Swedish Saturday

Yesterday was a very Swedish Saturday. Valerie and I started the day with breakfast at a lovely little bakery that is just a few blocks away from here on Q Street. We then went to a Swedish Christmas bazaar that I had been invited to. The main purpose was to get some stuff for an Advents glögg/coffee that we are planning in a few weeks, but it was also a good occasion for me to get in touch with the Swedish community here in DC (especially now prior to St Lucia, to find out where they have concerts).

After that, I took the metro out to IKEA in Maryland. I was quite organized actually, and had already looked a bit on their website to see what I wanted, and even measured my apartment. However, in the end, I did not buy any furnishers, because I needed time to think a bit more before deciding what I actually want. But I got some small thingies for the kitchen, candles, etc (i.e. the usual IKEA stuff), AND I had Swedish meatballs with lingonberries at the restaurant, so I was happy. (I also thought I would get some food from the Swedish shop, but as usually, once I finally got there, I was too tired and already carrying too much, to even want to think about getting more stuff.)

Both on the way there and back, I was at the same bus as a couple, so we started chatting, and it turned out that he had just moved here to work for a development consultancy firm. So we exchanged contacts. Sometimes, you meet people in the oddest ways!

Other than that, this weekend has been freezing cold. It is only around 0 centigrade, but windy and humid, and though I am dressed warm, it is like the cold penetrates through my clothes and scratches my skin. The funny thing is that every time that I, in these past two weeks, have told an American here that I am from Sweden, the first reaction is always: “Oh, it must be very cold there!” Seriously, compared with this, how cold is very cold?? And no, it is not as cold has here!

Just spoke with Maria S, who asked me to post pics of my apartment and the view, so here are two. And more to come once I get furnishers.

My livingroom

And my fantastcic view from my window.

Nothing New

Sorry for not writing so much these days. I have been very busy with work and with getting the necessary things for my apartment. I can’t exactly say that I have created a home yet, but I have an air mattress, a bedset, (borrowed) things to eat on, and things for the bathroom, so enough to manage for a while. It feels quite cool actually, because I have a beautiful view over the rooftops from my living room, and since I don’t have any furnishers, I have the mattress there instead of in the bedroom, and when I wake up in the mornings, I lie in my bed and watch the sun rise over Washington DC. And I feel lucky.

My House 2

I just moved in to my new apartment. Or at least if bringing two suitcases and a backpack from the inn I stayed at three blocks away can be defined as moving in. It is a light one-bedroom apartment close to Dupont Circle, on 16^th and Q more or less. It’s a nice neighbourhood with lots of restaurants and cafes, and 20 minutes walk to my work, which is perfect. And yes, it is very “Stuff White People Like” (a lot like Birkastan for all my Swedish friends), but at least I will fit right in!

I will for sure miss my little house in Moldova though. When I first posted some pictures from my little courtyard, I implied that there would be a follow-up. When I was packing last Sunday, I finally got around to take some pictures from the inside and here it is.

The diningroom (and enterance)

The kitchen had not been rennovated for a while, and a had some cool details from the

Soviet era, like the radio.

The Sofa, which was one of the few acailable in the Soviet Union. Easy to make into

a bed but terribly uncomfortable. Liliana has the same in her place, and I even saw one in

one of the hotels we stayed at this summer.

It is not so easy to find furnitures in Moldova, and so I never managed to

find a bookcase…

The bedroom was kind of a nisch in the livingroom.

The pretty, pretty street Veronica Micle

The theater, Teatrul Luceafarul, right next to our courtyard

Moldovan style theater prosters

The best thing with it was the location and all my great neighbours, with actors, artists and journalists in all the houses, and with their kids running in the little alley in the evenings. It was really a home! I hope my new apartment here will feel the same eventually. As soon as I get some furniture, I will post pictures.

Just Like the Moldovans, Or Almost Anyway

Flying in and out of the Chisinau airport is always different from other airports I travel through. The first time I took a flight from there, I thought the lines were immensely long and that things seemed very disorganized until I realized that only a few of the people that were there were actually travelling; the rest were just there to see family and friends off. People are bringing flowers and gifts and bidding tearful goodbyes. Many are leaving for long periods. Some might not even know when they will come back. Once, I sat next to a young man on a plane, who was going away for an 18-months training in Chicago, and who was almost crying because he would not get to see his girlfriend in all that time. It was also the first time that he was on an airplane and so he was very nervous.

