Come over to Moldova

Since our last entry there have been numerous guests… from numerous countries… with numerous purposes for coming to Moldova.

At the end of March, Katarina Brieditis a Swedish product design and development consultant visited for a few days. ‘Sally Ann’ is a fair trade program that seeks to assist the unemployed in struggling countries to develop skills and business knowledge so as to increase their income and improve their way of life. For several years now there has been a fledgling expression of ‘Sally Ann’ here in Moldova. This has primarily been the production of quality table linen products and linen shopping bags. In an effort to develop the project, Katarina explored the possibility of additional product lines that would be attractive to Scandinavian markets where ‘Sally Ann’ outlet stores exist. Her visit took us to a variety of interesting places including Kirsova where there is a group of young woodworkers, some of whom are disabled. There may be the possibility of having them produce products in the near future. Their intricate hand-carved jewellery boxes are amazing! Katarina graced us with her presence and her amazing expertise in this area. (Part of her C.V. includes product design for Ikea). It is hoped that she will be contracted by The Salvation Army at least for a couple of years to implement her ideas.

Some of the beautifully carved boxes made by this group.

Then the Americans arrived. Captains Andrea Ellis and Iva West from the Kentucky – Tennessee division (our ‘Partner in Mission’ division) came to teach at the 4 day Leadership seminars. For the first 2 days just the officers were in conference. On day 3, they were joined by local officers (2 from each corps), and then on day 4 the officers had left and just the local officers remained. We covered such topics as ‘Servant Leadership’, ‘Strategic Planning’, Conflict Resolution’, Fund-raising, Planned Giving, Theology of Salvation Army Mission, Projects... There was certainly something for everyone.

A group of Officers and Local Officers at the seminar

Iva West and Andrea Ellis outside the Central Post Office in Chisinau

Us with the Cochranes

It was great to get to know these 2 ladies and we had some adventurous times together travelling around Moldova. Majors Lyn and Ron Cochrane also came along for the ride as they were also involved in teaching during these seminars. The bumpy Moldovan roads took their toll in more ways than one.

Andrea and Iva were especially intrigued by the way the chicken sellers at the markets in Moldova display their goods!!! So much so, we had to take photos.

Mmmmmm !!! A new twist to the saying.. 'You know what you can do with that..?'

Yeah.. we know it's not a chicken, but worth a laugh. We SO MUCH do not want to buy meat when we visit this market. It's much nicer at the supermarket packed in plastic containers!!

We are becoming expert tour guides, and people at the very few tourist attractions in Moldova that do exist, are getting to know us well, as we have been visiting their sites about every 2nd week since the beginning of the year..

On Sunday April 6th, Moldovans went to the polls to elect a new government. Not surprisingly, the Communist Party was returned to power, with a strong majority but there were those who claimed that the counting was flawed and protested at the corruption they felt exists in government circles. Moldova is one of Europe's poorest countries, and underdevelopment has sewn discontent amongst the educated elite, which longs for greater integration with Europe, but they are generally outnumbered by rural voters who back the communist party. The European press reported..

“ Demonstrators gathered in Chisinau, Moldova's capital, on Monday night after the election and Tuesday using the internet and state-of-the-art civil disobedience techniques. Mainly students, they called for closer ties with the European Union and began rampaging through government buildings, looting and burning.
Hundreds of people who had been present at the demonstrations were arrested. According to human rights watchdogs, many of those arrested were held in inhumane conditions and denied due process. At least three young people have died in circumstances apparently connected with the arrests. The authorities have admitted to some instances but at this stage it is uncertain how this will be addressed”.

We took a walk around the buildings the following day then wandered into the public square where protesters still were gathered. There was an eerie silence as people walked around trying to make sense of the wanton destruction that had occurred. Fires had been lit inside the parliamentary building and almost every window broken. Furniture, computers and files had been thrown out of windows and were lying where they had landed on the ground below. The cleanup has now begun with the cost of repairs being put at $US40million. Part of the government strategy in dealing with this has been to stop payments to students at certain universities (known to have students who were involved in the demonstrations) so as to help cover the costs. We are amazed at the speed at which repairs are happening at the presidential building when everything else seems to take forever to get fixed everywhere else!!

The Presidential building..

..close up of some of the damage here.

This is the Parliament building which was trashed by demonstrators, who occupied the building for 24 hours after greatly outnumbered police abandoned their defense of the premises..A careful look will show just about every window broken

Results of one of the fires...

... and another.

We walked among the people assembled outside Government offices the day after the riots.

Majors Ron and Lyn Cochrane stayed on for a week after the seminars working on Project and Child Sponsorship matters within the division. Once again we took to the road.. once again tiring… but once again meaningful and fulfilling as we see first-hand the good work that is being done under the banner of The Salvation Army.

