointed out where we had travelled. We then had coffee with the head mistress and several teachers.

Finally got the paperwork together and got my extension for my humanitarian/tourist visa so I’m good for 18 months and then I will need to reapply. Other than the annoyance of the 4 trips into Chisinau to get the paperwork right, it was pretty basic - prove you will not be a burden on their social resources. I can only imagine what the American process would entail. But anyway, I am now a probationary (apprentice?) Moldovan citizen.

East is east and west is west...

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 03 May 2018 21:47:58 GMT

There is a friendship behaviour called the Wall Theory. North Americans introduce themselves with a very low wall, so initially they are very friendly and approachable and the relationship is open but superficial. The wall gets higher with time and the closer one gets to becoming a friend, with more privacy hurdles and less independence. Europeans, on the other hand, begin with a high wall and so are initially reserved, but the closer you come to being a friend, the personal details are easier to elicit and so the wall becomes lower.

So I breeze into the local deli to pick up some dinner and meet the young female cook and the older female retail clerk who is also present. After 4 or 5 weeks, I got the younger cook to smile but I think she is more amused by the idiot grin on the face of the mentally challenged foreigner. The older clerk maintains the 2 scowl lines between her eyebrows. As I am stumbling through RussoRomanian phrases, I get the impression that they do not want to offend me by correcting my language skills. I walk in the next evening and it is like starting over again as they seem to react like they had never seen me before. I think the girls do not want to be viewed as ‘easy’. (At my age I an entitled to call any female 20 years younger than me a girl). They do not maintain eye contact, I am told, because that is culturally interpreted that she is ‘interested’ in the male and it may lead to a situation where she cannot extract herself. It has been a long time since the ladies found me dangerous. It is going to be interesting to see how they react when I return after a 1 month absence.

So how does one explain the pedestrians on the town streets? How about the staring without being caught staring? If I do catch them staring, I will nod to them and after a shocked pause that they were caught, they will faintly nod back. It has taken 8 weeks to get some verbal acknowledgement from fellow apartment dwellers but I have seen 3 adult students on the streets who have no problem talking to me. Now how am I going to get accepted by the rest of the citizens? I believe the behavior is a remnant of the 70 years of Soviet influence in which any unfamiliar person was potential trouble and one could only rely on tested and true family or someone with a proven past. An additional thought is that any nail which sticks up gets pounded down and they don’t want any association with a potential nail. Things should get better with the warmer weather and longer daylight bringing people out into the park just around the corner. I don’t think a lone male loitering in a park has the same connotation as in the USA.

Svetlana and her family have really incorporated me into their group with invitations for dinner, birthday parties and family vacations in Bulgaria. She has been associated with foreign volunteers at her school for at least 10 years and so her group is used to the variety that has been cycling through. They are all welcoming and gracious and try to include me in their goings-on with advanced charades. If something occurs that I don’t understand, I will question Svetlana later and then listen very hard to what she is saying. I think her response is based on how I asked the question as the answer is always nice and tactful. I know there is a fair amount of discussion about my observations amongst the group. I am fairly sure that if I made a social mistake she would laugh it off but she is keeping score. I wonder when I will hit the tipping total and get expelled from the school?

Birthdays are big family blow-outs here with the birthday boy setting up his own party and arranging for the designated drivers that are necessary afterwards. Infants to grandmothers and godparents are all included. Everyone is very civilized even with the drinking. I am glad I can hold my liquor.

The family vacation to Bulgaria was momentous. A crowded van with all the luggage, along 2 lane roads that needed repair and through multiple villages in Moldova, Romania and then Bulgaria. Varna, Bulgaria is on the coast of the Black Sea and has been a recorded settlement back to at least the Dacians. With beautiful gold tinted sand, it is a clean city that has preserved pedestrian promenades and parks, and friendly citizens who generally speak English. Although the people are very approachable, they all walk around looking like they are scowling and so I classified them into 1 line, 2 lines or 3 lines between their eyebrows. Stayed in an AirBNB for a week owned by a lady from Mexico. The city has preserved the archeologic finds from the past with glass covered excavations in the pavement and an explanation in 3 languages - Roman roads and baths, and headstones from graves dating back to the Greeks, all with translations. The archeologic museum is well worth the $2.50 admission. This is where the Russians go for a inexpensive summer holiday by the sea and there are apartment blocks going up all over to accommodate them. Further down the coast is Sunny Beach, Bulgaria and the adjacent town of Nessebar which has a Christian church site on one arm of the bay that dates from 432 AD. So it must have been built about the time Christianity became the local religion (Constantine and all that). I am going to try to return in the summer because I hear the girls party and drink all night and then spend the day on the beaches recharging their batteries so they can do it again that night. I probably don’t have the liver nor stamina for much of that, however.

One more time

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 01 May 2018 20:22:45 GMT

So, why would I return

Half the country wants to return to the security of the Soviet central planning model but this will never happen. It’s too far along. The other half is embracing personal freedoms and the risk of failing and are putting in tremendous effort to catch up to a world that got past them. There is still the legacy of bureaucracy with the underlying corruption that it will cost you to get something done expeditiously. Most of the economy is underground because the rules change according to which desk you talked to last, so people avoid any government involvement as best they can and keep it a cash society. Self protection has developed through contacts and a network of friends. Then there is the poorly maintained infrastructure, the pot holes and the mud, the gray Soviet bloc apartments that need serious maintenance, the snow, wind and rain, my lack of Slavic language skills keeping me rather isolated, and the cultural quirks.

Here is my but. These are warm people who are welcoming once they get past the personal caution of dealing with a foreigner or alien. The government has made promises to get closer to the European Union standards so we will see. Eliminate most of the government paper pushing and the rest is a matter of throwing in capital to improve the infrastructure. The kids I come into contact with, and these are the kids whose parents can see the future, need skills so they can compete in their new world. They need to get rid of the angst that there is no future for them in Moldova so they will remain and not emigrate. This will then progress to a generation that will change the accepting attitude, no longer accept the status quo, hold people accountable, and push to get things done. A country cannot export their best people for very long.

This has become so good a challenge that I can’t let it pass

So what I am I going to do?

Firstly, I will insist on picking up more Russian from anyone who will talk to me. I have never been in a situation of social isolation like this before and I don’t like it. I understand that North American open friendliness makes us look like buffoons in their eyes, but so be it.

There is going to be more NES (native English speakers) around this summer so I don’t think I will be of much use and will have more down time. I will actively seek a project teaching a subject with a syllabus and all the peripheral details. Maybe I’ll get together a group of kids and set up a computer lab for something as basic as looking up information on the internet or playing with software for video creation. There is some musical talent among the kids and I think pushing them to create their own music might be fun - a little James Brown anyone?

(Parenthetically, this school is now fully used as there is only 2 rooms. I mentioned that I would set up a class Saturday evenings if I could have a chaperone. Svetlana was genuinely shocked that things have evolved to this stage in North American society. This then lead to a discussion of not touching kids under any circumstance and speaking gently to them so their feelings weren’t hurt. More shock. Refreshing, Huh?)

There is a great youngster being raised by his mother and grandmother and he needs some male presence so he can spit, leave his shirt untucked and know how to roll his cigarette pack into his shirt sleeve. There has to be some reward for being a good student. Besides, he speaks English and I already have him on my payroll as an interpreter.

Next, if I am going to stay here for a longer period, then I am going to build a house or apartment and load it with all the American conveniences. I had forgotten how I like to live large and so it will be rather decadent with space - a large shower, a large kitchen and a large great room with 3 bedrooms.

Then I need to find a reason for the kids to stay in Causeni. There has to be an attitude adjustment. Having the skills and no where to use them is enervating. This town needs a restaurant, a bar, a movie theatre and anything else for entertainment and employment. If one can get momentum in this direction then there is even more reason for large businesses to move in, create more employment, which would require more amenities, and on and on. There is a group in Chisinau, the capital, called the Foreign Small Enterprise Association. I will join the group and see if any of the big city amenities can be brought to Causeni.

Lastly, I have decided I am a sapiosexual. (Look that up). I do not have enough time left to put up with willfully ignorant, superficial kvetches that haven’t progressed in the past 2 decades. I am going to surround myself with upbeat, creative, energetic, open minded and positive people. If they happen to be female, so much the better. Speaking of females, I now have another challenge. They seem to lose their energy at about 40 years old. If one believes the age difference formula, that you take half your age and add 7, then I am right in the arm candy range. Maybe it’s time to try the European marriage contract method. Maybe it’s time to try Eastern European. I have done the love and romance route twice with expensive consequences. I wonder how one words the agreement that you will wipe my drool, look past my dark spots and wrinkles, and massage my arthritis? Stay tuned for updates.

Thoughts of the last 2 months

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The highlight of my last week in town is that I finally got 4 neighbors to mumble “good morning” in Russian as they hurried past me. I don’t feel as socially isolated as before. OK, so it took 2 months for them to warm up. The mothers walking their kids to school still stare at me with suspicion but the kids now smile cautiously as they dodge around the mud filled puddles in the street. I am hoping that better weather in the summer will bring more people outside and maybe they will realize I don’t have pointed ears and a forked tail. The kids from the school classes have no problem hailing me on the street with a loud “Rob” but then the other pedestrians stop and look to see who the kids are talking to in English. I really have to pick up more Russian phrases but I don’t think I will ever be able to carry on more than a stumbling conversation using Google Translate. I spend some time in the evening memorizing useful phrases but they are gone or all jumbled up by the morning. Those who speak Russian to me do what I am training myself not to do - rapid speech with slang. Slavic languages are also guttural but I am getting over the automatic reflex that they are sounding angry.

