A CHILLY BLAST

The Moldovans are presently enjoying 10 days of holiday which give opportunity to celebrate the New year and 'Old Christmas' . In fact today is Christmas Day (AGAIN!!). As we sit here at 10.30am and look out of our lounge room window it is snowing quite heavily ... ‘A WHITE CHRISTMAS!’ A few folk have ventured out and are trudging through the snow.

In the last week Moldova has been experiencing sub zero temperatures – in fact Saturday reached -16°C.

In answer to the question ‘Does -16° feel any different than -5°C?’, the answer is 'YES' – it is a painful difference with fingers aching with cold and exposed areas of the face burning with cold! But we are keeping well covered so as to avoid frostbite.

We have been giving our 'thermals' and cold weather

gear from Kathmandu a real hammering!!!

On most days last week, we took the opportunity to do a bit of walking around the town…still negotiating the icy footpaths, but we’re getting better. The shops still hold a lot of interest…department stores are really multi-storey indoor markets…with a multitude of stalls clumped together in different departments (e.g. 15 independent stalls in the shoe department).

The few supermarkets that exist are also most interesting. Most times we hope that the picture on the packet is a true representation of what is inside. Sometimes it is pretty obvious what you are buying e.g. fresh fish…..

....but careful reading of the price tag can give further insight.....

(This the correct Moldovan spelling!) As tempting as it was..we bought frozen Fish Fingers instead!

On Saturday morning we left early to travel to a town called Basarabeasca about 1½ hours drive south of Chisinau. We drove along icy roads with snow covering the fields. (it was -16°C as we set out). It was a beautiful drive as we passed through fascinating little villages that we would love to come back and explore at our leisure at a later stage. We saw wells scattered throughout the villages and we are told they are still used by the villagers who don’t have running water connected.

We travelled in a mini bus with a number of folk from Botanika corps who formed a music group for the occasion. The Salvation Army had never visited this village before. Basarabeasca is a very poor village with a strong Turkish and gypsy influence. We had humanitarian aid packages to deliver to children who had been identified by town authorities as the most needy in the town. We set up in the ‘cultural hall’ and by the time we started over 300 people had gathered. It was quite amazing! The group sang Christmas songs and presented the story of Christmas and the good news of God’s love for them. After this, the aid parcels were distributed to the children. Lack of a good system saw a number of children ‘double dipping’ and it seems word had got around town that there were ‘freebies’ for everyone, so there were chaotic scenes at times.

Contents of the gift parcels.

We then made a brief visit to the children’s ward at the hospital before making our way home. Conditions here were very basic to say the least – again like walking back in time to the 1940’s or 50’s!

Corner of the Dining Room at the Children's Hospital

On Sunday we set out again in freezing conditions and walked about 25mins to ‘Rainbow of Hope’ corps. A mix-up in arrangements meant that we didn’t have a translator but with sign language and a few people having a few words of English we managed. We weren’t preaching but shared a brief spot in the meeting telling a bit about ourselves and singing the English version of a couple of the songs that had already been sung in the meeting. It was a good meeting. We saw a dramatic representation of the Christmas story and enjoyed a number of musical contributions.

Entrance to Rainbow of Hope Corps. They rent a classroom
in the University..

Captains Ana and Valerii Tkach - Corps Officers

Dramatisation of the Christmas story.

Vadim - an intelligent and very gifted 11 y.o. but like many children in Moldova, he has been abandoned by his parents and is being brought up by his grandmother. It is a struggle for them to make ends meet, and one wonders whether he will reach his full potential because of his circumstances.

Corps Officer preaching

..even William and Catherine Booth were brought in on the celebrations !!!

'Rainbow of Hope’ corps is blessed with a very good pianist, Natasha, who can play well by ear. She sits at the piano throughout the service, which is located right next to where the officer preaches. We noticed during the meeting that Natasha had a tendency to nod off…but there were enough musical items scattered throughout the service to bring her back to the real world. However, the sermon took a little longer (about 30mins) and as the officer was concluding the meeting with prayer, in those quiet, tender moments, the sound of heavy snoring began to be heard right through the hall. At this point the officer, while still praying, reached out his hand and shook her on the shoulder. This prompted her to go into ‘automatic pilot’ mode(or should this be automatic pianist!) and she immediately started playing!!! There was a little titter around the hall and then everyone acted as if nothing had happened.
We were blessed to be a part of this simple, but very sincere service.

As we walked home, it was great to see people skating on the lake near our apartment… another indication of how cold it has been.

They must be confident that the ice is thick enough to do this. We do our skating on the footpaths!

We look forward to getting back to work on Wednesday. Our Territorial Commanders, Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst, arrive next Saturday to conduct our Installation next Sunday morning at the Central corps. This will be a combined meeting. (We have just checked the weather forecast, and Sunday morning will be minus 12. THERE IS NO HEATING IN CENTRAL CORPS!!! Aaaarrgghh!!!!)

The TC's will be staying with us for 3 nights. Viv hopes she has mastered the oven and the food by then…but then there is always chow mein!!!

Until next time…LOL Viv and Ian xoxoxo