Summertime in Exile

Chisinau is very hot right now. We tend to be moving much slower now probably because of the heat and this has affected our ability to write more punctually on our blog. When I noticed that we hadn't written since May 26th I realized that we have actually been doing some pretty interesting stuff in the past few weeks. For example, we went to the village for this year's edition of the sports day festivities. For those of you who don't know this is when they have soccer matches, basketball and volleyball games as well as donkey races and wrestling matches.

Before I went I was asked to stand in for the wrestling referee in case he didn't show. In order to be a more effective referee I had to learn the real rules for traditional Moldovan wrestling (called "trinta"). Someone in one of our English classes referred me to the head guy of the sports and recreation fund of Moldova. This guy is middle-aged, has old-man cauliflower ear (the flat kind) and is huge. He was like a world judo champ back in the day and now he passes his time doing some sort of paperwork and making phone calls in his office while his cronies sit around watching soccer matches in a surprisingly well-lit room in one of the more upscale Chisinau hotels.

Petru (that's his name) is a very friendly guy and kinda reminds me of my Granddaddy the way he hands me the same pictures to admire whenever he sees me, telling me stories of the good old days and how he will be going to Japan to a judo conference or something. Anyway, Petru referred me to his friend (crony) who is the head of the national "trinta" federation of Moldova. So he's a big deal, or so says Petru.

I met with this guy Serghei, the head of trinta in Moldova and he turned out to be a typically friendly-yet-eccentric Moldovan. I went to his office where he gave me the official trinta rules and regulations which included the official trinta stamp on it. This was my key to success. Serghei suggested that I sit and study the rules while he and some old-school Russian dude sat and played chess. It was a Moldovan-style suggestion which meant that it wasn't a suggestion at all but more of a command. I tried to watch them play chess for a moment but was commanded to continue studying the rules because there would be a test at the end.

I eventually had some questions for Serghei and had to interrupt his chess match in order for him to explain some things to me. My questions were always to be answered in the following fashion:

"Excuse me, but do the wrestlers always start in the same position if there is a stop in the match?"

"Sorry, but if the wrestlers go off the mat, do you still award points for take-downs?"

"Robert, Robert, Robert, we are Moldovans. We are Christians, so whenever we start the match we put our hands in the shape of a cross on our opponent's belt." He showed me how and then went back to chess.

"Robert, Robert, Robert, we are Moldovans. We are surrounded by Ukrainians and Romanians and even farther out by Hungarians and Russians. If we fall over the border we live to tell about it because there is land there. We are not in Japan where one would die if they fell into the ocean. So to answer your question, yes, you still get awarded points."

"Ok, one more question. It says here in the rules that the referees must agree on points awarded. What does that mean?"

"Robert, Robert, Robert, we are Moldovans. We are Christians and we make the sign of the cross over our hearts which shows that we adhere to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore when we wrestle we must have 3 referees and 2 of 3 of them must agree in order for there to be points awarded."

I was getting the picture now. And his logic made sense although I feel that the rules were created before his reasoning was. In the end, I passed Serghei's test and was suggested that I rapidly drink some of Serghei's home-made grape brandy with him before we go our separate ways. He wished me luck with the refereeing and walked me to the bus stop. In the end I didn't wind up refereeing because the other referee guy showed up after all. But I did have the official rules with the official stamp and Serghei's logic in my head just in case there was a discrepancy.

In the end, one of my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu students from long ago wound up winning the ram, which was the prize for the men's wrestling contest. He didn't have much opposition though which may or may not have been orchestrated by his father who was responsible for setting up the tournament. In any case I am happy for him. I will definitely visit Petru and Serghei again before we head back to Romania in 2 weeks.

We have gone for a few trips to "nature", in "the woods" here in Chisinau. Amanda got to see some horses although she didn't get to ride any. The horses were being used for jumping over jumps and things of that nature. There's some kind of equestrian center here in Chisinau, but I have a feeling it's for those same people who drive around in BMWs and Hummers. Aside from the horses, we enjoyed a nice picnic in the park with some friends we know from Burlacu.

There are some really nice parks in Chisinau, which is a surprisingly green city in contrast to the Communist, grey, block-apartment buildings everywhere. The most recommended park is the Dendrariu Park where the $0.08 entrance fee appears to cover the extensive upkeep of an impressive collection of rose gardens and other flora. There's also a lake where I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be swimming, but nobody seems to be enforcing that rule so there are usually people splashing around.

We've also been to the "beach" a couple times in the town of Vadul lui Voda. For those geography buffs out there, you may be thinking to yourself, "that's strange...I thought Moldova was landlocked..." and you would be right. This popular summertime hangout is in fact on the shores of the Nistru River, where they plow up the light-colored dirt every morning to make "sand." I think they used to have real sand when were here a few years ago, but it seems to have been replaced with the less expensive stuff. It's still a nice place to get away from the city and they do a good job making it feel like a "beachy" community with sidewalk bars and water sports for hire.