I keep bumping into a Moldovan cultural habit where one offers, for instance, chocolate to someone and they turn it down. Then if you offer it a second time, they will grab it. I have been told that because you worked for this ‘treat’ it is yours but also there is a suspicion that the receiver will be obliged to the giver. That having been said, if one gives a student a chocolate bar then they are expected to share it with their friends and family. How does this work again, please? I do know that I reflexly paid for tickets for a dolphin show in Bulgaria and then coffee/tea afterward and this was commented on to others with a little anxiety. I heard about it 2 days later. If I invited someone and their child out for a spontaneous, casual pizza (you know, chow and some chat) would this be interpreted as a marriage proposal? I will find out when I return.

I am trying to be a good tourist in spite of the cultural, financial and age differences. The attitude of losing the power or WiFi and getting a response of “It’s Moldova” with a shrug makes me grind my teeth quietly because anyone in North America or Europe would have held someone accountable. It must be a Soviet relic. My Social Security check is about 10 times what a Moldovan nurse makes and I am very aware of this. But, buy a big sack of placenta (yes, this is spelled correctly) or chocolate and put it in the middle of the table for anyone to gnosh on and it might compost. There is a huge reluctance to accept anyone else’s ‘treat’. I am getting tired of eating by myself in the evening but I am not sure how to invite someone for eats and talk without a feeling of obligation. I do not comment loudly about the low cost of living but I know the store clerks notice that I buy prepared food, high end kitchen appliances, and bedding. It is costing me about $500 USD per month for everything and this would cost 5 or 6 times this in the USA. But cars and computers are the same price as in the USA. Most age groups think the most difficult thing that Americans have to do is get out of bed in the morning and find their way to the swimming pool where they spend the rest of the day. I have given the financial reality talk several times but they don’t believe me.

It was pointed out to myself and the other American that we would need extensions as our 90 day tourist visa was closing or had expired. So, I got out the check list, which was in Romanian, and got originals and copies of my apartment lease, proof that the landlord owned the apartment, employment contact and 4 other things - all notarized and blessed. I also paid the American Embassy $50 on my VISA card to certify I was not a felon. Made my third trip to the Immigration Department and a nice lady went through the list. I was then directed to the person who figured out my fine for being 4 days late (you have to apply 30 days before your tourist visa expires) and then returned to the original person with my receipts. Thank God Svetlana was there translating. The clerk then asked me to prove that I could support myself. This was not on the list but I had printed out my bank accounts, gave them to her and you could just see that she was annoyed that I had them. She will now give the package to the next desk and they will decide by April 24th. I kept wondering if I was going to be told there was a way to make me their friend.

A week in the life....

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Okay, I’m now officially bored and so I will update this blog. There has been 2 nice days since I returned to Bellingham and now it is soggy again.

I spent 8 weeks in Causeni and returned to Bellingham in early April to pay taxes and take care of loose ends.

The school day is getting to be a routine but because I do not speak Russian or Romanian (actually the practical language here is Russo-Romanian because it is a blend) I am really no use until the adults appear during their lunch hour. This is mainly middle management upgrading their English because the company is multinational and English is the lingua franca. We have a conversational 10 minutes in small groups with a suggested topic before Svetlana takes over with the grammar lessons. Then there could be a brief interlude when I read an English passage and then the students read the same material in rotation and I correct their pronunciation. The teenagers arrive after public school gets out at 13:30 and again I will read passages and the kids rotate through reading the same passage with me correcting them. Not as much emphasis on conversation as the exams are mainly academic or out of a book and the standard is Cambridge English. Therefore, Svetlana is slightly concerned that the kids will pick up and remember North American pronunciation or slang and the standard is Cambridge. For instance, it is a flat not an apartment, trousers not pants, etc. The kids get older in age as the afternoon progresses. At 17:30 there is a conversational or writing group that is just drop-in. This is some preparation for me.

Then it’s 18:30 and I am off to get myself fed. The double burner in the apartment is slightly scarey as it vents into an over head cupboard and I’m afraid of setting a fire. So I either go to the deli to see what is left or the food store chain, Linella’s, for cheese and bread or something I can heat in a microwave. And of course, there is the high end wine for $5.00 USD. Finally got the deli cook, Anastasia, to smile at me but the other clerks will not smile but get the 2 lines- between -their -eyebrows frown when they get involved in the conversation.

Saturday begins with the BNF (Building a New Future) group under a grant from the American Embassy. The students spent about 2 months on a closing 2 minute video for presentation to the embassy. I sat in on endless audio takes as the kids didn’t like the sound of their voices or their pronunciation as the video was in English. About 60% of these were sad as the kids talked about their parents leaving for other countries for work for months at a time or they talked about never having seen fathers and being raised by great- uncles. I suppose this is their reality. After the BNF kids leave, there is a 2 hour session of upper classmen from the surrounding villages here for a cram course in English as they will write English exams in 2 months. Saturday ends at 3 PM.

There is also Sunday classes along the same timeline and these end at 3 PM. Svetlana has been doing this schedule 7 days a week for 13 years .

I put in a SMART Board for the school. It is basically a large white board which mirrors the attached computer screen and any thing you can trace on the board shows up on the computer screen. It is a giant touch screen developed in Calgary, Canada. Huge difference in teaching methods as it seems to keep the student’s attention better because everything can be done more quickly and the students have direct interaction with the computer. Svetlana is a blur of hands as she pushes various buttons on the screen to change the font or the color. And we are still learning different actions of the buttons after 4 months of use.

The Return

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 08:28:03 GMT

Spent 6 weeks stateside doing the details - closing up the practice, selling the office building and getting things in some sort of order. Returned to Chisinau by way of LHR. Air Moldova flies out of Stansted so had to get a bus trom LHR to STN and then spend a day waiting for the flight. There was no way to clear customs into England, get the bus to Stansted and arrive in time for the flight. Besides, one has to check into the flight 2 hours before departure. So, the next day I took the bus to the airport and then a bus to the town and University of Cambridge for the day. I was specifically going to the Cambridge Bookstore for ESL books not available in Moldova. There was a book sale at that time but not among the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) section. This is a really important subject all over the world and they never go on sale. The clerk commented that there are probably more people learning English than there are native speakers. The city was a large collection of well maintained buildings with religious names - but my people are Oxford types. There was also a large collection of Orientals wandering around with light clothing not quite up to the freezing wind. Bus back to Stansted airport and then a bus to the hotel.

Direct flight to Chisinau and the Thomas Albert Hotel and the next day picked up a higher powered computer for the SMART Board. Eugene, the SMART Board retailer, and I are getting to be good friends. Got a cab ride to Causeni for $60 USD on Saturday. This was the first time I had travelled the rutted and potholed 2 lane highway during daylight. Past abandoned factories from the Soviet era and past multiple half finished and abandoned concrete shells of apartments. Through multiple agricultural villages with the varied colored houses in various stages of disrepair. However the orchards appeared well maintained. The fields must have been ploughed in the fall as the surface soil had no cover crop and was being leached by the rains. Southern Moldova has a spring just like Southern Alberta. Piles of snow blackened with sand for the road traction and now melting into deep puddles of mud that fill the potholes in these roads. The cars are coated with dirt and the windshield washer needs refilling every 2 hours. One walks through town picking their way around puddles and masses of sticky clay mud. The school floor is gritty with mud from the shoes.

Moved into my apartment which is on the ground floor - the entrance off the sidewalk is through a bank vault appearing steel door, then up 5 concrete steps and a right turn through another bank vault door then down an unlighted dark hallway lined with concrete and then the entrance to the apartment which is another bank vault door unlocked with a key 4 inches long. The apartment was supplied with a clothes washer, a microwave and a small kitchen with 2 gas burners so I bought knives and forks and all the rest. It has been a long time since I have done this. Then there is another problem when shopping for groceries. How to read the package labeling which is in Russian? Can you guess the use from the picture on the labelling? The clerks in the food and sundries shops speak only Russian and are rather intolerant of charades (actually they all seem to scowl and customer service is unknown). The clerks are not helpful nor friendly, seldom smile and if you address them with a smile give the impression they are being interrupted. The lady in the specialty wine shop is a notable exception - very friendly, laughs at charades and I think she and I will see a lot of each other (as a shop patron of course).

Another aggravation which I do not remember from the past trip is the electrical power - it keeps going out for no reason. The outages average one per week and so I have a flashlight as a backup. The Wi-Fi keeps cutting out for no particular reason also, but this is spotty and for the past week seems only to effect my apartment complex and not the school. When the water pressure is lost for some unknown reason, having a dribble shower is a treat. Ask people what happened and they shrug and say “Moldova”. Very tolerant and accepting when a North American would be outraged and looking for someone’s head on a plate.

The same behavior of the pedestrians walking through town as was noted last trip - people frankly starring in curiosity at me. I often stand at the main entrance smoking outside and as the people walk in and out fo the apartment or walk past on the sidewalk they are curious but do not smile back. It is fun to watch them trying to look straight ahead but pivoting their eyes to look at me. The women walking their young kids to the school across the park will walk next to the far curb holding onto the child’s hand until they pass me.

