My last day in Moldova was the perfect opportunity for me to misinterpret someone!I mean, you can't leave a foreign place and not have at least one really dumb thing you did to tell people, right?
So after getting a snack at this delicious Turkish cafe, a group of us were walking in Centru (the downtown area of Chisinau) and a couple of the girls in my group decided to go look in a store. While they did that, the rest of us waited outside where there just happened to be a pack of stray puppies. Now, anyone who knows me knows I can not pass up the opportunity to play with puppies, so I was really excited when I remembered that I had half a lavash (a sort of sandwich wrap) left in my purse from the evening before. I got it out, tore it into pieces and began to feed the dogs.
As I was doing this a little old lady walked past. She was this adorable little thing with tufts of white hair and a head scarf. She came up to me and began to speak to me in Romanian. Since the phrases I know in Romanaian are very limited, our team leader began to interpret for me. The woman was telling me these really beautiful things! She was saying how she felt as if I were really feeding her instead of the dogs because I was taking care of them. She told me how God cares for the small things that can't care for themselves and he must be filled with joy watching me care for his creation. She crossed herself and continued speaking to me. Then she looked at me and pointed to her forehead. I did not understand what she wanted so she tried again, she pointed at me and then pointed at her own forehead. So what do you think I did????
I grabbed her head with both of my hands and I kissed her forehead.
That is not what she meant. It was just at that point that everyone else walked out of the store. Oh man, I was SOOOO embarrassed.
I found out later that what they lady had actually meant was "Where are you from?" because I was wearing the awesome bandana that my friend Magda had gotten me of the Moldovan flag (how cool is that people!) Thus, she was pointing to my head and trying to communicate about my bandana.
Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't just turn around and ask what she was saying to me. How was it that my first reaction was to kiss this random woman? I don't know, but I must say it did make for a whole lot of laughter =)
So after getting a snack at this delicious Turkish cafe, a group of us were walking in Centru (the downtown area of Chisinau) and a couple of the girls in my group decided to go look in a store. While they did that, the rest of us waited outside where there just happened to be a pack of stray puppies. Now, anyone who knows me knows I can not pass up the opportunity to play with puppies, so I was really excited when I remembered that I had half a lavash (a sort of sandwich wrap) left in my purse from the evening before. I got it out, tore it into pieces and began to feed the dogs.
As I was doing this a little old lady walked past. She was this adorable little thing with tufts of white hair and a head scarf. She came up to me and began to speak to me in Romanian. Since the phrases I know in Romanaian are very limited, our team leader began to interpret for me. The woman was telling me these really beautiful things! She was saying how she felt as if I were really feeding her instead of the dogs because I was taking care of them. She told me how God cares for the small things that can't care for themselves and he must be filled with joy watching me care for his creation. She crossed herself and continued speaking to me. Then she looked at me and pointed to her forehead. I did not understand what she wanted so she tried again, she pointed at me and then pointed at her own forehead. So what do you think I did????
I grabbed her head with both of my hands and I kissed her forehead.
That is not what she meant. It was just at that point that everyone else walked out of the store. Oh man, I was SOOOO embarrassed.
I found out later that what they lady had actually meant was "Where are you from?" because I was wearing the awesome bandana that my friend Magda had gotten me of the Moldovan flag (how cool is that people!) Thus, she was pointing to my head and trying to communicate about my bandana.
Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't just turn around and ask what she was saying to me. How was it that my first reaction was to kiss this random woman? I don't know, but I must say it did make for a whole lot of laughter =)
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