Me and my berbec (ram)

Moldova is a country full of traditions, good and bad, like anywhere. When it comes to sport, there is a great tradition concerning the the deschiderea sezonului sportiv (opening of the sports season) which occurs in villages and regional centers across Moldova. Because inter-village play basically doesn’t exist, except a couple small tournaments for soccer, you can’t really say there is anything like an actual “sports season”, but it still manages to open with a bang. Many impromtu soccer and volleyball games occur, but more importantly there are certain competitions which have prizes. One is a race of about 100 yards in which the winner takes home a rabbit. The other is without doubt the most talked about event of the day – the wrestling tournament. Greco-Roman wrestling and other modern forms of wrestling exist in Moldova, but Moldovan wrestling – as occurs on the opening day – is pretty simple. A few mats on the grass, completely surrounded by spectators, no punching or poking or choking, and that’s pretty much it. Though the rules for winning vary, this year we played single elimination and as soon as two shoulders touch the mat the match ends. For kids, the winner takes home a rooster (cucosh), and for men the winner takes home a ram (berbec). Keep in mind that rams here are pretty ugly looking creatures, they lack the pretty, almost perm-curled hair of bred rams – they’re greyish colors and their dirty, oily hair is permanently in tangles. In any case, they have horns and can be made into soup and so they’re an acceptable prize for men.

Last year I tried for the ram (in romanian you say “ma iau la berbec”) and won my first match, but lost the second against a 200 pounder who I found out later spent time in the looney bin because he threw rocks at people from the top of the crane that’s been building the “new” school in our town for 16 years. Thanksfully, this year there was two classes – bigger than 80 kilos and small than 80 kilos. I’m 76 kilos (about 165 or so) so I fell in the lighter class, so meeting with my 200 pound friend from last year was out of the question.

Most of my best friends in town are kids, and they all asked if I was going to try and were great support when I wrestled. My first match was with a 38 year old fella who was pretty strong, but I managed to control his head and after a tiring couple of minutes I took him straight to the mat with a pin. The cheers from the crowd were loud and high pitched because of all of the little kids. The mayor shook my hand, surprised. In villages, if you work with computers, it’s pretty much implied that your weak and generally don’t know how to work, and I think that was his opinion as well. I said “I got a couple more to win” and he said good luck.

My second match was also tough and I was almost pinned, but luckely we fell out of bounds. Not long after, I managed to his head close enough to his knees that I locked my hands and turned him over. Another high pitched “huraah!” from the crowd.

The last match also ended pretty quick. The guy was smaller than me by 10 kilos, so I controlled his head and ended up locking my hands and turning him over like the second, and that was it! He was the last, I won! I took the berbec! Everyone congradulated me, kids and adults alike – they seemed surprised, partly because it is implied that Moldovans are tougher and stronger than Americans because they have a harder life and work harder. Hopefully I proved that wrong. I hoisted my berbec on my shoulder, took a picture, and sent him off to be made into soup. As is traditional, I invited all who wrestled to eat the berbec soup with me at another fellas house – since I don’t really have a house of my own.

In any case, there should have been better competition for the prize, but lots of people don’t participate for one reason or another, which is unfortunate. I’m happy that all that practice in high school paid off, even if I never really managed to win all that much back then, it turned out to be important. When trying to integrate into any community, especially more closed communities like small towns, gaining respect is crucial. Gaining respect means proving yourself (mentally, physically, socially) day after day while maintaining the values most important to that community. On the path to forming your personality in the eyes of the community you learn who they are, who you are, and how you can find practical solutions. Because of this, all of the little things I’ve learned add up to who I am and what I have to offer, both in terms of information and earning respect. Nothing learned is wasted – everything can come in handy, and you never know what that might be – so the more you do, practice, accomplish, learn, memorize, and understand, the faster you will earn the respect of those around you. Without people who respect you, you can accomplish only as much as a single person which is not much (if you’re not a genius). So even if I only won a handful of matches in high school, it wasn’t time wasted.