Svetlana’s school has generally the same kids and the same routine as noted in November except this time the English exams are in 4 months and the kids are even more motivated. Nice, polite and gentle kids in ages ranging from about 5 years old to maybe 17 and then the adult group. When asked, they are taking English because their parents are working out of the country and they realize they might need to do this also or because they “like it”. Endless rounds of English grammar like past perfect tenses of verbs which I still do not understand - it sounds right or it doesn’t. There are 2 public school systems here in Causeni, the Russian where instruction is in Russian and Romanian is a foreign language and Romanian where Russian is the foreign language. They also then have a choice of another foreign language like French or English. And, for instance, if you are in a ‘Russian’ school , they will drill Russian grammar into you daily for 12 years and then the same with the ‘Romanian’ schools. The best that I can remember, we had grammar for 1 week in grade 5 and it was never mentioned again. The local school board exams are testing grammar but The Cambridge English exams are also big on academic grammar but 20% of the grade is conversational English. Now we are talking my language.

Week 10

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 22:15:22 GMT

I am uncertain how English became the dominant international language, replacing Latin and then French, but it is the lingua franca between multiple countries. The adults attending the English immersion courses were using these new skills for cross-border business, science, tourism, or in one case, just so he could talk to his American grandson.

Moldova has been independent since 1991 but is getting off to a slow start. They are a tiny agricultural based economy, left without a manufacturing base, in a world that is increasingly technical and very competitive. Those who lived more than 2 generations being told what to do by central planning are being replaced by citizens living for themselves; succeeding or failing by themselves in a self-starting system. It is a major attitude change. The key to success for the new generation in Moldova is education. This gives the kids a future of options which are further extended if they can also speak English. It is the language people first approach you with if you appear ‘foreign’ or are staying in an international hotel. This skill even bores down to the cab drivers in Bucharest or Krakow. Regardless of the political problems that may occur in their lifetimes, education is portable and nontaxable.

One is not admitted into university in Moldova without passing the Cambridge English exam. One gets 4 tries to pass the exam at a certain level or the only option is a trade school. It is a big deal. The exam is in 4 parts: Reading and use of English, Writing, Listening and Speaking and the last is 15% of the final grade. One can use American slang and still pass the exam because the conversational section is between 2 students discussing a subject with 2 monitors aiding the conversation and grading their impressions of the vocabulary and grammar. There are multiple certificates of competency depending on the final grade. Yes, the bulk of the exam is academic English, but I am no longer very concerned about worries that the slang will interfere with the academic portion.

I have spent hours on YouTube watching videos of how to teach conversational English.

It was pointed out to me that I spoke too fast and the students had difficulty figuring out where one word ended and another began. There are multiple videos of lessons on how not to sound foreign when speaking English. They are all lists of phrases in which the words run together eg Wannagofercoffee, Whassup, etc. This is the distinction of a native English speaker. We speak in strings of phrases and then run them together. I concluded that I speak impeccable English. I think the Polish found the Englishmen at the courses easier to understand because their speech is more succinct as they seem to emphasize the last letters of a word if it is a consonant. Of course, this is ignoring their regional accents. So, I am going to work on slowing down my words per minute and then trying to break the phrases down into isolated words.

I will not give up all my slang because it seems one gets a higher grade on the exam if one uses slang (American or English) but I will attempt to keep it well used and common and understood by all 4 types of English speakers. Besides, it makes my speaking more colorful.

They have an app for that. I was also told that I had a deep voice which made the words difficult to hear. So I invested $2 USD into Vocular, an app which measures the sound range of your voice. It turns out my range is 58 to 106 Hertz which gives me the lowest bass musical note there is and, if I was a female, it is called voice fry. I do not think I can do anything to bring my range up to falsetto.

I am going to take the online course for a TEFL certificate just to give me some credibility.

What can an instructor do to make the learning experience more fun and possibly easier than memorizing a list of vocabulary words? Probably talk about the world the students live in and therefore subjects they can relate to. For instance, Moldova is an agricultural region and so one could talk about farm animals, types, body parts and foods from them; parts of a tractor and the difference with a car. One can include geography by discussing travel from one part of the world to another through airports with all the details of tickets, passports and visas, parts of the airplane and foreign locations.

I understand that these kids are taking other subjects in public schools in Romanian and this English tutoring is only 2 or 3 hours a week. But, what if one could increase exposure to English by using Skype or Facetime for 15 minutes here and there? Sort of on call at the student’s convenience. I am not sure how to set this up because one is assuming they have access to a computer and then there is the time zone problem. Are there enough students with smart phones and therefore access to Google translate or WhatsApp?

I return to Causeni, Moldova the beginning of February. I will see if this approach makes any difference.

Things learned

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 16 Dec 2017 18:08:02 GMT

Moldovans are emerging after almost 80 years of Soviet influence which gave them economic security but also an acceptance being told what to do by central planning whether it was in their interests or not. They have been emerging for the past 26 years into a world they are really unprepared for and in which they need to make their own decisions. The 2 or 3 generations of those knowing nothing except the Soviet style are now being replaced with those who are discovering the freedom to fail. They are probably not the majority of the population yet and it will be another generation before their attitude is up to western standards. This new generation just needs a boost or they need some economic help to get traction. Speaking English well enough to engage with the rest of the world would open up a large number of options for the children. It is not interfering with their culture but giving the new establishment opportunities.

Romanians are on their way but need to be more confident. Their entry into the European Union has helped but it is not full membership, even though they have adopted a new legal code, but the rules of commerce are not in place yet.

Poland is doing very well with a stable manufacturing base and an aggressive population.

So, how does this apply to me?

1. I am surprised how much I like my own space and, as it turns out, lots of it. I am well past the backpacker- hostel age where there are 4 bunks to a room and much prefer 4 star hotels with creature comforts. So if I was to live in the area for any length of time, I would want my own apartment with all the American amenities.

2. I will get a TEFL certification because it has now become a challenge and I will modify my speech pattern and use less slang.

3. I am embarrassed that I live so large and I haven’t felt this way since I was a tourist in Viet Nam. I am not saying that I don’t deserve it, but it is a little excessive. I am considering my priorities and cleaning out things I do not use because I have lost interest in them. I would then use the excess as seed money to leave a legacy with conditions. The cost of developing an education center with all the advanced educational aides is very little by our standards. This would be a worthwhile project.

Now I need to figure out the logistics of this.

Thoughts on immersion programs

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

These programs are definitely the best introduction to a country and the best way to get acquainted with the people and their thoughts. I can think of no better venue to have a captive group who will express their opinions and, in return, question you about yours (thoughts on Trump, etc, no holds barred). One gets very personal very quickly in this setting. However there is no way to get followup to see if you helped their English (no report card).

The character of each venue is different. I believe it depends on the style of the coordinators as the Romanian venue had Chris and Ruxandra present for the day and evening whereas Ryan and Ewa were not as visible but were possibly lost in the larger number of participants. I think the size of the group matters as there is confidence in numbers. There was more difficulty keeping the Poles apart and speaking English than the Romanians. Maybe there is a difference in national character or in the occupation of the participants as the Romanians were lawyers and doctors with that certain personality which does this type of work and the Polish were into sales, leads for engineering projects, or customer relations but were definitely more ebullient. The culture of the lodgings also matter as the Polish hotel staff were prepared to interact and banter with us and the Romanian hotel staff gave the impression we were inconveniencing them.

The Romanians stopped me when I was speaking too quickly or using unfamiliar slang (so they could write it down). The Poles only cautioned or questioned me occasionally during the week but I found out on the last day that they had voted me the least understandable of the NES. The runners up were a NES with a TEFL certificate from New York, then a girl from Montana without the MidWest nasal voice, and then a guy from Minnesota who had done 25+ venues The NES from San Diego was understood easily as was a NES from Toronto who had a notable accent from the Mediterranean although she was an NES. I do not see a pattern here. I was told I was speaking too quickly and therefore they were having problems noting where 1 word ended and another began, and so they were falling behind in their mental translation. The slang also threw them although I thought it was non-regional to the USA or Western Canada. Interesting that they thought I had an actor’s voice which I think means that the timbre and tone were easily followed but they also noted that I spoke bass and fairly quietly. The English accents (8 of them) were more easily followed in spite of their regional accents because the pronunciation seemed more crisp.

The primary goal of these immersion courses is to give the participants some courage to try out their knowledge of English without fear of feeling foolish. But what is the point of speaking to an anxious English learner if I am unintelligible? It would give the learners concern of a very steep learning curve. I was concerned enough by this that I contacted one of the coordinators about whether I should get a TEFL certification or find another line of work. She confirmed that she and the Poles had talked about it but that a TEFL cert would be worthwhile. I wonder if Angloville rates us?

There was an improvement in speaking English at the end of the week but if one doesn’t continue with exposure to English, how long will the improvement last? There needs to be a publicized method for Skype or FaceTime with a NES. This assumes the participants can find a block of time out of their day.

Angloville Krakow

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Krakow is busy with young adults enjoying the improved economy. The Poles are busy, enthusiastic and positive about the future. There is no national apathy as noted the previous 4 weeks. The traffic in the central core, near Old Town, is courteous and I seldom hear a horn. Everyone eats pastries or kebab on the street as they are on the move. Again excellent posture, good makeup talents and stylish outfits in spite of the slush and slippery footing. It is interesting being in a city where I have no communication ability and must rely on the goodwill of others. Never considered how isolated one can be for this reason alone.

Christmas is a big event in this town and the Central Square is filling with artisan booths for the Christmas Fair. They also have a Black Friday event the end of December.

