Moldova Missions Trip – Day 3 – Saturday

Click the picture to see Day's 3 photos from Moldova

The Food, The Food, The Food!

Today was our first day on the job. We woke bright and early at 7:00. The day was cool and overcast, but pleasant, and once we got working, the jackets came off. With blurry eyes, because of jet lag, we wandered down to the dining room to be greeted with a wonderful breakfast. We enjoyed a delicious egg casserole, breads, and veggies. We have discovered that every meal includes tomatos and cucumbers. We depared for work with full bellies.
We drove to Orhei where we continued work on the church that our first team started earlier in the year. We continued to work on hanging studds on the uneven block walls, insulating, sheetrocking, and tile work. Thanks to those that were on the first trip here, preparations proceded rapidly and we all found our places on the job.
The trip to Orhei, which takes about a half an hour, was very educational. Click on the picture to the left to see a lot of photos from our day, and the captions that explain them.
When it was time for lunch, we went down stairs, and was greated by the most pleasant people serving an absolutely wonderful meal. We started with a large bowl of soup and bread. We ate and enjoyed. Several of us who were not quite up to snuff on the Moldovan traditions and culture that surrouds food, enjoyed the soup, and at several pieces of bread just to make sure we had enough in our belly for the after noon. I can now hear the chuckles from you who were here before. Stop laughing so I can explain it to those who don’t know. The soup was the first course of the meal. We were then greated with bowls full of mashed potatoes, and sausage. Of course, we also were greated with more breads, and tomatos and cucumbers. Every plate was garnished and displayed to make it not only taste great but it all looked great, like something you would see on a cooking TV channel. Some of our bellies, at this time were absolutely stuffed. But, not to be outdone, these wonderful people then piled plate fulls of tasty pastries of all sorts in front of us. The meal was them finished off with some nice tea. Moldova is apparently well know for their great tea.
We now drug ourselves back to the work. After being fed so well, and not nearly over jet lag enough, many of us were wishing there would be a nap room. Soon though, after we went back to work, we were glad we had the nourishment to carry us through. Thank you church of Orhei. It was delightful.
The one thing that was stressed during our preparations for our trip to Moldova, was to be flexible. At about 5:00, George (sp?, pronounced Yourgie?) came running in and announced that dinner was served at 6:00 sharp and we had to go “NOW” in order to go back to the Pentecostal Union to get ready. Typically, if we eat at the Union, we don’t need to change or clean up, but this meal was out on the town. When George said “now” he meant it. The tile workers had a bucket of mud made up and had to use it. They put their best to it and quickly finished up. We ran back to the Union. I took many several pictures along the way to Chisinau where the Penetcostal Union is located. Check the pictures our for explainations. Some of them turned out a bit blurry because, as many missionaries will testify, and Moldova seems to be no different, drivers in foriegn countries just don’t drive the way we do.
We quickly changed clothes, scrubbed the sheet rock dust off our faces, put on some perfume, and brushed our hair. With another adventurest drive, we traveled at high rates of speed to our destination in Chisinau. We had pizza. Not just pizza though but authentic real pizza with real taste. It was very good.
We practically had to roll out of that restaurant. Then we had to go for another adverturest drive on full tummies. Oh, wow!
The city of Chisinau is the capital city of Moldova. I believe it has around a million people. It has many many miles of Soviet era apartments for the poor masses. There is a strange mixture of modern buildings, old aparments, unfinished buildings, and vacated buildings. We have tried to take pictures of these things so you can see a bit about them. Most pictures were taken while going at high rates of speed over very bumpy roads. On Thursday, the schedule says we are having the day off to visit the sites, so hopefully, if nothing unsusual happens (remember they said to stay flexible), we hope to get some better pictures. Click on the picture to see the sites, and read the captions for explanations of our busy day. It is now 11:15 pm here and 2:14 in the afternoon in Montana. Have a great Saturday and a worshipful Sunday.
John