July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Finding a few old friends in Moldova (09/27/06)
Back in the Saddle
By By JACK RONALD-
Sonny Bono stopped in his tracks.
He shook his shaggy Sonny Bono hair in disbelief.
His sad Sonny Bono eyes stared.
Beneath his droopy Sonny Bono moustache, his mouth was wide open in awe.
Except, of course, it wasn't the late Sonny Bono, the one-time husband husband of Cher.
Instead, it was Vasile Stelea, one-time publisher of a newspaper in Moldova, now a politician.
It was Wednesday night, and I was meeting up with some other Americans for dinner at an over-priced restaurant I would never have chosen.
What am I doing back in Moldova? It's hard to explain.
But here I am again - for the first time in seven years - in the country where my entire accidental second career in free press development began.
Seven years is a long time. It's an especially long time in a developing country.
But for the past few days, I'd found myself searching the faces of passing strangers, expecting to see someone I knew. Former students, embassy staff, you name it.
There was a dream-like quality to it all.
Imagine walking the halls of your old high school seven years after graduation.
The physical surroundings could be the same. The smells. The sounds. But instead of seeing faces of classmates, you're seeing their younger brothers and sisters.
Until, that is, things started to click on Stefan cel Mare, the main street in Chisinau.
It started on Tuesday night, when I ran into a young woman who had worked at the Independent Journalism Center here in 1999.
That was the last time I was here, but we recognized one another.
The next night - on the way to dinner - it was Vasile/Sonny Bono. We traded a few words of my bad Romanian, laughed, hugged, and bade one another farewell.
The connections continued on Thursday. (Everyone says Chisinau is just a big village, and there's some truth to that.)
At a reception for the opening of a new grad school for journalists, I ran into Artur, one of my former students. He's one of the teachers at the new school.
It's hard to express how satisfying that is.
But as to Cher, I haven't seen her.
And, after all, her heritage isn't Moldovan but Armenian.
******
Ronald, the president, publisher and editor of The CR, is currently on a two-week trip to Moldova to promote press freedom.[[In-content Ad]]
He shook his shaggy Sonny Bono hair in disbelief.
His sad Sonny Bono eyes stared.
Beneath his droopy Sonny Bono moustache, his mouth was wide open in awe.
Except, of course, it wasn't the late Sonny Bono, the one-time husband husband of Cher.
Instead, it was Vasile Stelea, one-time publisher of a newspaper in Moldova, now a politician.
It was Wednesday night, and I was meeting up with some other Americans for dinner at an over-priced restaurant I would never have chosen.
What am I doing back in Moldova? It's hard to explain.
But here I am again - for the first time in seven years - in the country where my entire accidental second career in free press development began.
Seven years is a long time. It's an especially long time in a developing country.
But for the past few days, I'd found myself searching the faces of passing strangers, expecting to see someone I knew. Former students, embassy staff, you name it.
There was a dream-like quality to it all.
Imagine walking the halls of your old high school seven years after graduation.
The physical surroundings could be the same. The smells. The sounds. But instead of seeing faces of classmates, you're seeing their younger brothers and sisters.
Until, that is, things started to click on Stefan cel Mare, the main street in Chisinau.
It started on Tuesday night, when I ran into a young woman who had worked at the Independent Journalism Center here in 1999.
That was the last time I was here, but we recognized one another.
The next night - on the way to dinner - it was Vasile/Sonny Bono. We traded a few words of my bad Romanian, laughed, hugged, and bade one another farewell.
The connections continued on Thursday. (Everyone says Chisinau is just a big village, and there's some truth to that.)
At a reception for the opening of a new grad school for journalists, I ran into Artur, one of my former students. He's one of the teachers at the new school.
It's hard to express how satisfying that is.
But as to Cher, I haven't seen her.
And, after all, her heritage isn't Moldovan but Armenian.
******
Ronald, the president, publisher and editor of The CR, is currently on a two-week trip to Moldova to promote press freedom.[[In-content Ad]]
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