Spring has come! The valley is full of fruit trees, which are bedazzled in the white and pink of full bloom. Every morning we look out our window to see the green creeping higher and higher up the slope, the last remains of snow on the peaks fading away. And down in town, it's apparently time for spring cleaning: a flurry of sidewalk repaving, pothole filling, tree painting (weird, I know; apparently it's a European thing to paint the bottom of tree trunks white), pruning, planting, washing.
But this spring cleaning isn't all it seems. We haven't seen Lupeni looking so spiffy since we moved here, so we were curious about the sudden effort. Turns out, it's an election year.
(Insert ominous music here.)
Now, I am not usually a cynic or a pessimist. In fact, my optimistic tendencies to find the silver lining in everything have driven many a friend, including my husband, crazy at times. But even I am struggling here. Yes, I am grateful that the sidewalk we walk down every day on the way to the office, once as rippled and cratered as the surface of the moon, is now covered in shiny black asphalt. I am happy to see little kids finally able to ride their scooters and moms push their baby strollers down the hazard-free sidewalk, as they should, instead of down the street. I am happy that the benches in the park are being repaired and repainted, that new playground equipment got installed, and that the shrieks and giggles of happy children are filling the warm, sunny air.
But really? I would be much happier if the mayor had been doing his job all along, rather than saving up his good deeds for a showy attempt to buy good will in the months before an election. (He's disqualified from running, by the way, since he's been under house arrest for the last year by the national anti-corruption bureau... but his son is running. So it's not a big step forward.)
Plus, some of the "repairs" seem to actually be making things worse. Our apartment used to look out onto two big, beautiful willow trees -- one in the park across the street, and one in the empty lot in front of the neighboring block. But in the past few weeks, men have come with chainsaws to "prune" the trees -- though in this case, pruning means simply hacking off all the branches and leaving the trunk standing naked, like a giant bare stick stuck into the ground. No one knows why the mayor has suddenly sent his people out to hack all of Lupeni's most beautiful city trees, but I've heard rumors he's selling the wood. As if the rampant illegal logging in the mountains around our town wasn't enough. Sigh.
As a foreigner who works for a non-political NGO, I don't feel like it's my place to do or say too much about the elections... which is hard for me! So for now I am simply praying, oh Lord, have mercy. Give the people of Lupeni wisdom in finding an alternative, a leader who will steward resources wisely and actually care for the city well. Give them the power and courage to stand up to corruption and vote-buying and lazy, selfish leadership. Give them hope for this city, a vision for its flourishing, and the wisdom and passion to bring that vision to life.