The Salt Mine tour and the Auschwitz-Birkenau tour are a must. Puts thing in perspective.

The Saturday tour was by local resident who was an historian and we walked through the Xmas crowds and kept losing her as she is very short. She is only allowed to lose 6 tourists a year in the crowds and retain her license and she almost hit a 2 year high by losing all 13 of us - twice. The coordinators, Ryan from Australia and Ewa from Poland accompanied us. After the tour, Steve from the Romanian venue and I went to the Central Square to drink beer for the afternoon and the younger kids went back to their hostels or wandered around. Some of the younger ones had just finished university or were finishing up university courses online with essays and such, others were in a ‘gap’ year before starting work as a lawyers, 2 were chefs in England using up vacation time and the rest were in various stages of moving around the world. etc.

Sunday on the bus and we added 6 more NES and several Polish. The Polish were a mixed batch: mainly middle management looking to advance up the ladder, several taking the course on their own dime for interest and a retired Polish colonel who is paying for the course so he will be able to speak to his grandson in Arkansas. Arrived at the venue, had lunch and the sessions began. It is the same schedule as Romania. Suggested topics for one-on-one discussion then change partners in 1 hour. The Poles were cautious and reluctant to use their English at first. Had an old fashioned Polish vodka session Tuesday nite and this loosened up everyone. Even the women were doing shots, so when you are told not to get into a vodka lubricated social event with Poles, include the women. Next day was rather subdued. The main event was the presentations on Thursday. These are 5 minute talks in English by every Pole. Each one is assigned a mentor to help them with their English but they are otherwise on their own. The talks were very creative and spontaneous with good stage presence. That nite was a major unwinding and the hotel staff requested that they would like to close the Club at 5 AM. There were several NES the next morning who thought suicide was a good option. Very quiet bus ride back to Krakow that afternoon.

The bus delivered us to Krakow and the groups scattered to buses or trains for their next venue in Poland or to hostels for ongoing flights the next day. One went onto Paris where she was going to do some volunteer repair work on a castle. I hung around Krakow Old Town and the Christmas Fair and then returned to Seattle through a weather event through Northern Europe that fouled up flights all the way down to the Mediterranean.

Angloville Bucharest

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Sunday - We loaded up the bus with another NES (Native English speaker) who was traveling around Europe and the Middle East. We added 2 Romanians and then drove 3 hours into the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains to Bran in Transylvania. 4 Romanians were no shows as they had a crisis at work so we were overloaded with NES. Classes began that afternoon. These are motivated students for various reasons but the common denominator seems to be increased fluency for career advancement. There is a certain appreciation that English is becoming the Lingua Franca of science , tourism and travel. For instance, the staff at The Novotel Hotel in Bucharest immediately starts a conversation in English with anyone.

Hourly suggested topics are given to the NES and Romanians as suggestions of conversation for the one-on-one sessions. After 1 hour the partners are rotated. There are also suggested sessions of negotiations for salary, apartment rent and leasing which progressed to the same subjects but of increasing complexity as the week progressed. I have spoken to the NES and generally the one-on-one sessions get off topic so I am feeling less guilty as my hour is more free thought and follow where it leads. As long as they are speaking English. The Romanian students are a 47 yo lawyer from Bucharest, a 32 yo Columbian veterinarian who has lived in Romania for 5 years and is now a grad student in Geology, and an OB-GYN from Moldova and she speaks good English, Russian and Romanian.

It occurred to me on day 2 that I would be getting no followup from these students like I would from the children in the Moldovan school. Therefore no report card. There should be a way to keep in contact with these Romanians to see if the course had any influence and possibly to arrange followup sessions of further instruction on Skype. I need to see if this could be set up in a practical manner.

It snowed Wednesday to the delight of the Florida lawyer. He did complain about the temperature but I could not talk him into making snow angels. We all took a group walk to Bran Castle. I was disappointed that there were no impaled bodies (he is called Vlad the Impaler for a reason). It turns out that it was just a fortress to protect the passages through the Caucasus Mountains and most recently was the favorite residence of Queen Maria of Romania. The rest of the Dracula myth is totally made up by the Irishman Bram Stoker and Vlad of the Dragon (Dracula in Romanian) never got much out of Bucharest. But he did fake the Turkish Army into turning for home with the 20,000 impaled bodies of Turkish soldiers that he placed on their route into the country, so he is a national hero.

There is a strange bonding occurring - everyone was wishing the best for the fellow participants with encouragement, tips and suggestions. Each Romanian was assigned a NES mentor for further skills or problems. I was assigned the OB GYN who already had good skills but was very motivated to improve them. Her husband is Russian and had lived in the US for 12 years including 4 years at Harvard Law. She has a young family and another on the way. We always got way off suggested topic and into raising kids, running a medical practice versus contract medicine as an employee, and her determination not to live the life of her ancestors and to give her children opportunities.

The ‘graduation exam’ was a presentation from each Romanian, in English, of a subject of their choice. The presentation was then critiqued by their mentor plus another NES and then a Staff coordinator. A very encouraging review by all for the progress of the Romanians. I thought it would have been a good idea to make each NES give a spontaneous presentation of a topic chosen by the Romanians to show them we were not the absolute experts. We will see if this is included in future Romanian programs. The bus loaded us up at 13:00 and we returned to Bucharest. Not much energy left. Do not arrive in Bucharest during evening rush hour and expect to find a cab. Some eventually found cabs and the rest of us walked to our hotels once we figured out where we were.

The 4 Americans met the evening after they had found their various hotels, in Old Town Bucharest at a recommended restaurant. The Columbian geologist arranged the whole evening and appeared with her boyfriend, also from Columbia. The next day they had arranged for all of us to meet for brunch and then a trip to an antique car museum. That evening, there was another dinner after Frank, the lawyer, and I spent the afternoon at the Radisson getting unwound. The courtesy of the Columbians was way over and above over anything we could ask for, but they are proud of their adopted city. I wondered if Americans would be as hospitable.

I was staying at a different boutique hotel from a week ago and was looking at the sight-seeing tour rack for maps. There were 3 'Exotic Thai' massage pamphlets and all 3 have a ‘Happy Hour’. I have been wondering what that could be for several days now.

The next morning everyone scattered for their flights back to the USA and another arranged a bus trip to Bulgaria.

I mooched around Bucharest going to museums, and caught the flight to Krakow just in time for wet snow.

The rest of the week

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Thursday is another long day beginning at 11 AM after Svetlana finishes her 3 hours with the school system. She has planned a cultural exchange with 40 students in Switzerland and one of the principals of the 8 schools involved tried a power play and said she would not give the students time away from school for the trip. The principal lost but it was a waste of psychic energy and I was surprised a principal would not feel that travel was an education.

Spent the evening with Olga’s aunt from Moscow. She is a treat and doesn’t speak a word of English, so Olga had to translate. The evening was well lubricated with home made wine.

Friday - The wine last night was not a good idea. It was the same school schedule but Svetlana invited Laramie and me to dinner at her house after work. Laramie wanted to try on the clothes he bought at MallDova, so we wore ties to school. The kids didn’t react to the improved look.

I met Svetlana’s brother and bride that evening. He has a vineyard and makes his own wine. Lesson learned - never match drinks with the person who fermented the wine. Everyone in the country has their own vat and secret family recipe for wine. The first round of wine at a Moldovan meal is a bottoms-up swallow of the whole glass, and things progress from there. You then intermix wine with brandy but I had learned some lessons elsewhere and I managed to beg off these rounds. To turn down refills of wine, however, is a national insult. It was BBQ heated with wood. They do not understand heating with charcoal or propane. No body drinks and drives in this country, so Vladimir escorted Laramie and me home on foot. We went past an all night gas station where we decided to finish the night with beer. Olga stayed up for us.

Saturday - Ok, 4 hours sleep. I can do this. Didn’t see Laramie until early afternoon.

These are longer classes for the kids today as they come in from the outlying villages by taking a routiera into Causeni. Otherwise the same routine. Svetlana was her same high energy level.

I am beginning to wonder if I am of any use to Svetlana. I am not picking up much Romanian because most people are speaking Russian and then what Romanian I do hear is spoken very quickly - probably like I would speak English. I therefore need constant monitoring because if the kids have questions, Svetlana has to answer. It is humbling that I am no better an instructor than I was at the beginning of the week. The only saving grace is that I hear Svetlana say PickED instead of picT because of the way Romanians and Russians speak every letter. So maybe there is a place for me instructing conversational English amongst the more advanced speakers. Svetlana did casually mention that I should consider what skills, other than English, I could pass on. So I spent the evening doing a personal inventory of possible topics rather than go out to match drinks with Laramie. Good choice.

Sunday - There was a meeting of the kids going to a cultural exchange in Switzerland in 2 weeks. 40 kids and 5 chaperones. Laramie and I both noted, with mild alarm, the high 5’s among the kids when they found out who their room mates were going to be, but the chaperones were not even thinking of it. American standards again. The meeting to set the ground rules for the kids was barely controlled pandemonium but it seemed to get done and then they had to practice a Moldovan dance routine. As usual, the girls had it figured out but the boys were rather uncoordinated. Oh well, they still have 1 more meeting.

Back to Chisinau that evening but first stopped at the Metro store for school supplies. This is CostCo by a different name; almost the same layout and stuff for sale. Christmas shlock has arrived - plastic lighted Santa Clauses, etc.