Another time, on my way back to Chisinau, I sat next to a woman who had divorced her Moldovan husband and remarried in Paris but left her kids in Moldova. She said that commuting worked but she was sad not to see them more than a few times a year.

And when flying in to Chisinau, there are hundreds of people there in the arrival hall, waiting for their loved ones and welcoming them with hugs and kisses and tears of joy.

Monday morning, it was my turn to be one of them. Martin was kind enough to take me to the airport despite the early hour, and though I had already said goodbye to so many, I really did feel a sting of sadness when I walked through the passport control and had to say good bye to Martin, Chisinau, and Moldova. I was also surprisingly nervous when I waiting by the gate, wondering if I made the right choice when I decided to move to the US and how my future will turn out. I can’t even begin to imagine how so many Moldovans must feel when they sit on that airport, ready to leave their home country for an uncertain future.

Montenegro

Apart from all the time I had to spend on preparing for my move to DC, I had a very interesting week in Montenegro and my learning curve was probably the steepest ever with my knowledge of what goes into a World Bank negotiation package for a project went from 0% to about 80% and I learned all the details in at least half of the components in this particular project, and I got an overview of the rest. My colleague and I were there to support the Ministry in the writing of a project document that needs to be completed before the project can be approved. I worked basically non-stop from 7:30 in the morning to 23:30 at night with only short breaks for meals. Fortunately, my colleague was also a junior professional and a very nice company, besides being great at updating me on everything that I needed to know, so I enjoyed it both in and outside of work.

Podgorica is a small but very nice city. Very Mediterranean in terms of the city life. Most of the work we did was there in the capital, but Wednesday, I had a meeting with the Montenegrean Marine Biology Institute in Kotor by the coast, about 2 hours from Podgorica. On the way there, the driver and the translator that came with me told me that the region of Kotor is a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. And it was beautiful. Located on the coast surrounded by steep mountains, it looked almost like the Norwegian fiords, but with a more rough landscape. It was absolutely astonishing and definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in Europe. The old town of Kotor was very picturesque, with small alleys and squares within closed city walls, and with absolutely no cars. In the middle of the town, there is a music school, and through an open window, we could hear a woman doing singing exercises, filling the air with her clear voice. I thought it wonderful!

The view from the Marine Biology Institute

The Kotor bay

A small 12:th century church right next to the institute

The enterance to the old town of Kotor

Kotor’s old town

Kotor’s old town

Nada, who translated for me, in Kotor’s old town

And My Life Keeps Spinning

In retrospect, agreeing to go to Podgorica the same week as I was supposed to move to Washington DC while not giving up on the idea of being in the US capital on election night might not have been the best idea. Yet for some reason, I refused to postpone my move (explaining the lack of blogging over the past two weeks). I came back to Chisinau last Saturday and left again Monday, leaving me one day to finalize all the packing, clean my little house, and say good bye to some people. Last time I wrote, I felt like I was followed by bad luck, and of course this continued, with problems with my tickets, our internal computer systems, packing etc, etc, etc. But together with lovely, supportive colleagues and friends, I managed to get everything together and catch the plane Monday morning from the Chisinau airport. It was basically the first day in over a month that I did not work. When getting on my last flight from Vienna to DC, I counted that it was my 15:th flight since going to Antalya little over a months ago. (And yes, I do feel bad about all the flying, but at least my organization is supposedly carbon neutral.) But the flight gave me a chance to catch up on some sleep.

DC has been great these past days. The first thing that met me was of course all the campaign posters all around the cities. People have them in their front yards and in their windows, and everyone is talking politics in the streets. The weather has also been really nice these past days: Quite warm, and with the trees are shifting colours beautifully into yellow, orange, and red.

I am staying at a small inn close to Dupont Circle, which is a very nice neighbourhood. The inn is super cute (it is really the only appropriate term to describe it). It has probably not been renovated in the past 30 years and the interior is in 19:th century English style. In the mornings, I and the other guests gather around and large dining room table for breakfast. We even have a little cat here who hangs out in one of the windows watching the street life.

