Anthropological Journeys

Francis Tapon asked me what I would do if I had a billion dollars.  He wasn’t interested in what I would do with the money; he wanted to know what I would do with my time.  I said I would travel and see my friends and go places I hadn’t been. “Exactly” Tapon said.

Tapon was born in San Francisco to immigrant parents.  His mother was poor, “modest,” from Chile when it was a third-world country; she had to quit high school to start working.  His dad was born in France, during the Great Depression and still a child when World War II began.  Though they both came from modest backgrounds, they worked hard and did well.

Tapon studied and majored in religions at Amherst College.  He considers himself an Agnostic-Atheist.  To explain, he referred to Bertrand Russell’s teapots, ”If someone claims that there are teacups orbiting between Earth and Mars, there’s no way to disprove him, so I’m agnostic – but basically I don’t believe it.”

Next, he found his way to Latin America, working for Hitachi. Then he went to Harvard and graduated with an MBA.  He started up a company with two engineers in Silicon Valley.  In June 2004, Tapon went to Eastern Europe for five months and was charmed.  At the same time, a friend was imploring him to work on a project for Microsoft, but he wanted to travel.  During this time he lived simply, a lifestyle he learned from his parents who had a frugal mentality.  He said that one’s relationship with money is taught; what kind of meaning you attach to money often comes from your parents.

With the money saved from the Microsoft project, Tapon thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, then
became the first person to do a round-trip on the Continental Divide Trail.  Next, he  returned to Eastern Europe and supported himself on a three-year journey to discover Eastern Europe.  His hilarious and insightful stories are captured in The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.  He explored every Eastern European country, from the Gulf of Finland to the Adriatic Sea.

Earlier in the day, I decided that since he had been to so many countries, I should just ask him about one or two.  My first thought was Moldova; I wanted to know what he had to say.  But I also wanted to ask about Montenegro.  Ironically, when I asked him to tell me about any two places, these were the two he named, as his least favorite and favorite, respectively.

The chapter on Moldova is titled “Poor, Torn, and Drunk” – he said he knows some people won’t be happy about that.  He explained he is attracted to geographically interesting places; Moldova is not geographically interesting, it is made up of soft rolling hills.  And it lacks interesting cities, meaning they are neither aesthetically beautiful, nor culturally dynamic – with one exception. The Moldovan city of Tiraspol on the breakaway territory of Transnistria was a place he found culturally interesting.  He described the area as more extreme than the Basque Country; Tiraspol has its own currency, government, and border: “Imagine going through passport control on your way in to San Francisco.”

Montenegro was his favorite.  The country “has it all – except a sweet metropolis.”  Montenegro has a phenomenal coast, the southernmost fjords in Europe, old Venetian-style towns combined with large mountains.  It is a very small country, smaller than Connecticut, with nice weather, and has the precious Durmitor National Park.  “The dramatic fjords of Kotor stole my heart.”

The most beautiful interactions he had with people were in the Balkans.  He described the people there as affectionate, outgoing, warm, friendly, physical, social, funny, and with great food.  He described, one day he was walking along a beach area in a tiny town when a 60-year old man waved to him and said hello.  He returned the greeting and said that he didn’t speak Albanian.  The old man tried to communicate anyway and after some time walking together on the beach, they realized they could both speak basic Russian so they had a basic conversation in Russian.  The old man invited Tapon to tea, and then to his home.  He introduced Tapon to his wife, invited him to stay for dinner, and then invited him to spend the night.  The warmth and hospitality shown to him was very special.

He was also shown warmth in Kosovo.  He went in to the country “not knowing much at all.”  He said typically Eastern European bus drivers are grumpy.  When he got on a bus in Kosovo, he told the driver that he didn’t have any Euros, the driver said, “Don’t worry my friend.”  Before he could say more, a young Kosovar paid Tapon’s five-dollar fare.  Tapon asked him why he paid his fare.  The young man said, “I’m so grateful for what you Americans did for us” referring to when the U.S. helped Kosovo get independence from Serbia.  Later the young man invited Tapon to his family’s home.  This interaction shocked Tapon because at the time, he was traveling during the Bush-era when “America was not popular outside of America” and this young Muslim showed him kindness and gratitude.

Then Tapon recalled an old woman he met in Russia, Zoya Panteleeva, who as a child lived underground in the forest for several months while the Germans were pushed out of Russia during World War II.  He recalled her going out in the cold to fetch water from the well, and emptying the bucket of water under the sink where the water drained.  She and her husband lived simple lives, but not sad, because they were content.

“We are closing the door on highly educated potential immigrants.”

What does make him sad are the brilliant Serbians, Romanians, Croatians, Russians and others who can’t come to America.  “They would be model citizens in the U.S.” but they can’t fulfill their dream of traveling to the U.S. because of U.S. policies based on xenophobia from 9/11.  “We are so fearful of another terrorist attack that we are closing the doors” where “opening the door more widely brings more good news than bad news.”  At the end of his book Tapon proposes an automatic visa for highly educated people, a “no brainer,” at least as a starting point.  Again his parents are great examples: his mother didn’t finish high school and his father didn’t finish college but both worked hard for the American dream and achieved it.

Tapon enjoys traveling to tough parts of the world; he is excited by places people don’t usually go to.  His next books and adventures will be from spending three years exploring every country in Africa, and then the Middle East.