Day 15 - Bucharest

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The main route into Bucharest is beautiful. Well maintained and clean, with lots of parks containing trees and statues of bronze heads. It is an interesting mixture of preserved architecture from the early 1900’s intermixed with Soviet functional. Apparently it was called the Paris of the East in the 1930’s because it was designed by French educated architects. However, several steps into the side streets, and the buildings are dilapidated. Even down the main roads the well maintained and scrubbed buildings are next to a building needing more TLC - extensive repairs and a wash. One sees rewiring jobs extending around the building exteriors and these seem to originate from a ball of wires on an electric pole. I just hope they are fiberoptic cables and not 220 volt.

Every building is tagged. My understanding is that a mural is done with permission, graffiti can be art but without permission and tagging is the alpha male wolf marking his territory. The messages are all over the spectrum. The several people I talked to about this think it is a good form of self expression and should be encouraged. It didn’t seem to matter to them whether it was an apartment or a national monument. It is against the law but the police turn a blind eye. There are even several outlying villages which actively encourage it. One pollee even suggested that after 50 years of Soviet oppression, it was about time for free expression. It would be a horrendous job washing the paint off marble and limestone.

I landed at rush hour and these guys know how to use a horn. They are very big on driving into the intersection just as the light turns so they have blocked the cross traffic. As I said, everyone has a horn but they are not above climbing out of their cars to have a more face to face discussion with the blocking cars. And through all this, motorcycles are lane splitting about 10 miles per hour faster than the traffic flow. Romanians buy lots of car and keep them very clean. McLarens with their gull wings and lots of exhaust decibels are interspersed with small Fiat and Dacias but the bulk are BMW and Mercedes.

It may have been the area of town where I am staying, but it is definitely more expensive here than Chisinau. However it is cheaper than say downtown Seattle by about 40%. They also take Black Friday very seriously and it lasts about 10 days here with the extensions. Anything from 10 to 75% off.

Thursday - This is a hotel mainly for business people and at least 50% of them are women. The 4 AM traffic, which was a standstill at 5 PM the evening before, is now a drag strip about 35 MPH over the speed limit. The pedestrian crossing lights are interesting. They have a countdown before they change and then green is just a suggestion to proceed at your best speed, looking right and left for turning cars. The green walk sign is not an absolute right. This is the downtown core on the periphery of Old Town.

Old Town has buildings from about 1720 that are still functional and there is the odd late medieval building being restored professionally. It is cafes of various specialities, souvenir shops and clothing stores. I got off the main drag and walked east into the valley with the huge Parliament Building in the center of a park. This is the second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon. There is a lingering resentment that a large portion of Bucharest was torn down to build this for one man’s ego. The surrounding Soviet-functional apartments went on block after block and were originally built in the early 1950s to great acclaim by the population as this was better accommodation than they had available prior. They are now looking a little rough around the edges but again the maintained building is next door to the dilapitated and the further one gets off the main streets and into the side streets, the worse shape the buildings are in.

One can buy a 2 room apartment (bedroom and living room) for about $50,000 and then utilities add another $250 per month (but this is seasonal). Everyone has a car and they park them anywhere. There are public busses and an underground Metro. They are trying dedicated bicycle lanes but I didn’t see them used much. Never saw a skateboard the whole time. Pharmacies are like Starbucks, 4 per block. But I haven’t seen a Starbucks yet.

Friday - picked up at 8 AM for a guided tour to the beach. It is a 220 km trip on interstate- standard highways to the shore. The land is billiard table flat and the farmers are taking good care of the soil as cover crops were growing. Apparently the land is owned by large agricultural companies. There is a esthetically beautiful bridge over the Danube, which was not that impressive, and some rolling hills just before the coastal plain. A nuclear plant built by Canadians, fields of solar panels and a windmill farm are visible.

It is off season, so the traffic is mainly tractor trailer rigs heading for the port in Constanta. Just north of the city of Constanta is the Romanian Riviera city of Mamaia and north of this is the delta of the Danube. A good museum of archeology is in Constanta. It begins from the Neolithic times, through the Romans and then extends into the Soviet era with exhibits of forced labor and the “removal” of Nicolae Ceausescu. The sequence seems to be: The Soviets took Moldova and the Romanian military with King Michael’s blessing, joined the Germans in attacking Russia to get Moldova back. The Romanians lost and the Soviets took Romania and Moldova after the war and King Michael went into exile. Originally Nicolae Ceausescu was a hero for standing up to the Soviets by refusing to send troops to Czechoslovakia during the 1968 uprising but went on a visit with the leadership of North Korea and on his return, began to do very unpopular deeds and tried to develop a cult following, which lead to his removal in 1989. The population takes politics seriously.

There was a palace coup in 1866 but Romania still felt they needed a king and so invited a German, Carol I. (Must have been an interesting employment contract.) Constanta was built with his influence and money in the late 1880s. Mamaia grew north of this and then multiple other towns evolved south for the beach goers. The soft white sand extends much further south into Bulgaria. Romania is a member of the EU but has not adopted the Euro yet and still has the Ron or Leu. Loans are flowing through the system from the EU and the economy is doing very well “but high paying jobs are hard to find”. A high paying job is about E1500 per month and is probably IT or management in an international company.

Tuesday

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

A full day of classes began at 11AM after Svetlana had finished the first 3 hours of her day at the public school. Laramie spent the morning writing a paper for his long distance university course and I brushed up my very limited Romanian. I was a little more oriented this day.

The classes are matched by ages and skill level. These are well scrubbed, attentive and motivated kids with the odd ADD thrown in for variety. The kids come from both the town or one of the surrounding villages. There was the usual range from the shy to the outspoken but they were keen and gently corrected the mistakes of others. There were no visible collections of tattoos or studs, only one girl with red frosted hair, the writing on the t-shirts was generic rather than angry messages, and cell phones were used very discretely and generally for the dictionary apps. Granted, these kids have parents with enough interest and the resources to send them to extracurricular classes but Svetlana will take in any kid that requests entrance and charges no fee if the family cannot afford it. This is about 25% of the enrolled kids and I cannot tell them from the full-pay students. My participation was more involved as the day progressed until I was warned that they could not follow my colloquial expressions and so I backed down. I was told the English exams are academic or written to Cambridge English standards and the slang I was using might confuse the students for the exams.

As a way to introduce me, the more advanced students were allowed to ask me any question as long as it was in English. There was the usual “What is your favorite color” questions but most questions were about the reality of life in the USA. Some had difficulty understanding why I was not sitting on a warm beach and others thought that all Americans got out of bed just to sit by the swimming pool. I possibly shattered some illusions.

Laramie’s teaching style is B.I.G. He is large, aggressive and the kids love it. He fills the room with noise and he has the kid’s full attention.

Svetlana is a phenomenon I have only experienced once before. She was raised in Causeni and has been teaching for about 14 years. She has all the certificates, as well as endorsements from the American Embassy in Chisinau. She is a rapid fire multitasker, loaded with ideas for the future and she has no limits to her energy levels. Anyone considering a career in English teaching needs to do an apprenticeship with her. Additionally, Svetlana has a vision for the future of her country and believes that educating Moldovan children is the best way to achieve it. She would succeed anywhere in the world, and probably with less energy expenditure, but has chosen to stick it out on her home turf. She and her husband are quietly charitable with clothing, food and free tuition for those in need. This lady is the real deal.

Chisinau - day 13

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Monday - Full day in Chisinau to get some economic information from the American Embassy and then to get a demonstration of some electronic teaching aides. Every building on Embassy Row has 2 carabinieri out front. They are unarmed security guards. They are not police officers nor military. The American Embassy will only see you 13:30 to 16:30 if you have an appointment - so “send us an email” was as far as I got. OK. Took a long walk through the city looking for the electronic aide but it turns out that their website had the old address, so all I got was a 7 kilometer walk through the peripheral areas of town. Did overhear 2 guys with west coast American accents though. Nice, clean scrubbed LDS boys from Portland doing their mission in Moldova. There are special hospitals for foreigners and these buildings look better maintained than the hospitals for the locals. Masses of Soviet styled apartments and they all need maintenance of various degrees. Each apartment is owned. I do not understand why the coop doesn't get together and maintain the investment. Again, got the lingering long look from the pedestrians. They were not fearful, just more curious. Still cannot figure why I am a curiosity.

Driving a car through Chisinau is a series of lightening starts and stops, but only rarely do you hear a horn. They also have a habit of straddling the lane dividers just in case they see an opportunity to advance 20 more feet on the car beside them. This effectively makes the 2 lane roads a sort-of 3 lanes.

I had several sessions over 2 days talking with Moldovians, English speakers, aged maybe 20 to 60 years old. There is a type of national inferiority complex along the lines of the “Indians are so much better at computer coding than we are” or “we are a poor country and so what do you expect”. All this while they are doing a world class, warm and friendly, job in the service industry. I couldn’t decide if they were discouraged by the ability of other nationalities to afford to buy things because the economies are doing well and their wages were higher or if the corruption amongst their elected leadership was not punishable. Either way they are discouraged.

Wednesday - Got all the Chisinau tasks done so got to the airport early and hung out. The Tarom flight to Bucharest was a turbo prop and well used but it was only an hour. There was a Romanian business man sitting next to me who was setting up an IT company in Moldova and Bulgaria and had just finished 3 days discussing this with bankers and various government agencies. He was astounded that 2 Americans would volunteer to teach English in Moldova and things progressed from there. English is the lingua franca in his line of work from Germany to the Black Sea. I mentioned looking into building a school in Causeni and the recurring rumors I’d heard about bribes and the government just shutting the project down half way into construction. He agreed that corruption was all over the area and if you got rid of one ‘Mafia’ type there were 10 more behind him to take his place and they were increasing worse. However, he was told that anything with corporation in the business name was untouchable and he would be pleased to get me into contact with the powers that be.