The inn is located in both buildings

The breakfast room

My first days in the office have been very nice and I already feel absorbed by the HQ rhythm. Even though my colleagues are basically the same, it is so much easer to be only a few offices away and in the same time zone. Apparently, office allocation in the HQ is according to grade level, and so I have a small office without a window. It is ok, I really like it!

And Tuesday was of course the big day. I have followed the campaign closely over the past year, and I was very nervous. Even though it all seemed to go in the right direction (in my view anyway), after the 2004 election, I didn’t really dare to expect anything. A colleague from the Brussels office and I went out to a local bar here in our neighbourhood to watch the results. It was really great to be here this day! After the results were announced, people were out cheering in the streets around here. Quite extraordinary!

Unfortunately, I did not have to get a cool t-shirt like Valerie.

And I am so happy about the results. It feels almost unreal. I don’t expect him to save the world but at least you can trust him, trust that he understands the implications of his policies. Thank you all Americans who voted for him! And moving here feels so much easier than if McCain would have won, not only because he will be the President but also because it is easer to start a life in a country where you don’t feel like you are on a different planet from people living there (to quote the Economist after the last election). Of course, in Washington DC, over 86% voted for Obama, so I guess I could have felt at home here anyway.  (Not sure what happened in California though with prop 8…) Next week’s project is to find an apartment and to get a cell phone number. After that, I am all set!

My Last Week in Chisinau, Almost Anyway

This week was my last week in Chisinau. It feels so strange! And it has been a complete casino as you say in Italian. Since I have been more out of the country than not this past month, I have had little time to pack. So while I have tried to get increasingly involved in the Macedonia project and to assume the role that I am supposed to have there, and I have prepared for a project in Montenegro and a task I will do next week, I have cleaned out my office, packed up my little house, and said good bye to people. I wonder why things always end up like this for me? I guess I am a bit of a bad planner; should probably go a project management course just to organize my own life… In addition, everything that could possibly go wrong did and I have spent an enormous amount of time on things that should have been fairly quick.

Fortunately, the week has also been filled with nice events. Among other things, I went to Liliana’s on Tuesday and cooked cannelloni. We also tried the new red Cabernet Sauvignon from Equinox, which was super good which should have great potentials for making a success on the export markets. It was a nice evening; it is always very cosy to just hang out at Liliana’s place.

Valeriu, Liliana and Doina in Liliana’s kitchen

Doina, Liliana and I

Friday, my office arranged a farewell drink for me. It was nice and nostalgic at the same time. I have really enjoyed working there!

I am now in Montenegro and will during next week support a Ministry in writing a project document for an upcoming project. I have been a bit nervous about this assignment because I have never been involved in the writing of this type of document before, nor have ever I used it, and I have been unsure if I really have the appropriate technical skills to do it. But after meeting my colleague just now, with whom I will work, things feel more under control. I basically just arrived in Podgorica so I don’t have any impressions yet, but I will try to write more and post some photos in the next few days.

Moldova’s Sorrow

A while ago, a friend of mine asked me if I could recommend a cleaning lady, because the women who took care of his apartment was leaving for Italy. And when in a staff meeting last summer my boss declared that one of our colleagues was going to Bologna to do a Master’s, the first comment was: Oh, yet another Moldovan in Italy! Only during the two years that I have been here, three of my friends have moved abroad (and take into account that my circle of friends here is not that big).

Despite Moldova having a per capita income that is only about 1/16 of that of Sweden, this was the first thing that struck me as being really different when I arrived here: The fact that everyone, from the farmers that I meet in the field to my colleagues in the office, has either lived abroad for a period of time or has a family member abroad. And it completely defines the country and its people’s view of it. I promised a few months ago that I would write something on Moldova’s migration and so I will make an attempt now, though it is such complex issue so I am not sure I will do it justice.  

First a little data: It is estimated that approximately a quarter to a third of Moldova’s labour force lives abroad during a given year. This does not mean that all of them have settled abroad, many of them are seasonally employed in Russia and other close countries with low visa and travel costs. Others have however since long settled in the destination countries and have brought their families over, and are no longer part of the statistics. About one third of all children in Moldova grow up without at least one parent. Many grow up with their grandparents, a few in orphanages.

Emigrate to Canada? I pass this poster every day on my

way to work.