At one point we stopped in to see a couple who are part of the ‘Adopt-a Granny’ project. Pavel has been bed-ridden for 8 years after the amputation of his leg. His wife cares for him as best she can, but it is a sad and lonely existence for them. The Salvation Army visits regularly with food and medicines. The pastoral chat is also greatly appreciated. Most of their small pension (about $US10.00 per week) is spent on medications. We have also assisted in the past with a wheelchair but because it was a 2nd hand one in the first place it had a limited life-span and a replacement now needs to be found. Hopefully we can help in this regard. We listened to their sad story and were amazed at one point when they were recounting the time when Pavel had to have is leg amputated …. the amputated leg was actually brought around to the wife at her home for her to dispose of!!## Understandably she is still traumatised by this memory!

In recent years they have become Christians, and the other amazing part of their story is to see them in these dire circumstances and yet hear them tell with such sincerity of the new hope and strength they have received because of their new-found faith. It was a humbling experience! As so often happens, we left their home feeling that we were the ones that had been blessed in deep ways.

Pavel and his wife in their home

Lyn Cochrane playing with a group of kids at Beltsi..

This was the only way we could fit 7 in the station wagon. Fortunately for Ron and Iva, this didn't happen over long distances!!

Then it was Orthodox Easter, and Commissioners Wim and Netty van der Harst dropped in to visit. Once again a lot of kilometres over bumpy roads...firstly to Ungheni (100 kms west of Chisinau) for Good Friday, then to Beltsi (about 150kms north of Chisinau) on Easter Sunday.
The meetings were excellent. Obviously much prayer, thought and preparation had gone into them. It is always such a blessing to see people respond in such moving and meaningful ways to the Easter message of God’s love.

Commissioner Netty and Oxana in action at Ungheni

The response of some of the folk afterwards..

The congregation at Beltsi - Easter Sunday

Commissioner Wim in 'full flight', with Captain Lev Freidkin translating.

Easter obviously is a significant religious celebration for Moldovans in general. Religious icons, cakes and painted eggs are all features of this celebration., which is celebrated with much food (in true Moldova style) after many days of fasting!!

Candles and Icon cards...

... and Easter cakes.

Sellers along the main streets..

Popular dyed Easter eggs... not chocolate mind you.

These gypsy ladies sell coloured dye powder so people can decorate their hard boiled eggs at home.

After lunch on Easter Sunday we took the long road home through Soroca, Moldova’s gypsy capital. It was a town of amazing contrasts with palaces in one street and hovels in the next. There are often justifiable questions around how such wealth is acquired!! The following pictures show some of the decadent homes (they love interesting roofs!!) and one home in great contrast.

Our visitors left on Easter Monday and we have appreciated our own space again for a little while. We are desperately trying to catch up on all the work that has piled up while we have been out of the office over these weeks.

There are many holidays peppered throughout these months. This last weekend has been the celebration of ‘Easter of the Dead’. After we had participated in worship and fellowship at Ialoveni last Sunday we took the opportunity to drop in at the cemetery in town just to see all this happening for ourselves. People pay homage to dead relatives by gathering at the graves of loved ones. Family groups had their picnics spread on or around the grave of their loved ones. Some were cleaning the grave, and headstone and planting flowers. There seemed to be no sense of morbidity. I actually came away thinking what a lovely tradition this was, as families gathered together to remember. It was lovely to hear strangers greet each other as they passed with the words.. “Christ is risen”. We were offered a plate of food by a complete stranger in honour of her parents. There was cake, pretzels, lollies and 2 boiled eggs.
As we left the cemetery it was interesting to see many poor folk of the town (mainly baboushkas) gathered on the seats near the exits waiting to be given leftover food and wine.

These baboushkas are happy to receive a gift of leftover wine from one of the many visitors to the cemetery that day.

We have another holiday on May 1st, Celebration of Spring and Labour Day..and Spring really is worth celebrating in this part of the world after the long, cold, drab winters. The world is coming to life again with tulips, daffodils, hyacinths. The trees have nearly all got their leaves and there are beautiful blossoms. The children have emerged from the apartment buildings and the public places are full of people. The outdoor cafes are starting to re-appear on the sidewalks.

A setting at a camp site we checked out during the week..

Ian 'pushing around' our translator, Natalia, who was doing her best to impersonate 'Jake the Peg' !

This blog entry is becoming way too long. We started off thinking there wasn’t much to share, but life continues to be full and rich. We have had our fair share of challenges particularly in relation to property matters within the Division.

We conclude with a few random photos..typical shots along the way as we travel the Moldovan roads. Most of these were taken in the course of one trip.

These ramps are dotted along the 'highways' so you can fix your car if you breakdown . You only have to push it up first!!!

There are many beautiful Orthodox Churches like this scattered throughout Moldova. Every village has one similar and it is nearly always the best building in the town by a long shot.

Yummy honey at one of the many roadside market stalls

These are some shots of typical village transport. They still hold a high degree of fascination for us.

There is an amazing collection of vintage motor cycles on Moldovan roads. They would probably fetch a fortune in Australia. They are kept going by Moldovan 'bush' mechanics, ingenuity, and scotch tape.

