Tuesday's Meeting

I had another meeting today, this one over at the "Institute of Physiopneumology."  I met with a ring of specialists who are very involved in academic pulmonary research and are also connected to the Municipal City TB Hospital in Chisinau (which is where my contact Dr. Cetulean is a doctor-in-chief.)  I was thrilled to be able to meet with both the present head of the department as well as the former head, Dr. Constantin Iavorschi MD, PhD, PhD and Dr. Aurelia Ustian, MD, PhD, respectively.  Dr. Valentina Vilc, MD, who is a physiopneumologist in the department, was a key to the meeting's success, as she spoke English extremely well and translated the conversations back and forth.  There was a fourth physician there, who is apparently the primary TB researcher in the department... I am quite disappointed in myself for not having written his name down, as he, along with Dr. Vilc, will probably be my two main contacts in the department once everything is squared away.


My main impressions:  all four doctors were very excited to have me here in Moldova, were quite open to my presence, and seemed pleased to offer their services.  While I have yet to see them in clinical/academic action, their comport was very professional (as expected) and left me very excited that Dr. Topor introduced us.  I am still in disbelief that the four of them would all take a half hour out of their day to talk with me... it reminds me not to take this special opportunity for granted.  I think I will be able to learn a lot from this group of specialists, and that has me very excited!  Now, I just have to wait for my special ID and diplomatic letter...



I did learn another lesson today, and it is one that is not easily fixed.  I have always considered my face-to-face communication skills to be a major strength; it is probably why I have never been partial to phones, e-mail, etc.  In today's meeting I found that without being able to communicate fluently, I lost a lot of my efficacy.  I really felt quite disarmed.  Even having someone present who is able to translate with near perfection does not make up for the loss of response to social cues, and reigning-in and unfurling of the tone of conversation.  I was not mentally prepared to be out of control of presenting my proposals.  I can only hope to gain new strengths while waiting for my new language to develop further... otherwise, it will be a long 279 days.  Lesson #813 from Brian's Guide to Living in Moldova:  find a language tutor!  ...I will be finding mine tomorrow.  :^)



On the lighter side, about half-way through our meeting I really felt like I should apologize that I wasn't able to speak their language.  The Moldovan response?  Without blinking, they apologized that they did not speak mine... Moldovan kindness can be quite astounding at times.


Until the next time!