Arrival in Moldova

I left my brand new home in the Netherlands yesterday evening, after 3 weeks of moving over and just 48 hours of living there officially. There were no trains between Eindhoven and Amsterdam during the night time, so I had to leave in the evening and spent the night rather sleepless at Schiphol Airport. At 7 AM I had my flight to Munich, where I had a change over to Chisinau.
Today, 28 November 2013 around noon I arrived in at Chisinau Airport in Moldova. I had a good flight. Alina came to pick me up, and then we had lunch with Cornelia and Violeta at Le Roi business centre: the place of our training session in March 2013. It was nice to be back there, and I had a nice meal.

After lunch we went to the bus stop where I met the Moldovan group of (ex)users and survivors of psychiatry. I saw all new faces, none of the participants of the March-session was there. Nevertheless the group was very nice. The group got in a mini bus, and I got in the car with Alina, Arcadie and his son to go to the Vatra resort in Vadul lui Voda. This resort is located in a forest on the countryside. It was a very nice drive to get here, with great views. But the driving style here is generally quite chaotic and sometimes rather dangerous, however we made it safe and sound to the resort.

We all got a room in this resort-hotel, and then started with a coffee break, before moving to the conference room on the second floor. The programme was slightly changed, because the group wanted to discuss their formal start as an organization. I was allowed to go to rest, but I didn’t. I am here with a mission, and I wanted to participate, even while this discussion was in Moldovan (Romanian-Russian). Alina summarized the contents for me, and I just intended to listen and checked some emails in the meantime. But at a certain point, after an hour or so, I started to participate in the discussion (on the value of having a user organization for which I explained my own motivation, and on possibilities to organize protest actions, if necessary anonymous, that is also how I started at first). We had a very interesting dialogue, which we will continue later these days, in order to make a strategic plan for the start of this user organization.
After this discussion, we decided to watch the movie A Beautiful Mind, but technical issues were against us, and then dinner also appeared to be ready, so the movie was stopped after 10 minutes.

We went downstairs to the dining for having a nice dinner together, and despite the many language barriers we managed to communicate: in English, French, Italian, Romanian and Russian and everything in between. With some efforts we managed to understand each other without a translator. (I never knew I could understand Italian and Romanian, but quite some words are recognizable with some efforts, although Russian is the hardest, barely recognizable for me). It is very interesting to use a mix of various languages in order to communicate. And everyone is trying their best, and helping each other finding words and translating as far as we all can. This gives a very good atmosphere, where everybody is welcome to say anything in their language of choice, and we manage to get the message across to all of us. It really feels like a group already, even after a few hours.

After dinner some of the participants had arranged tea and a big plate of cookies and chocolate candies for all of us, so we sat in the dining and talked and had a good time. However, at 8 the dining was closing, and we had to move out. We decided to go for a walk, intending to go to the river Dnister close by. However, we turned around because it was dark and cold, and we decided we should go there in daytime somewhere in the next days. After the short walk, we stood for a while chatting to each other in front of the entrance of the resort-hotel, and then I decided to go to my room. It was only 9PM, but I still miss last night’s sleep (and the 3 weeks of moving furniture and my organization into my new home is also still in my system – so yes I’m tired). So now I’m at my hotel room, which is like a small apartment. I am now writing my blog and then I will check if I can upload it (internet is currently not working in my room). After that I will take a shower and then go to sleep. I want to be fresh tomorrow in order to make a valuable contribution in the discussions on organizing the Moldovan user movement and implementing alternatives to clinical and forced psychiatry. So now I’m off to reload myself. Enjoying a big twin bed :)