Being Inspired In Moldova

Sometimes a reporter goes after one story, only to find himself coming back with something entirely different. So it was when David Turecamo landed somewhere in Eastern Europe on Moldova's independence day.

He arrived in Moldova with the intention of highlighting the country's struggle to transition from part of the communist Soviet Union to an independent democracy. He came to report on a center for victims of torture run by Ludmilla Popovic.

"Here we have no real democracy, only a democratic process but no democracy," she said.

Recent torture victims are too afraid to speak out, but Moldova is also home to survivors of the communist purges under Josef Stalin, like Alexander Pripac, who was shoved into a boxcar and deported to Siberia when he was just 19.

But Turecamo isn't convinced that Moldova can't move ahead.

"It's an experiment in democracy," he said. "But it's getting some help from an unlikely source and the future here ... his name is Alexei Buzu .. at 23 probably the youngest elected official in Moldova's government."

"When I first time voted I voted for myself. So I expressed my both rights like to elect and be elected," Buzu said told Turecamo.

Turecamo met Buzu through Popovic and a Peace Corps volunteer, Molly Lamphear from Texas. She said Buzu became involved in politics "because he really cared about young people and doing something and being active and being involved." She took Turecamo to his small town where he met Buzu's mother, a school teacher, which may explain how he taught himself to speak English.

"And I started to read a lot about American system, American democracy, American society," Buzu said. "You had, like now you have a Republican mayor in New York? And I think before him was another Republican?"

"Yes. Do you know his name?" Turecamo asked him.

"No, but I know he wrote a book about leadership," Buzu said.

Buzu continued to wow Turecamo with his knowledge of American life, with tidbits about IBM, General Motors, General Electric, Dell and Starbucks.

"Well, I didn't even know the names of the dishes Maria was serving, much less any significant details about the country in which I was being served them — kind of embarrassing when you realize that Alexei has never been outside of Moldova," Turecamo said.

Buzu's world opened up about three or four years ago when he met an American who became his mentor, a woman named Mary Schuring, his town's first Peace Corps volunteer.

"She said I have the confidence that you will be well, that you'll do something sort of great in your life. And I said 'Oh yea, really?'" Buzu said.

"You know, his mother was a simple school teacher and his father worked for the commune, and they were very much a part of the system," Lamphear said.

"My father was a communist party member," Buzu said. "Yea, he truly believed in Communism."

Buzu grew up working on one of the old Communist farm collectives. He raised tomatoes, something he said he felt very passionate about.

"He was out there digging potatoes and cutting the vines," Lamphear said. "I mean, he was doing all those things that every villager does but he did go on to do a study on abuse of child labor in Moldova. Because he did feel that parents expect perhaps too much of their children in the way they use them during harvest. It's a dilemma."

As the poorest country in Europe, Moldova depends heavily on its children and even more on its young people who leave the country and send money home, like Alexei's brother Vlad.

"I believe that my brother's generation who left, they had to leave because otherwise the country will die. People who send money from abroad, this sum is bigger than our budget," Buzu said.

Moldova's budget of $950 million doesn't quite match the $1 billion sent home by Moldavians living abroad. Amazingly, the Peace Corps has a budget of just $318.8 million, but is able to do effective work with small town projects and the help of older volunteers like Lamphear, 65.

"I think some people are surprised that there are older volunteers. When Jimmy Carter's mother was a Peace Corps volunteer in India, I think that opened some people's eyes to the fact that, yes, there are older volunteers in Peace Corps," she said.

The work is paying off. Yeterday Buzu came to the United States to accept an award. It's the fulfillment of a dream, said Turecamo, not only for him but for every one of us.