All along the Race, many random things have happened to us as we have traveled. We have seen many strange and wonderful things. However, for the most part, police, officials, officers, etc. have left us alone. The only previous encounter with the police we experienced was in Swaziland. While in Swazi, we were stopped by the police at a traffic stop regarding a seatbelt violation. Through some quick thinking and many smiles, we avoided a ticket by giving the officer a Twix candy bar. Problem solved.
That being said, we were oblivious as we drove towards the Transnistrian border of any trouble. We had no idea that the customs officials were going to give us a reason to sweat. In our minds, this would be just another border crossing.
The first indication that this border crossing would be a little different was the tank sitting beside the border with its muzzle pointed back across the bridge at Moldova. Additionally, the concrete signs and buildings were riddled with bullet holes. Now, this is not something that we see every day, but our blood pressure didn't rise because we had been informed beforehand that this would be the case. In the 1990's, a war between Moldova and Transnistria was never officially resolved. There has been no fighting in many many years, but the countries have never technically come to terms.
As the bus rumbled to a stop, a custom official (complete with Soviet looking uniform and sickle and hammer insignia) entered the bus and collected everybody's passports. The official stepped off the bus and was gone for 5-10 minutes. As he reentered the bus, he loudly announced (in a heavy Russian accent) that everybody BUT the Americans must get off the bus. At this point, we realized something was different. The official was scowling and ordering the locals off the bus with a very short and stern attitude. Slowly sweat began to form around my forehead.
Once the official got everybody off the bus, he slowly walked to the back of the bus where we were sitting and demanded to know what each of our occupations were. (Technically, we put that we are on "holiday" on customs forms due to religious restrictions in many of the countries.) I felt certain he knew we were missionaries and was going to kick us out of the country…or put us in jail.
We each rattled off our occupations and he nodded. Then he asked what we were doing in Transnistria and we could tell he wanted the truth. So, not wanting to lie, we told him why we were there. He asked us if we were going to pass out any Bibles (illegal in Transnistria) or if we had any pamphlets to pass out (also illegal). Once he was satisfied that we were not bringing in Bibles or other materials his demeanor changed and he became extremely friendly. He even acknowledged that the country needed missionaries and wished us luck.
In the end, the officer told us the true reason he wanted to talk to us was to practice his english with real Americans. He didn't want to be embarrassed if he messed up, so he kicked off all the locals. A very touchy situation turned into a really nice conversation with a border official. Ultimately, just another day on the World Race!