Day 7

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:40:56 GMT

Wednesday is a short day but more advanced students are in the mix. I think I’m understanding what is expected of me but I still need to slow down my speech and drop the slang. My very proper English ancestors would be pleased.

Because it was a short day I had more time to see the area in daylight.

The capital is pronounced keeshnow and the town is pronounced koshen. There is a subtle difference between the Romanian and Russian pronunciation but I could never remember it. I was told this is how one pronounces the little squiggles under the letters. If anyone cares there is 31 letters in the Moldovan alphabet.

Olga Gogu owns the apartment where Laramie and I are staying. One buys an apartment in Moldova similar to our condo arrangement. She lives there with her mother, who only speaks Russian and her 2 boys, aged 7 and 4. Olga’s English is basic. She has a live-in boyfriend and a continual parade of relatives visiting from Moscow or elsewhere. The apartment is very active. Olga is continually busy, always doing something with busy hands. Her mother has an early morning job (?maybe cleaning) and then returns home to mind the boys at 9 AM when Olga goes off to work at a restaurant. Then the mother helps with cooking and laundry.

The food is the same I have eaten over the years but here it is called something different. The national dish, served with every meal, is mamaliga which I call grits. They adorn it the same way with butter on top, or just plain, but I never saw anyone splash ketchup on it, nor did I see anyone mash sunny-side up eggs into it. Breakfast cereal I call oatmeal porridge. They do have what I would call sausages but mostly it refers to Oscar Meyer weiners. Yup, for any meal. Looks the same, tastes the same but is not served with relish nor mustard. The whole meal is washed down with homemade red wine. Most evenings are spent with a pleasant buzz.

It is fall here and the leaves are falling. Crews of women take short handled brooms and, as they stoop over, sweep the leaves with a sideways motion. A large farm wagon then picks up the piles of leaves and they disappear. It is the end of the season for what must be beautiful beds of roses scattered around the town.

The apartment buildings are Soviet styled and very practical with painted concrete hallways and steel doors to the apartments. But, no one does any maintenance on the buildings and they are disintegrating with spalling concrete, cracks in foundations and rather scary rewiring jobs. Lots of exposed, rusting steel rebar all over town. A lot of the exterior concrete is covered by tiles but they are peeling and nobody seems interested in fixing this. I do not understand the vacant lots nor the abandoned half-constructed buildings around town. Nobody can give me an explanation - it is just the way it is. The gas and electric supply is bolted to the outside of the building in long runs of piping or conduit. You can follow the modifications of this over the years because they simple cut off the piping and leave the abandoned run attached. All the apartments have window air conditions that vent the condensation to the outside walls where it must drip down the walls all summer.

People always stare at you on the street. Laramie and I cannot understand why we look different. I was told that Causeni is so small that everyone knows everyone but I also noted the look in Chisinau. I asked several people and they seemed to hint that we looked foreign but it is not the style of our clothing. Possibly we walked differently or ?aggressively. They couldn’t improve the explanation.

The town is filled with street dogs. These dogs are not aggressive as I have seen toddlers in the park walk up to a sleeping dog and pull its tail and the mothers kept gossiping with neighbors. I never saw anyone feed the dogs, but there are some elderly people that feed the masses of feral cats in the evening. I never saw any roadkill.

The citizens are very law abiding and cross the road at cross walks and with the light. I never saw a car driver get aggressive at a cross walk. I haven’t heard a car horn yet.

Day 4 + 5

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Sunday - I was picked up at 11:30AM by the Director of The Center for the Development of International Relations (CDIR), Svetlana Coiceva, (or Coiceva Svetlana as they say here) and her husband, Vladimir, who is nick named Vova. They brought along a retired career US Army sergeant who had been invalided out. Laramie Bahr is doing the same thing I am with Love Volunteers out of Auckland but had arrived 4 weeks prior. He is already at the same bed and breakfast where I would be staying. He is a published author and literate, even if he was raised near Chicago. We left the hotel in Chisinau for a 30 minute trip north of the city to Orheiul Vechi.

This is an ancient monastery that survived the religious views of the Soviet influence and still has monks living in underground rooms carved out of the limestone beneath the buildings. There is also a collection of preserved houses around the monastery, possibly dating back to medieval times, filled with the period tools and appliances from the past. This country resembles the Southern Albertan geography of rolling foothills with deep gorges carved out by the rivers. However, I do not remember shelves of seashells embedded in slate/limestone as are seen at this site. We then travelled back to Chisinau and to MallDova (shopping mall in Moldova - get it? cute) for shirts and trousers for Laramie. This is the 4 story shopping mall put up with Turkish money. We had hamburgers and fries at 4:30 and then Svetlana warned us there was a full supper waiting at the room and board apartment where we were to spent the night. Sure enough. Large dinner was being held for Laramie and me with homemade organic wine.

Monday - The school is a cram school for the English exams that must be written by the students to get promoted out of grade 9 and grade 12. You are allowed 3 retries if you do not pass the exam the first time. But, if you do not get the English certificate you cannot proceed to university, though you can go to trade school. The school was conceived by Svetlana Coiceva and she is the energy source for the whole operation. Classes began at 11AM after Svetlana has already put in 3 hours at the regular school system. The first group were young 4 and 5 year olds. There were lots of singsongs in English and dancing to computer based tutorials. Svetlana was a full participant. It was like a gym class in street clothes. I was tossed into the mix later on with another class of older kids. It was gentle. I introduced myself and then read a passage out loud and then asked the students prepared questions. It was a set up.

Okay! I can do this! Then the questions arrived from the students in either Romanian or Russian. I froze. Svetlana answered in rapid fire Russian. I think she has done this before. And so on it went with new classes of increasing skills every 90 minutes and questions in Russian. Other than a 30 minute break at 1PM, the action never slowed until 5PM when I left. Svetlana stayed another 90 minutes to instruct a full energy German class. I returned to the apartment with the Laramie for a large dinner and organic homemade wine.

Day 3

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I slept all night and the hotel had a huge breakfast buffet. A large group of Chinese engineers were staying at the hotel and they spoke English. They were looking into improving the roads in the countryside. The guide showed up about 10AM and we were off.

The guide was a 31 year old school teacher who taught himself IT well enough to work in Russia for 2 years before returning to the village of his birth. But he did not want to be a farmer. Interesting. He makes about $200 per month as a teacher and then moonlights as a guide or IT person. His household water comes from a well. Everyone knows the river is polluted to the point there are no fish but the ground water for the wells is also polluted with industrial waste to about 60 feet below the surface. He seemed content to only run the water through a particulate filter and there are no labs for testing the water.

It seems there are 2 political parties in Moldova, those who want a form of communism and association with the Russians and those who want to join the European Union. There is nothing in the middle.

The main street through Chisinau is Strada Stephan cel Mare and he is a national hero and a saint. See his statue above. His was a long lifetime of intrigue between the Turkish sultancy, the Hungarians, the princes of Poland and the Ukraine, and the princes of various other kingdoms I vaguely remember such as Wallachia. I think Stephan is great because he lasted so long but the people today seem to think he was well thought of in his time by his subjects. I still think the peasants got chewed up in the middle of the intrigues and battles. Most of the monuments and statuary around the city seemed to have been put in place about 1880 and 1920, and then torn down and revised with Soviet designs in 1950’s and then redesigned in 1991 when the Soviets left and Moldova became independent. Large numbers of Moldovans were transported to Siberia and Ukrainians were imported into the country to replace them but the people I spoke to about this are vague. Thus the cemeteries have a large number of Ukrainian names. The large military cemetery in Chisinau was built in the Soviet era and the faces of the statuary are all Slavic and only the last face in the row is what I would call Moldovan.

A picture of The Triumphal Arch, above, dates from 1840 when the Russian Empire forces beat the Ottoman forces. The bell in the tower is cast from the captured Ottoman cannon.

I went to a street vendor to buy some gifts to take home. I had fun negotiating for peasant blouses in Russian or Moldovan. Eventually someone who spoke French intervened and this was something I could stumble my way through. It seemed the lady at the market selling the blouses thought my wife was about 4 ft 6 and 80 pounds and she was having trouble with the size. Got that sorted out. I went into several computer stores. The Moldovan area is noted for skillful programmers who work cheaply but the computers are very expensive. Everyone has a cell phone but they carry them in a pocket instead of the Seattle salute of carrying it in a hand. I went into a butcher shop and was informed there that there were no BBQ grills one could take home and they were only found in restaurants. Tried again at a store selling BBQ forks, spatulas and tongs as well as grilling baskets. Again, they did not know of a place to buy a grill. Then found out that grills were available but they heated them with wood. Suddenly had a desire for BBQed ribs.

The people in the downtown area seem law abiding - no jaywalking, no cars running stop lights, no horns, and cross walks are absolutely safe. But there are some serious tailgaters.

The girls/women are very stylish dressers. Never saw women with sweat pants though the occasional guy wore them. The males generally wore jeans without holes. The women had good makeup skills and excellent posture. No visible tattoos and no piercings. Lots of single women with single 5 year old kids at dinner last night. I did not believe they were babysitting.

The farmers market was advertised to me as local and organic only. Welllll, lots of imported produce and it was the same as we have but the local organic apples were scabby, The over all cost seemed about 60% of what we would pay.

