When reading the information on Moldova prior to arriving, we were informed that the African American population is slim to none. If you have a skin color of anything other than caucasian or super tan (typically gypsies), then you may be looked at as even more strange (as if we aren't already for being American) just merely out of curiosity.
However, I basically forgot about this upon arrival to Moldova. Until, that is, we had our TeamBuilding activities with all of the M25's.
We had our group of over 70 (prob closer to 80) English speaking individuals, and then next to us at the campsite area was a group of Moldovans. I never did figure out what they were celebrating- but there were people dressed as flight attendants, soldiers, and a bunch of other "characters". They were drinking, singing, dancing, performing skits, and having a good time. We were doing the same, and eventually the flight attendants came over to check out exactly what was going on. Before we knew it, two of our friends were pulled out of the group by them and were asked if they could get pictures taken. They were confused, but said sure. Then they realized they were pulled out because they are African American, so they said "wait! we have one more!" and then pulled another African American friend over for the photos. In no way were the people discriminatory or disrespectful, other than making it obvious why no one else could be in the photo. In fact, my friends seemed to think it was pretty fascinating because in America, at least to me, I feel like we are constantly drilled WE ARE ALL EQUAL, so to us, being pulled aside like that is not considered ok. But, in reality, the Moldovans are just fascinated with the color of the skin.
It just means more photo-ops for my friends :)
No comments:
Post a Comment