Fun and Games

It is wonderful living with our host family and the little girl is just learning to talk. After much encouragement we finally got a ‘hello’ from her today.

Everyone cycles here. Kids manage adult bikes. It’s amazing how many people can be squeezed onto one bike too. Planks of wood are attached to the back wheel as additional seats for tiny tots!

We had a BBQ with some of the older people in the village today, complete with games. Old Moldovan ladies playing Jenga is just priceless! Great to see them actually having fun. The men in the village are also taking rounders very seriously. It's wonderful to see them so animated.

Being with the kids both at the holiday clubs and round the village is a joy. When else do you have an excuse to do the ‘Birdie Song’ and have water fights! It’s all a bit surreal but certainly not 9 to 5 at the office. 

Animals

We went into Cahul today on the local bus. What an adventure to live like the locals do. It was very crowded and the girl next to me was accompanied by a box of rabbits!

I love the spontaneity of life here. At 9.30 this evening we were invited to attend a birthday party. So we dropped everything, got in the car with the family we live with and set off into the night. What an evening of wonderful, genuine Moldovan hospitality as were welcomed into another home. The pet guinea pigs belonging to the two girls were the first pets I’ve come across in Moldova. Most of the household have dogs but they are strictly kept outside, chained in kennels and are guard dogs rather than available for cuddles!

Music

Music is a very important part of the Moldovan culture. Accordions are played by buskers in the nearby town of Cahul. The traditional bands also have violins, trumpets and clarinets. Typically very quick tempo and all sounds the same to me! They also have a national dance where they hold hands in a really big circle and do steps in sequence, getting faster and faster.

We are becoming fully acquainted with Bucharest Ikea as they offer a bit of comfort after the airport runs to pick up the volunteers. It always makes me smile as we drive to the airport under the highways of the city as there are always gig adverts. It’s surprising what makes it over to Romania. So far there have been adverts for Bon Jovi, The Deftones, Pendulum and Mika. Small world indeed! 

The village

The people you meet on the street in the village are so friendly. They always greet and embrace us. Many of the old ladies seem to live in slippers, the old-fashioned velvet ones. Some of the old people also have a mouth full of gold teeth. The men love their meat but it’s very expensive for them here. Our driver says he’s not full if he has a meal with no meat! It’s definitely man’s country here.

We arranged for the team to have a ride on the back of a local horse and cart. In broken English we managed to explain to the driver to take them to the end of the road and back. However, something got lost in translation and before we knew it they were merrily heading out of the village with no way of being understood. In a desperate moment our trusty driver jumped on his motorbike and heading in search of them, bringing them home in one piece and finding the whole thing a hilarious adventure!

I love the rustic feel to the local houses in the village. Today we had our meals with our translator and her family. It was such a privilege to see everyday life unfolding and her mother pickling the cucumbers for the winter months. Much of the summer produce is bottled as a pickle for the winter months where it can reach -20°C.

Alcoholism is such a problem here and the corner shops double up as bars as bottles of homebrew is poured out under the counter. The men then sit outside before staggering home through the village. As there is no street lights it can be a bit hairy driving down the main street when they’re wandering. 

Daily life

The teams fly to Bucharest (Romania) which means a day’s drive to the village of Gotesti, where we are working in Moldova. There is such diversity between the cities and the countryside. Bucharest does have a western feel to it. But as you leave the city, the road gradually deteriorates. However, the roads are surrounded by beautiful rural farmland.

There are many stray dogs, especially at petrol stations, but they don’t seem to bother us. The rural villages are so rustic. People travel by horse and cart however there is still the odd flash Mercedes which seems very incongruous to the backdrop. I suppose it highlights what country of inequality Moldova is.

There are plenty of smallholdings and geese, ducks, chickens and turkeys freely wander the streets. It's hard to tell whose is whose but it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

They seem to grow a lot of dill here. The smell often wafts through the air and it is in all our meals. Having never liked it I have quickly had to get used to it!

Thursday seems to be rubbish burning day in the village. There is no rubbish collection so people burn little bonfires in the street.  There is one main tarmac road that runs the length of the village but all the other roads are dirt tracks. They go from dry and dusty to mud-bath when it rains. I have even had to invest in wellies from the market! 

On the road again

The travel bug bit when I went to Zambia. I had been so impressed with the unique opportunity that Mission Direct offered. 2 weeks really does give you a taster of overseas mission work, without having to give up the day job! When the opportunity arose in the summer of 2011 to run a series of teams I didn't hesitate and immediately signed up. For ten weeks I immersed myself into daily life, living with the locals in a rural village in Moldova. ‘Where?’ I hear you muse.

Moldova is Europe’s poorest country and is sandwiched between Romanian and Ukraine in Eastern Europe. It is a country that has been described as Africa in Europe. The capital city of Chisinau may on the surface have similarities to a western city. But as you drive into the countryside the road deteriorate to dirt tracks and you are transported back in time to an era when people got water from the well, had horses and carts and grew much of their own food. This was my home from June-August 2011 as we hosted three teams from the UK. As with any Mission Direct trip, our focus was a building project, in this case refurbishing a lady’s house. Each team stayed for two weeks and I and my colleague had a down week in between each team in order to prepare for the next. That was the rhythm of the summer and these were my experiences….