Ca, din alte tari straine, vin prieteni sa te vada! - Vasile Militaru, 1936
Our paths have crossed years ago at the Mississippi School
for Mathematics and Science, a residential school in Columbus, dedicated to
gifted students from around the state who wanted to be challenged by an
enhanced curriculum and by the combined expertise of teachers with doctorates
in their respective fields.
His interest was not necessarily math and science, Darius Roby
loved foreign languages and the wonderful programs offered there by two foreign
women, who taught five different languages. His mentor was my colleague, a very
inspiring and entertaining teacher from Venezuela, who supplied their fantasies
with stories of world travel, especially France, and mysterious places. Her
enthusiasm was contagious!
Darius was born in a town close to the Mississippi Delta, a
poor region left behind by its own making but rich in culture and music; it is “dotted
by antebellum homes and destitute black communities,” as Darius wrote. He described
the poverty as self-inflicted by people who “live hopelessly chasing the Pie in
the Sky that democrat candidates always promise them and never deliver.”
But his ancestors lived over the past two hundred years in
the “Red Clay Hills” area where “Appalachia begins, more ethnically mixed,” where
great cotton plantations give way to more forested and hilly regions where
small farmers grow crops like corn.
Darius pursued International Studies (Social and Cultural
Identity) at Ole Miss and, after graduation in 2010, decided to make good on
the promise to see the places that he had spent years reading about in his
history books. Europe to him was not just France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy,
or Germany; it was Eastern Europe as well with its long history dating back to
the Roman Empire. He wanted to see where the “backwoods gravel roads led to and
what was on the other side of the hill,” so he chose Romania to study at Babes-Bolyai
in Cluj, the Faculty of European Studies.
It did not take long for Darius to fall in love with Romania
- discovering her beauty was curiosity, enchantment, and serendipity. On his
semester abroad in France in 2009, he decided to visit Moldova but had to spend
one day in Bucharest because his connecting flight to Chisinau was canceled. A
year later he found himself in Bucharest and, instead of hopping on a flight to
Cluj, he decided to take the long route by train, the trip of a lifetime.
“The grey, rather depressing communist architecture around
Bucharest’s Gara de Nord [northern railway station], the farms of the
Wallachian Plain, the smell of petroleum and heavy industry in Ploiesti, seeing
the Carpathian Mountains for the first time and instantly falling in love;
passing Brasov and getting my first glimpse of Transylvania was a special
moment – seeing little villages that would do any postcard justice, shepherds
in cojocs standing on the hills
watching over their flock, and familiarizing myself with the new names whenever
the train would stop: Sighisoara, Medias, and Campia Turzii.”
Arriving in Cluj by taxi, passing by the old synagogue, the
Roman Catholic cathedral, Darius marveled at the Hapsburg architecture, so
different from the Wallachian architecture, Darius knew he was in for a
fascinating adventure.
Learning Romanian seemed easy to Darius after having spent
seven years studying French and two years Russian, but remained a “source of
grief.” While the French congratulated him when he spoke French to them, even
though he made mistakes, punctilious Romanians made sure to correct him or switched
to English every time he made errors. Darius understood first hand that
education socialist style was not the feel good, let-me-give-you-a-trophy-for-trying
American style education, but it was based strictly on merit and achievement,
impatient, you can either do it or you don’t, and much too harsh for
westerners.
He met Romanians who lectured him on how Romanian is a Latin
language and he should not make certain mistakes. There was so much pride in
their language that a Westerner could easily mistake good intentions of
perfection for arrogance.
But Romanians are friendly, warm, and kind, ready to offer
comfort to someone in need, and very forgiving. Darius discovered that “Romanians truly
appreciated the small things in life because they were not spoiled by them.
They might go about their business with frowns on their faces but they will go
to the moon and back for you once you become a part of their circle of loved
ones.”
Small things in life were lived and appreciated more, Darius
discovered. After four to five months of
cold winter, when most fruits were hard to find, it was a special treat to find
new potatoes in spring, cartofi noi,
or late summer plums, prune.
When the snow has barely melted on the ground, it is
heart-warming to celebrate “Martisor” on March 1, pinning a symbol of spring tied
with a red and white string on a favorite girl’s lapel.
He quickly discovered that Romania is a “bureaucratic
paradise” and cultural rules of etiquette are quite different. While filling
out paperwork for residence permit, for school, and other documents, carrying
bags and books, Darius used his foot to shut the door to the health clinic. That
simple act of necessity in America earned him a rebuke from the doctor who
yelled at him that he disrespected her by closing the door improperly.
Upon finishing his M.A. in July 2012, Darius was offered a
job as Chief Editor for the English and French pages of “Clujul Vazut Altfel,”
an NGO that promotes the cultural, historic, and touristic attractions in the
region as well as the ethnographic value of Cluj County and Transylvania. The
salary is nothing compared to what he could make in the United States, but his
work brings him a sense of contentment not unlike the Romanian joie de vivre.
“Clujul Vazut Altfel” organizes excursions to villages and
cultural sights in the surrounding areas, a wonderful educational experience
worth far more than many boring days in the classroom. www.en.cluj.com
Romania is a gem of history, its cultural, historical, and
natural wonders are truly breathtaking. “Almost every village has its own
treasures – from Roman castra found in the middle of a cow pasture and
fortresses that once defended medieval Moldova from the Turks, to waterfalls
with stories that have long ago passed into legend. Six years have not been
long enough to discover them all - I do not think that a lifetime would
suffice.”
NOTE
Darius Roby’s travel blogs can be found at the following
links:
http://uatoday.tv/opinion/bakota-the-place-that-no-longer-exists-on-maps-473638.html
http://www.moldova.org/along-lesser-traveled-roads-trip-to-moldova-part-one/
http://www.moldova.org/along-lesser-traveled-roads-trip-to-moldova-fortress-soroca-part-two/
http://en.cluj.com/rosia-montana-where-history-and-industry-meet-progress-and-conservation/
http://www.moldova.org/darius-roby-orheiul-vechi-a-window-on-the-past-2/
