The Kite Flyer

The Kite Flyer

All fall, winter and early spring I’ve been studying the children that play on the playground a three minute walk from our apartment. One of the favorite past times of the young girls is hopscotch on the pavement. I have taken to carrying a few sticks of creta – chalk – in my pocket and when a few children look like they might need a new drawing stick I produce it. I’m not sexist, if the boys want some, they get some, too.

What I haven’t seen are kites. It’s a good place for kites, a large lot with few trees to grab the misflown kite. Zmeu, is the Romanian word for it. I looked most of the winter in various stores for a kite to purchase my self, but was a long time disappointed until one day, perhaps six weeks ago I found one. Now I own two. And I am the curiosity of the park, an old man who talks broken Romanian trying to fly a kite. If the wind is good, I have no trouble, but Cluj is not a very windy place and by the time I get out on an evening the breeze has tapered to a whisper. That makes it challenging.

We’ve had lots of rain and a cool spring but when the sun has stays out and we get a warm day the young ladies somewhat older than the ones I give chalk are out sun bathing. This is Europe and when they sunbathe they like to get tanned all (almost) over. I have to be careful where I let out my kite. (Sorry, no pictures). I’m too much of a prude to intentionally run the kite string out so that I’d have to maneuver amongst the spread towels.

Perhaps it is a comment on our times but it seems to me that those countries that have their females bare the most skin are the ones with the lowest birthrate. In America, we are yet fairly conservative about topless, preferring to display such only in private and our birthrate at least equals that necessary for population stability. Europe, however, faces a decline in birthrate. Muslim countries, where the women are covered, have plenty of births. Romania is a conservative country and the exposure of it’s women is only now catching on. The birthrate is higher than other countries of Europe but it is now just below the replenishment rate. That’s my theory of the inverse ratio of exposed skin to births.

But back to kite flying. The other day while I was flying my kite I was approached by three children. The older girls were twins, Alexandria and Mihiala. Adrian was the younger boy. Ages I suppose were 7 for the girls and 5 for the boys. I let them fly the kite and they laughed and had a good time. I've now put on the list of my Peace Corps accomplishments kite training. Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know that both Alexandria and Mihiala were fully dressed.