There is an interesting form of private transportation other than busses and cars. A small privately owned bus called a routiera circles on a given route. One flags it down and jumps on because they can see the route on a hand labelled piece of cardboard in the front window. One then alerts the driver and jumps off, leaving about 50 cents somewhere on the dashboard. Sometimes these busses are jammed. This morning, I saw a very stylish girl jump on a packed bus and because there was no other space, not even standing room, she hopped into this guy’s lap. Well I travelled on 2 of these crowded busses today and the girls took a quick look at me and chose another lap. Very disappointing.

And Away We Go

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

After 3 months of intermittent internet lessons in Moldovan, I now speak a unintelligible patois of Italian, French and Yiddish. I hope immersion in the country will improve this considerably. The official language is Moldovan, which is a branch of Romanian, but a considerable percentage of the population speaks only Russian.

Apparently, the students attend the institute after regular school hours for English tutorials and exposure to other cultures. They have English instruction in the regular schools and this is extra lessons but their only exposure to other countries is the poor reality of foreign movies and internet.

I have been spending a large amount of time on YouTube tutorials for methods of teaching English. I thought that English slang should be eliminated from my speech but then found that slang is the most difficult part for a non-English speaker to follow in an English conversation. So, I’m am now putting ‘gentle slang’ back into my speech. It sure makes speech more colorful. Still not sure if I will call the last letter of the alphabet zee or zed when speaking to the students. Hopefully the subject will never come up.

I downloaded masses of electronic flash cards from the internet. Then I discovered that WiFi is state of the art in Moldova but I am not certain if the resorts for the total immersion courses have the goodies, computers and projectors, for presentations. I now have a carryon bag loaded with electronics. Sorted out 240 volts and 50 cycle with all the different amperages. Good for Apple. Their computers are engineered to take most voltages and cycles per second so all you need is the adapter for the plug into the wall. There is seamless integration with iPhones, DVD players and Epson projectors.

Day 1— Got into the Saga Club of IcelandAir at SeaTac and the rain cleared. The Gods of Reykjavik must be smiling.

10:30 AM into Birmingham and at the hotel in 45 minutes. Saw everyone I knew on New Street in an hour then just wandered around. Still impressed with the price of jeans at Sainsburys. Seems the more holes in the jeans the more expensive they are. The jeans I was wearing, same brand, but bigger butt, cost 5 times what I paid at the mall.

The hotel gave me an upgrade into a suite on the second floor facing New Street. Thought it was rather noisy all night so I was up and awake at 3 AM to find the queue for the new iPhoneX forming outside the Apple Store right under my window.

Got to the airport for the flight to Frankfurt no problem. Short flight because I forgot there was a time zone change. Frankfurt Airport is huge and I needed to exit the airport and re-enter passport control to get into another terminal for Air Moldova. Long wait for the plane but there was a 20 year old strutting her stuff and preening around the waiting room. Got the seat next to her on the plane. She was surprised I spoke no German, so the only conversation we had is that she was a banker or currency exchanger or a teller at a casino in Germany and going home to Moldova for the weekend. Did find out you can check your makeup every 15 minutes with a selfie though.

Easy flight to Chisinau and the pilot greased the landing and but then everyone on the plane applauded. Was told it was the custom from the time of Soviet occupation.

The internet said that one should convert their currency to lei at the airport and then negotiate a taxi into town. You should not pay more than about 80 lei for the ride. None of the cab drivers spoke any English and so I negotiated the ride to town, in Russian, for 150 lei. Hmm, need to practice my negotiation skills. For that kind of money I let him hump my largest piece of luggage. The hotel spoke only Moldovan or Russian, so I played a lot of charades before I went up the street for a beer. No one spoke English, only Moldovan or Russian or both in the same sentence. The bottle of Chisinau beer was 20 lei or $1.05 USD. Went to the supermarket farther up the road. The brands were mainly different but the cost was about 60% of what we would pay for the same thing. The imported salmon and some cuts of beef cost about 25% more. The brands I recognized were the same cost as what we would pay.

Grit

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 16:56:07 GMT

Our kids have lost their grit. If our youth are now considered those less than 26 years old, this is a whole generation and this is frightening.

So what is grit? It is an American word meaning “Firmness of character and indominable spirit”. It is the British ‘stiff upper lip’ or the Latin ‘fortitude’. It is the new educational buzz word after a generation of emphasis on building self-esteem.

What does grit consist of?

1. Conscientiousness is THE big correlation to grit. It is a measure of meticulous, careful and painstaking effort. It is self-control of emotions and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. It is learning from your mistakes or the mistakes of others and soldering on. It is achievement oriented and one is thought of as dependable.

2. Courage is bravery when facing failure. It is a blend of genetics (hardwired personality or brain chemistry) and life experiences. If one has not failed then there is no sense that this can be overcome and no determination to persevere. Perseveration is a passion for a goal, or personal attainment of a goal, which is ambition. Achievement is completing manageable goals which is immediate feedback but grit is the desire for long-term goals and is therefore difficult to achieve, regardless of feedback.

3. Endurance is hardiness; the determination to persist thru difficult circumstances. To be a champion, one must first be a contender. To be a contender takes 10,000 hours of practice (20 hours weekly for 10 years) with a purpose (long term goal) plus luck. But one can make their own luck by developing knowledge or skills that are needed at that moment at that time.

4. Resilience is maintaining a core purpose and integrity while overcoming adversity. It is picking your self up, dusting your self off and getting back on the horse. If it can be directed, it is the portion of self-image or self-worth that you have been there before and this can be overcome. Perfection is an illusion but excellence is more forgiving and allows for disappointment.

The character of our kids has changed in the last 2 generations. We have been giving them lots of self-esteem but they are growing soft, they are coddled, they are fragile and they remain dependents. Kids are being protected from failure and pain. Now psychologic anxiety has replaced depression. They are now manifesting anxiety, mental blocks and a need for instant perfection at their first attempt. Their attention span is under 15 seconds provided there is lots of sensory stimulation. Is this what we want?

So what makes a successful person? They possess traits above– they have zeal and persistence of motive and effort. It is stable and doesn’t require immediate positive feedback. It is the maintenance of motivation despite experiences with failure and adversity.

Grit may not be sufficient for success, but it is very necessary. Grit is unrelated or inversely related to talent. Grit is slightly inversely proportional to intelligence. If success leads to happiness, then those with grit will more likely be happy. That is a fulfilling life worth living.

We can cultivate grit in our children:

1. Praise effort over outcome but not lavishly, and encourage kids to push through pain and failure and so develop self-respect
2. Associate with those with positive grit
3. When things get hard and they want to quit, get them to change direction and redirect the goal
4. When the challenge is tough, consider the idiots who have succeeded. Why not me?
5. Let the kids fail
6. Do not over program them, give them some unstructured time and boredom. Hopefully this will lead to independent thinking, imagination and innovation
7. Put down the cellphone and develop social skills
8. I am a parent not your friend. Solve your own problems

Our system has innumerable possibilities of success. You are the difference between mediocre and excellence.

Veni, Vidi Velcro ( I came, I saw, I stuck with it )

Plan B

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

There is large overseas industry providing employment for certified English teachers ( TESOL/CERTA) and a large number of institutes prepared to give this certification. Some of these institutes are dodgy and some are just flat out expensive; some will certify after 40 hours on the internet and others are 1 year of classroom attendance. A certificate in hand opens up vast numbers of further opportunities where one can live and teach for pay in a different culture.

I did some internet searches for an example of these courses and the exams one needs to pass. The classroom work seemed doable except for the grammar - nouns, pronouns and third person pluperfect. Yikes! I didn’t get this the first time through. But I was raised by proper English ancestors and I certainly recognize if the word is being used properly in conversation. I also found out that one of the commercial groups I signed with would give me credit for the practical part of the certificate qualifications.

I am in a different situation than the bulk of those teaching overseas. It is not a gap year for me nor something I am doing for university credit. It is not a career nor a passion. It’s more cultural exploration while it rains at home and hopefully doing some good. The pay is not great but it would certainly be an apartment and bar bill. Besides, I am independently wealthy. Right?

Before I committed to any certification program, I searched YouTube for videos of EFL classes in action. I think the take away idea is to plan a lesson around a theme and turn it into a flow sheet: if this is the reaction then do this but if something else occurs then do that. Slow down the speed of my talking, speak succinctly without slurring, repeat, get feedback and repeat again, and do the whole thing with humor without sounding strange. Also need to remember that the students need to do 80% of the talking.

But could I do this 5 days a week for several months?

Only one way to find out.

Now I need a Plan C.

.

Plan A

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT

As time passed, friends and acquaintances became more concerned about my finding an activity that filled the premise criteria. I did more internet searches for irregular winter volunteer ideas. There were plenty of groups cuddling orphans for 2 weeks and then leaving after a bond had been formed, or weeding the community vegetable patch, or repairing houses, but I could see unintended consequences with most of these. Was this putting carpenters and masons out of work? Were they teaching better agricultural practices for the future? Some groups sounded like you were working for a government agency with their rules and swearings in. However, a volunteer group out of Auckland kept coming to the top of the search engines. One of their projects was teaching conversational English overseas. Plenty of country choices. Hey, I can do this! I then checked out all the blurbs about them and found them righteous. I had a chat with them and got enthusiastic.

This is not completely altruistic as I also wish to travel and experience a different culture and what better way than to live in this culture? A fair exchange.