Probably one of our favourite roadside pictures. This is taken at one of the busiest roundabouts in downtown Chisinau.. but it's still a good place to graze your goats. Only in Moldova!!!!

That's it for now.. a post almost a long as 'War and Peace'!!

Until next time.. Lots of love.. Ian and Viv xo

It's been such a long time we know!! Last year in fact since we last made a Blog entry. It is Tuesday and we are enjoying a day off after many weeks with very little time to ourselves. Its been a lazy morning...a couple of Skype calls home, a bit of washing and some reading..and dozing in between paragraphs.

We’ll try and fill you in with an overview of what has been happening for us in the last couple of months.

It was a 'black and white' Christmas. We woke on Christmas morning to see the snow gently falling, everything was covered in a white blanket and we may our way to the service at the nearest corps.

We had invited 3 of the young folk who work at DHQ to share the evening meal with us. We were planning to make it as close to a traditional Christmas dinner as we possibly could, so it was roast chicken, ham, etc on the menu, followed by cheesecake. Mid afternoon the electricity went off and did not come back on until 8 hours later..so we had to compromise a little. Fortunately we have a gas oven (albeit with a temperamental thermostat), but it all came together surprisingly well with apple crumble for dessert rather than the cheesecake. The meal was prepared with candle in one hand and cooking utensil in the other!!! The atmosphere was enhanced by the need to dine by candlelight.

Actually, for people in this part of the world, December 25^th is a bit of a non-event, and shops and businesses are still open. The big celebration comes on New Year’s Eve when families come together for a meal..and then Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. The government kindly declared Jan 1st to 10th as public holidays, so it was great to spend these days relaxing and catching up on a few things that had slipped down the page on our ‘TO DO’ list.

New Years Eve Moldovan style

But the rest did not last for long, as from mid- January up until now we have been playing host to many international sponsors who have come to see how their money is being used here in our project work.

It started with a photographer and journalist from Sweden who were preparing stories for Lakarmissionen, a large Swedish Christian Aid agency which partly sponsors our Mobile Medical Clinic. It also sends several semi-trailer loads of humanitarian aid throughout any given year, and at Christmas, provides us with 8,000 gifts, which are prepared by children in Sweden to be distributed to children in Moldova.

Journalist and photographer reporting Dimitri's story of receiving a wheelchair

Gifts being opened in village homes

Grandma helps this young diabetic patient unwrap her gift.

Then came the Norwegians – a representative group from ‘Norge-Moldova’. We have worked with this group in the past, most recently with the ‘Shoe Project’ at the beginning of winter. During their time with us we travelled to various villages, making contact with the mayors and exploring the ways in which the organisation could be of assistance. We have spoken before of Moldovan roads, but winter adds yet another dimension to car travel, especially in these villages!!

In mid February we welcomed a film crew from a Dutch television company who wanted to film the work of the Mobile Clinic. It is intended that the finished program will be screened in the Netherlands on Christmas day 2009 with the hope that many people will donate to the ongoing work of the Mobile Clinic. Such support will be more than welcome as one of our sponsors has indicated that they will be withdrawing from Moldova over the next year or so. It was certainly interesting to observe the whole process, but very tiring as we were up soon after 5.00am a couple of mornings running and not returning until after 7.00pm – all in a bid to get the best ‘shots’. As tiring as all this was, it again gave us the opportunity to observe village life – cold, raw, desperate, hopeless, dark - all are words that come to mind after such a trip. When the Clinic comes to town there are certainly raised hopes and the assurance that their situation is not forgotten.

And then some more Scandinavian visitors with Salvationists from Kristiansand corps in Norway and from Sweden joined us last week. Once again we are indebted to our Salvationist international family whose generosity makes such a difference to the lives of so many in Moldova. Groups from both countries work hard to send us several truckloads of Humanitarian Aid each year. Always included in these shipments are wheelchairs and other items of medical equipment which are gratefully received by many disabled people throughout Moldova. Without such equipment, these folk would otherwise have little possibility of becoming mobile. It was a special thrill for our visitors to meet many of the recipients of this equipment.

Ian taking on 'the locals' in a game of bocce

These two visiting groups also saw some of the feeding programs which they finance, and attended a Sunday service at Ungheni Corps, which is supported by the Kristiansand Corps.

The feeding program at Hinchesti Corps, sponsored by Norway

Corps Officers with the visitors at Ungheni Corps

The ‘spin-offs’ from all of these visits is of course the friendships that are formed, a broadening of one’s outlook, and an ever-growing appreciation of the internationalism of The Salvation Army and other Christian churches and missions in Europe.

In the midst of all these visits we also hosted another Leaders Conference for the Eastern Europe Territory. Good fellowship coupled with good work made for a productive and enjoyable time together.

Of course while all this happens, the day-to-day administration and ‘people’ work happens back at DHQ, so we have a bit of a back log to catch up on before our next guests arrive later this month.

Posted below are some further photos that help tell the stories of the past few months..