The other side of this is of course that the Moldovans working abroad send money home, the so called remittances. Whether or not all this money coming back to Moldova should be defined as remittances, or if it is just salaries that the migrants put on their own accounts, or if it is perhaps small-scale foreign direct investments, is debated here. Regardless of the technicalities, this money makes up for more than one third of Moldova’s GDP.  It has over the past decade reduced poverty, driven growth, and brought money to the Government’s budget through especially taxes on imported goods.

Only in this corner, there are three exchange offices and one Western

Union office. All for those receiving money from abroad.

Most of the Moldovans that go abroad end up in Russia or in Italy and work in the construction, in light industries, or in domestic services. In the past, the majority of them were men from rural areas, but this is changing. More women are leaving and many migrants are now from the cities. The Moldovan migrants are fairly well-educated, with 35% having tertiary education and 20% university education. The trafficking of especially girls for sexual exploitation still exists but it is a very small share of those who migrate and information campaigns have almost managed to eradicate it (even though one victim is of course still one too many).

Another poster that I pass every morning and evening:

For work in Dubai.

Yet, this is a tragedy at a personal level for so many here. Families are split, children do not see their parents for years, and it is like the Moldovans’ self esteem as a people is very much marked by this. Every time I meet a new Moldovan, he or she brings up the topic of the migrants. It is like their country is bleeding and it just won’t stop. And it is not just the people going, and their close ones that they leave behind. Everyone here feels so with those that have had to leave and the hard life that have met so many of them in the countries that they end up in.

At the same time, so many more wants to leave. More than a million Moldovans have applied or want to apply for Romanian citizenship, which of course gives access to the EU’s labour market. And the EU needs labour from Moldovan. While the Polish workers are in Sweden and Germany, Moldovan workers are in Poland. And while the Italian government is trying to figure out how to deal with the inverse population pyramid and the fact that Italian women no longer want to stay at home and take care of the family, Moldovan women are there, taking care Italy’s elders.

Go West to the US?

More often than not, the Moldovans end up working illegally in these countries, which puts them at higher risks of being exploited and without being able to go back to Moldova on a regular basis. It also finances illegal structures and criminal networks, and give rise to corruption in public authorities. Issuing work permits is often politically very sensitive in many Western countries, but it is often a much better solution in terms of encouraging circulatory of migrants as it facilitates for the migrants to keep in touch with their country of origin and to go back on a regular basis. Because very few of those who leave wants to move away for good. Fortunately, the EU is starting to realize all this and is increasingly offering temporary work permits (integrating foreign workers in the legal workforce helps of course also to bring tax money to the countries of destination). 

But it is sad that it has to be like this. As my German friend Linda said the other day: Moldova is such a nice country, it is just so sad that so many Moldovans cannot enjoy it. But when a primary school teacher’s monthly salary is EUR 30 and a government employee earns EUR 150 per month, staying in Moldova is for many not an option. Making sure that their children get an education and have shoes and a jacket for the winter is prioritized even if it means leaving the kids with their grandparents and perhaps not seeing them for many years.

So the Moldovans mourn the people that have had to leave. And it makes me sad. But it also fills me with admiration. The fact that so many are willing to risk so much to make a better future for themselves and their close ones says something about a people. The Moldovans are not just sitting and waiting for things to get better – they take control over their own life and make things happen. So I am filled with hope for Moldova’s future. I just hope that external forces will not work against it.

More information on Moldovan migration can be found on IOM Moldova’s website. The New Yorker also recently published an article on Moldovan countertraffickers, whose work is to bring Moldovan trafficking victims back home. And finally an article from Washington Post about recent, worrisome, political trends in the EU.

More Reading

A really good thing with travelling is that I have a lot of time to read and write. I just finished a book that I really liked: This Book Will Save Your Life, by A. M. Homes. It is a story of a man who is self-made rich but without any real goals in life and who goes into a mid-life crisis. I picked it up mainly because I was appealed by the cover, and I saw that some of the critics on-line were not equally enchanted as me. (The title of the book is for sure way to pretentious for its contents.) However, though nothing much really happens and it will not give you any revolutionary insights in how to live your life, I liked the characters in the book and it reminds me a bit of Douglas Coupland’s books. The language is good the story moves forward nicely. So if you don’t know what to read, this one is not a bad option.