Just in the nick of time!

First things first!
This is what they look like….the ‘green cards’ that we have been asking you to pray about.

They are AT LAST in our possession!

We have finally jumped through the last hoop, and they were handed to us today, with our visa due to expire tomorrow!! We now rest easy as far as being able to stay.


The truth is we paid for them last Wednesday and had our photos taken, but we chose to opt for the longer processing time in order to save the Army $80! That can be put to better use in this part of the world. It is a great relief to be freed from this concern. Thanks for your prayers and interest. God is good.

‘Primavara Vine!’ Spring has come! The buds on the tree outside our window are bulging with a promising tinge of green, the sun is more often ‘out’ than ‘in’, the grass is starting to grow, and the days are noticeably getting longer. The place is coming to life. Even as we walked home this evening, we commented on all the children playing outside. Up until now they have largely remained inside, out of the cold.

It seems that Moldovans find any reason to celebrate, and the first day of spring is one of those occasions. It is known as ‘Martisor’. There are several legends that lay claim to be the basis of the celebration, but a common theme in each of the stories is blood in the snow. As a result, people present each other with lapel decorations of red and white flowers to wear for the month of March. As we walked down the main street on March 1st, one entire block of the footpath was lined with people standing shoulder to shoulder selling these trinkets as well as spring flowers. It was quite a sight.








Part of this tradition is spring cleaning….and that includes everything!!! Even the asphalt soccer fields that we cross walking to work had teams of schoolkids out with the traditional Moldovan straw broom sweeping up leaves and other rubbish. Beats being in the classroom I guess!




International Women’s Day (8th) is also celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm, and we even got a public holiday last Monday because the 8th was a Saturday. It’s like the equivalent of Mothers Day, but not confined to mum’s. Women are presented with flowers and chocolates and many accolades.

The men also get a guernsey. Late in February is ‘Men’s Day’, by no means as grandly celebrated as Women’s Day. It is more a recognition of returned soldiers. At the Corps the day after, we saw the man in the photo below proudly wearing his uniform and medals. He had been a member of the Soviet Army for many years.



In recent days, we have made new friends in Captains Brad and Anita Caldwell. They are American officers who have served in this Territory for 7 years, presently in the education field. They stayed with us for several days while conducting some seminars with officers and employees. We had a great time sharing with them, enjoying the freedom of conversation without the need for a translator. A highlight of our time together was a meal out one evening. We had the small restaurant to ourselves for most of the night, and were serenaded by our own personal muso’s, a brilliant violinist, and an equally accomplished pianist. Some financial incentive encouraged them to keep playing, and they even came back later in the evening for an encore! It was the kind of entertainment yo would have to pay a small fortune for in Australia. Professional musicians in Moldova are very poorly paid, (remember that we said seats at the opera were between $4-$10 each!) These kind of gigs are a welcome added source of income. They sure earned their money that night.

Seminar participants.

The guy in the middle is Yuri Gulyanytsky from Ukraine. He is the Territorial Sergeant Major.


A couple of Sundays ago, we travelled north to the city of Beltsi, where we conducted Sunday worship. It was a great experience as usual, followed by a sumptuous lunch (as usual!!!) We had then offered to go another 40 kms north to pick up an officer from a village Corps and bring him back to Chisinau with us for some medical treatment. We had half expected to stop the vehicle, bip the horn and wait for him to come out. To our surprise and delight, as we pulled up, four beautiful young women in national costume ran out to meet us, then insisted that we come in and let them dance in our honour. This was not going to be a whistle stop! We watched thirty minutes of enthusiastic dancing, had a sumptuous afternoon tea (more food as usual!!!) then all in the minibus to travel home, trying to avoid the potholes along the way. It had been a twelve hour day..full of surprises! (as usual!!!!)


Ian in action at Beltsi Corps with Oxana from DHQ who translated on the day.

‘Skype’ is a Godsend. It is great to be able to speak to our family ‘live’ and see them via a web camera. We were delighted to see Joel crawling for the first time the other morning. We ‘goo’ and ‘gaa’ and talk and sing to him, but more often than not he seems more interested in the computer keyboard than us. It’s good therapy for us anyway. It is also good to see Clare’s increasing ‘profile’ as we continue to count down the days to the birth of their baby in June. She looks beautiful. (They all do!!)

Any excuse to put in the latest photo of our little man!!


Work wise we seem to be settling into routine and are beginning to identify issues both short and long term that we will need to focus on. Now that we are ‘Australian Moldovans’, the holiday is over and it’s in for the long haul.. ‘heads down – b_ms up’ and into it!!


To finish... a few random photos that help 'tell our story...'

An uncovered manhole - not an uncommon sight! There is no such thing as a leisurely walk - you've got to watch where you're walking all the time.


The snow has gone, revealing the rubbish beneath. This is our kitchen window view. Nice!


Viv inspecting the high tech fire fighting equipment at a Corps building!!

The toilets at one of our distant Corps. All of a sudden, Ian lost the urge!!!!

If you have a set of bathroom scales, here is a 'weigh' to make a dollar a day (if you're lucky)
The equivalent of 5c a time. This was taken on the main street of Chisinau

Until next time..

Ian and Viv xoxoxo