Cab drivers tell stories

As we said before, getting around town using the cab remains our primary mode of transportation and today one of the drivers voluntarily shared a pretty good story representative of the corruption crisis in the country. In Romania, discussing politics with total strangers is not a taboo and people do it quite freely. Cab drivers are pretty notorious about sharing their personal feelings with their clients. So, our taxi driver today shared why he voted for the president-elect (Romania selected its president just a few days ago):

"I voted for Basescu (president-elect) because in the past four years our life quality has worsened. We now have to work more for less money. And it's not just my family, but a lot of people I know. Things are just bad all the way around and the corruption is out of control. My sister had a baby just last week and was telling me about this 17-year old girl who only had 1 million lei (roughly $34) for bribes and no one paid attention to her. She ended up going for 48 hours without any care, while those that paid bribes had constant attention. This is not just plain wrong, it is just inhumane, it's criminal."

Needless to say, hearing little stories like this one increases our confidence for the reason we are here and at the same time demonstrates the monumental task ahead.

-C