Tags: interview, Moldova, chocolate, Chisinau, fieldwork
Date: 11 September 2007 15:06:30
Moldovan hospitality is legendary - they simply will not let you get away with refusing biscuits/cake/tea/wine/add your edible/drinkable indulgence of choice here. That is the main reason why I am so lardy at the moment!
Today I did an interview, and the secretary at one point came in with the kettle. Fine I thought, I could do with a cup of tea (I also thought it would help me diplomatically avoid the pile of chocolates on the plate in front of me!). Anyway, she then proceeded to pile a couple of spoonfuls of sugar into the cup (it's generally assumed, unless you specifically say something, that tea and coffee will be full of sugar, but I couldn't say something as I was mid-interview and I'm already going to have the transcription include "yes, thank you, I'll have a tea please" as well as more weighty subjects, so I didn't really want to discuss it any more!). Anyway, like the trooper I am I smiled and just got on with it, and managed to drink it without gurning (I hate sugar in tea!), and thought I'd got away without having to eat the chocolates.
So I got up to leave, opened my bag to put my diary and dictaphone back into it, and the person I had interviewed swept up a handful of chocolates and chucked them in my bag! I mean really - what would Jesus do? (don't tell the Chocolate Policeman). Sigh.