Though they won’t admit it, there is almost optimism here now. It goes against a long tradition of people being helpless to the state or the conquerers who came, for hundreds of years before that, to this advantageous takeover opportunity.

No one exactly tells the truth in the cities as well as the countryside because that could get you or your family members killed. And because in the olden days all accomplishment belonged to the state so “who cares?” That’s no joke and makes doing business here a lot like trying to interpret the inscrutable Japanese at the bargaining table.

My first tour here was a lark. My current one is a relatively celebritory event with marked success and a handful of native friends I can trust. It’s true, I’ve never lived in the poverty of the villages. But there is a huge migration to the opportunities in the cities. It helps to be younger rather than older, of course, but the upper middle aged and early senior citizen displacement is an abhorant but predictable result of the move to an uncontrolled state with its resultant casualties. Still, there is strong family connection here, and the city-zens I know feel a strong responsibility for their left-behinds. And there is also great respect for the people who are managing in “de Tara” (the countryside) .

I’m sorry you had to leave and miss the happier ending. Will it ever be perfect? Will I ever get to satisfy my own particular longing for Skippy peanut butter and Kellogg’s Cornflakes. Unlikely. And do I secretly thank any appropriate dieties that I carry a blue passport, even in these exasperating political times? You betcha.

But I just didn’t want to leave all your readers thinking that Romania is only filled with Gypsies, horse thieves, internet bank fraud specialists and the destitute. Every country has some of these. And Romania has a long way to come up to EU or the world’s standards. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that from what I can see from here, they’re doing it. And it’s working.