One of his reportages of the period notably discussed the widespread poverty he had encountered during his travels to the eastern province of Bessarabia, and was titled "Basarabia: Țară de pământ" ("Bessarabia: Land of Soil"). In it, the writer spoke of how most tailors were almost always commissioned by locals not to produce new clothes, but to mend old ones (at a time when the larger part of family incomes in the region were spent on food and clothing). He toured the impoverished areas of Bucharest, recording activities around the city landfill and the lives of dog catchers who gassed their victims and turned them into cheap soap.