“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain
Even if at the beginning he was confusing the cinnamon with clove and had difficulties with diphthongs, Dorin found himself a warm place in the Tucano family, because he has a secret: the will to learn always something new, especially, when it’s hard to do it.
Almost 17 years spent in Greece and the return to Moldova
Tucano Coffee Kenya guests already know that Dorin is a barista with a beautiful soul, always patient and ready to help people around him, whenever they need it. After spending his childhood and teenage in Greece he came back to Moldova and started it all over. Also from scratch, he has learned the Romanian language, even if for some of us it may take a lifetime to do it, even living in this surround.
Of course he didn’t leave Greece because of a good life. Difficulties began in Athens and a salary of 600-700 euros was enough to only cover the necessary. The bills were a pressure for Dorin and his family. This is why he returned to Moldova in 2014.
Integration in Tucano family
It wasn’t so easy to start it all over, leaving his friends at a 1600 km distance. And you by yourselves, it isn’t quite easy to find immediately a job and a few people whom you could consider friends. A few months after his return, Dorin tried to pull himself together. He made his first steps looking to integrate into society, even if local ethnic divisions confused him.
I looked for a job twice after I returned to Moldova. The first time I resorted to labor exchange services and got a waiter job. After a while, I needed a better payed job. And I started to look for a job myself. One day, I went downtown and searched for an appropriate job in all open places. After all my options ended, on the way to my place, I stopped in front of the Tucano coffee shop on Bodoni street. This is the place where I’ll get lucky, I thought.
Some notes about coffee and barista work
Moldova is the place where Dorin found his passion for coffee, even if in Athens he was surrounded only by coffee shops.
The barista job means a lot of involvement when you brew every coffee, froth milk or mix the right proportions. And if you want to be a mediocre barista, then you should never become one, says Dorin. Because the idea is: to get better day by day, brew today a better coffee than yesterday. But doesn’t always come out like you plan, we also make mistakes.
I am a person that learns from his own mistakes. I simply try to detect the moments when I make mistakes and then, do my best correcting them. Furthermore, I’d say that you can really learn from others’ mistakes, while working. For example, when a barista better than me is frothing some milk, I carefully look at the way he holds the hand or the dish and this is how it works every time.
Meeting his friends
And yet, a big part of Dorin’s life is still in Greece. He misses his friends, even if they talk on-line every day. Of course he dreams of a reunion, which Dorin might organize right here, in Chisinau.