Plan A

Be it right or wrong, English has turned into the de facto language of the world. One can maintain their language and culture, but if one does not have conversational English language skills, they will be confined to one geographic area and have limited employment - jobs not involving science nor the travel industry nor tourism. English skills mean the Queen’s English, understood world-wide, with limited regional dialects or slang. Reading and writing skills are included. Hopefully there would then be sufficient momentum to continue to a lifetime of learning of skills and filters. I do not see any unintended consequences.

When I was in grade 2, I had no enthusiasm for learning to read. The reading primers involving Dick and Jane were of no interest to me and I was falling behind. My Mother took me to the Calgary Public Library and into the hands of Miss Rogers in the children’s section. We picked 3 books of interest to me and I finished them that night and returned the next day for more. I succeeded because I knew where to look it up. So this would also be a pay forward for Miss Rogers who showed me the path.

So I signed on with Love Volunteers and picked Moldova. I had seen the country on stamps but didn’t realize it still existed.

There are presently 300 million people in the world learning English and there is a very large industry supporting this. I contacted a more commercial group that were arranging immersion courses in conversational English. If you can get to the area, they will put you up at a resort for 6 days, 12 hours a day, to speak with people paying a fee to improve their English skills. They had 2 courses in the area so I signed on for Romania and Poland.

So, what are my qualifications? I have no police record, my shots are up to date and I am able to care for myself. English is my native tongue and I speak maybe 4 dialects well enough to sound sort-of local. I have a university degree but I have no certification for teaching English. However, I can certainly chatter away. Most of the teachers seem to be 20 years old, so I could be the grumpy old man of the group.

So, I’ll do a quick scouting trip to see what this is all about, return home and evaluate.

Give your son an education and he’ll make sure his family is looked after.
Give your daughter an education and she’ll make sure your future generations are looked after.

I still need a Plan B.

Retirement?

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I will be the first generation of my ancestors to retire. They all left their regular work feet first. I therefore have no insight of private thoughts, fears or concerns, leading to retirement and I can only rely on superficial observations of those already there.

I’ve known people who couldn’t wait to retire. It was enough financial independence to maintain their life style and out the door. The American/Canadian dream. But the reward for a long virtuous working period often became a punishment. Retire to what? It was a period of limbo. No more identity with your job and co-workers. The kids were gone and the wives had their routines and the husbands were not invited into these. There was a burst of daily entertainment such as golfing, travel, or house maintenance and this gradually shrank down to occasional activities amongst long periods of killing time. If you had all day, it took all day. Some recognized the time -killing choice between work and daytime television, and others found that being able to golf all day was not as much fun as sneaking off to golf and playing hookey. About one third of men and 12% of women went back to work for a paycheck.

After about a decade, their world got smaller and their interests shrank. Apathy set in. It was a day of doctor visits and household chores Their network of friends got smaller and the conversations became repeats of the same opinion as the previous conversation. Nothing novel, nothing new. Just the good old days.

So why the hell would I retire into that? I enjoyed a career in medicine but the administration of a private practice just kept piling on. Sure, I could have hired it out but this is called overhead and is occurring in a reality of lower payments for more work. I had reached financial independence some time ago and began dreading the administrative time. But I have not reached my past due date yet.

I wish to have several more adventures while I can still carry my own luggage. Sedentary doesn’t work for me, so I will save the cruises for the future when the French maid has to push my waning body around in a wheel chair.

But how to align my values with my new adulthood? How to get through the 8th stage of Erikson? Sitting in a bathtub with a significant other, a glass of wine and a pocket full of Cialis is not my thing.

We are giving the younger generation a world of rapid, competitive change but they have no grit. In the 600 years since the Gutenberg press, there has not been such an improvement in the availability of knowledge like the internet has provided. But we have not taught the kids the skills to use it. They cannot see past the entertainment. I believe I can still be of benefit to someone and pass on my decades of accumulated skills, experience and guile.

A teenager decided my last 50 years, but now the time has arrived for a 70 year old to make plans. This is the bell lap of a marathon and I am about 85% finished.

I am not going to retire; I have graduated.

Background

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I was raised in privilege. A gift from those before me. So I began - male, white, Protestant, middle class, English speaking, cisgendered, without handicaps - mental or physical. I accept no guilt for this because it was not of my doing. This lottery of genetics allowed me to accomplish what I did in spite of adversity and furthermore, it gave me options.

I was born to an engineering student and when he graduated he was hired by the oil industry and we moved away from family.

Calgary, Canada was a very active city because of the oil business. There was full employment and the postwar baby boom was occurring and there were masses of kids in the new neighborhoods, all having moved from around North America and the world: Texas, Ontario, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Poland, Italy, France, England, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Oklahoma. We were all immigrants in a sense.

It was a different social standard then. It was hands off parenting but children were expected to produce: school grades, athletics and chores. It was a consistent message, and all my friends had the same standards and our parents held our feet to the fire. If one did a dependable job then good things followed. But if one made a mistake, or worse, goofed off, everyone knew about it and the sarcasm flowed from all directions. There was only 2 ways to do a job, the right way and every other way. We were raised with grit.

From the age of 14 years old I had summer jobs: a full service gas station attendant, a roughneck on a drilling rig, timbering crew in a coal mine, a rigger, chokerman/chaser at a camp job in the woods, a big-city garbage man. The summer jobs formed me. I emerged with independence, resilience, endurance, dependability and courage. But at the end of the summer I knew what I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life so it reinforced perseveration and I went back to school. These summer jobs defined me.

It was expected one would pay his own university tuition and books, as did my father and this father before him. I hit town after the camp jobs like a drunk sailor, paid my tuition and books and then went out with very cheap girls for the rest of the year.

I graduated, and the summer I was 20, I worked in the tar sands in Ft. McMurray. Somehow, I didn’t realize how many meetings engineers went to in a day, and so went to grad school that fall because I do not like drawn out meetings. I got into an MD-PhD program and finished medical school in Edmonton. General surgery interested me and I was matched with an internship in the murder capital of North America.

It took me 6 weeks to figure out I could not live on the adrenaline high of surgery and the emergency room and so looked for something more genteel. The Ophthalmology residents always had clean uniforms, seemed well rested and got to finish the movie when they were on-call at the hospital. I finished my Eye residency and did a fellowship year in Vancouver, Canada before setting up private practice in Bellingham, Washington.

After 481 months, I find myself here.

Retire or Graduate

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The Premises

tisdall@comcast.net (Rob Tisdall) — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 08:19:30 GMT

Let’s start with some premises

So far I am in good health, strong with energy., but I have been in medicine long enough that I have a good idea of what’s coming

2. I am prosperous in all its forms with no need to be frugal; but I have few wants.

3. I have personal freedom, no responsibilities except to myself.

4. The kids are gone, well-employed and staying gone.

5. I am unattached without obligations, no decisions by committee

Some personal soul searching:

1. I am, by nature, a caregiver but I have been burned enough that I admit this with reservations.

2. I do not hang out well, but now everyday will be a weekend. I am hard-wired for structure, deadlines and a score
card.

3. I have multiple curiosities and enjoy other’s life experiences and cultures

4. I am willing to try anything once.

Activities rejected:

1. Golf, boating, tearing up the desert in a 4 wheeler, going to all the grandchildren’s athletics - nope, nope, nope
and no.

2. Other’s bucket lists - ended up with a No-Way-in-Hell bucket list.

3. Tried mentoring a student - bad idea, uninteresting and uninterested.

4. Tried adopting an elementary school class - learning experience.

5. Tried various charity and service groups over the years - got serious about delving into their finances and
realized it was a large industry and I am not sure I agree with their overhead.

6. Volunteer medicine in developed countries has become corporate and I have been self-employed too long to
attend more meetings. Avenues for work overseas do not give enough information about what one is getting
into and, besides, I am probably too specialized to be any use to groups who are doing very basic health care.

Some observations of the future:

1. Charity has become an entitlement and we are enabling more and more to rely on handouts to cover their lack
of effort. It has now reached the point they are trying to guilt the system into a larger standard of living.

2. The world can do what we do, only cheaper. Jobs are being lost through efficiencies and robots and the jobs that
are overseas will not come back

3. Those without training for the future will have no future. These will mainly be STEM skills and the arts will
supply the creative element but it uncertain if this will be employment stable for a lifetime, so we must teach
people how to learn.

4. Education is the solution and it is transportable and nontaxable. A person cannot know too much in this world
and the effort will need to be ongoing for a lifetime. Knowledge is readily available on the internet but so is
misinformation, so one will need to have mental filters. A quality education for the young keeps their options
open and they can then build on this for a lifetime.

5. There will be a billion more people to feed in the next 20 years and a starving man has nothing to lose. Climate
change is occurring faster than the plants we rely on for food can adapt. We have to put aside political prejudice
and pick up the pace of adapting our food supply even if it means giving Monsanto or Syngenta freedoms.

6. The world is getting smaller with almost instant communication in living color and so regional isolation is not an
option unless you want to be left behind.

These are the rules of engagement:

1. I will meet you half way, but I will not drag you to the starting line.

2. I will teach you to fish, but not buy you fish.

3. I will develop patience to a degree as long as one is trying.

4. I will not associate with the deliberately ignorant as there is no help for them, the chronically unhappy as they
will never change, the uncivilized as they are resistant, nor professional complainers as it is cultural.

5. I will ignore political correctness as it is artificial and sets society up for regression.

6. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.