Snow, snow, snow!!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!! Over night on Friday we got about a foot of snow much to everyone's surprise (or at least to my surprise....I'm not sure if other people follow weather reports here or not but I certainly had no idea it was coming!) and its been snowing on and off since then so quite a lot has accumulated! It really makes everything here so much more beautiful...there are so many trees in the city and seeing all of them covered in snow makes me forget sometimes that I'm in the middle of a city.





Saturday night I was able to experience the snow in a true Molodovan way. After Bible study, a bunch of youth from my church and I went outside for a snowball fight which included me being white-washed about ten times. We then went to a hill for some rolling, yes rolling down the hill like a bunch of little kids. No one had been in this snow yet and we didn't have sleds so everyone just rolled down the hill like logs in the deep snow (now more than a foot). It was definitely one of the craziest things I've done here yet! Then they showed me the best way to go down the hill without a sled: you lay on your back and put your feet up and slide down head first! It was the funniest thing to see people sliding backwards down the hill like that. The best thing was that it really worked...if you are ever without a sled and see a steep hill you gotta try this because it is so fun, just make sure there are no trees, cars or anything else that you can run into because there is no way to see where you are going. By the end of the night I was completely covered in snow and it was certainly awkward getting on the minibus to go home with everyone on it looking at me like I was crazy!

Saturday I went to a craft fair for items sold by different humanitarian organizations from around the world that are here in Moldova. It felt very different to be at a Christmas fair like that in Moldova and even weirder that so many people were speaking English everywhere. There was a Santa Clause that yelled out greetings to the vendors and this giant children's choir that went with him and sang carols along the way. The weird thing was that this Santa looked absolutely terrifying! (this picture definitely doesn't do him justice...he really was scary up close). He was not only too skinny but there was something wrong with his face. It also seemed like everywhere we went he and his entourage followed us so we were constantly trying to escape him. Besides that it was really fun to get to hear some Moldovan carols and look at all the crafts from different parts of the world. My roommate Shauna bought a can of Campbell's tomato soup from an American organization and I even was able to enjoy some Turkish espresso! It hasn't really felt like Christmas is coming lately but this weekend definitely set off the season for me!

More Pictures!

I have posted a lot more pictures on my facebook account and you can see them if you go to http://nnu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005425&l=ce60a&id=167300636
and
http://nnu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004443&l=4430f&id=167300636

So many new things have happened since I my last update! Overall I’ve been doing great and yes I still am in Molodva (I’ve had a few questions about that since I haven’t written in so long)!!! The biggest change has been moving to my new apartment. It was so nice for the first time in my life to be able to move in one afternoon with minimal help since I didn’t have very much stuff to move. I actually have too much storage room and not enough stuff to fill all of it! I certainly wish that I could be able to always live like this, having only the essentials that I need to live but I think that its so hard to not buy and accumulate stuff when we have the money to buy almost anything we want and the inabilities to get rid of it when we don’t need it anymore!

So anyway the new living situation has been awesome. I loved my living-with-Moldovans experience but it was really hard to be myself there and do what I wanted. (This is my new roommate Shauna, we had just gotten back from getting new haircuts...its totally inexpensive to get a haircut here but its really hard to communicate what we wanted with our limited Romanian vocabularies) My new apartment is really big and I have definitely enjoyed being able to cook for myself and experiment with new types of food….its not always easy to find ingredients here for American recipes so its been quite the challenge trying to find substitutes. Just going to the grocery stores here can be an adventure! You never quite know what you are buying until you try it out here. The other day I tried to buy rolls for hamburgers but they ended up having a big glob of caramel in the middle when I cut them open! Not really the type of sauce you want for your hamburger. The best thing about the food situation here is how cheap it is to go out to eat when cooking gets too rough. Most of the restaurants here have decent prices and some of them are even down-right cheap for good quality food. Just last night I had a great meal that I paid less than four dollars for….certainly not starving here by any means! Traditional Moldovan food is really good for the most part….they eat a lot of soup, meat-filled crepes, sausage, chicken and beef plus a lot of different types of fruits and vegetables since Moldova grows lots of fruits and vegetables. Its pretty rare to see a young person who is overweight here but a lot of the older people are not skinny at all. I think that it is very unacceptable to be overweight is you are young but not a problem once you reach a certain age. Another interesting thing is how open and honest they are about weight issues…they are not afraid at all to say that they think someone weighs too much. It certainly catches me off guard because in America we are very sensitive about certain issues and would never tell anyone the honest truth about their appearances. Here with almost all things people are very honest and not afraid to insert their opinions about things. I had about ten people tell me in the past month since its been getting colder to buy some boots and stop wearing the shoes that I have been wearing. I just don’t think anyone would ever say that to me in America. Its been hard getting over other people being so critical of me about certain things but I’m realizing that its just how it is here and is their way of showing concern. I think I would rather be lied to then hear brutal truth sometimes!

I just finished up a book that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to know more about Moldovan culture and be entertained at the same time. The book is called Playing the Moldovans at Tennis and is the true story of this English guy who goes to Moldova to win a bet that he made with his friend. It’s really funny and a quick read and certainly a good representation of how Moldova is in many aspects. The book was written seven years ago and since then the economy has come pretty far so picture that he paints of Moldova in the book is definitely bleaker than it is now. Just be warned that if you decide to read it there is a little bit of bad language in it, though certainly not anything you wouldn’t hear in the movies.

A month or so ago I got the chance to go to a cave monastery North of the city. It had been built in the sixteen hundreds and was positioned basically on the edge of a cliff. It was very interesting to see how Orthodox monks lived hundreds of years ago to escape religious persecution and to live lives of discomfort in obedience to God. The church inside the monastery is still in operation and so there were people in there worshipping while we were there. I also had the opportunity to go to the big Orthodox church here in Chisinau a few weeks ago for a Sunday morning service. Its really interesting to me how their services and most of the rituals that they go through are exactly the same way that many early Christians worshiped God. The Orthodox services are so different than how most Evangelical/Protestant Christians worship but still both are part of the religion of Christianity. It was still hard for me to believe that I was in a Christian church when I was there since it is so much more formal than I’m used to and there are so many rituals that I didn’t understand. (this is a monk at Old Orhei, the cave monastery)

The weather’s been about the same as I think it would be in Idaho if I was there now except that it hasn’t snowed at all yet. I’ve been hearing from so many people that it gets really cold here during the winter but so far it hasn’t been bad at all. I keep trying to tell people that I’m from Idaho and not Florida so I understand a little bit about cold weather and snow but still everyone insists that I must be cold in what I wear that I must buy more clothes to stay warm. Its pretty funny how excited people are to hear that I’m from America until they ask what state I’m from. When I say Idaho they all go “No, what state?” and of course I tell them “Idaho, I-da-ho, it’s a state” and then they say “Where is it?” “Well,” I say, “its by Washington and Oregon and Montana” Still a lot of confused looks and then I shake my head and say “Its somewhat close to California” and then a light goes on and they get all happy again and start asking me questions about California until I tell them that Idaho is nothing like California for the most part. The winter outfits here are really funny at times…there are lots of long coats with trimmings of fur and those tall Russian fur hats and everyone wears tall snow boots. (these hats are so cool but they serious cost around $100 each!) The whole country is definitely ready for blizzard winter. I’m not sure if this means that the weather is going to get really cold eventually or that everyone is just paranoid about being cold. There’s an irrational fear of drafts here…some people are seriously convinced that a draft can cause paralysis of the body. I’m not really sure why but a lot of the older people are very scared of drafts and bundle up even in the middle of summer.

My Thanksgiving was just about as great as it could have been. I’m very blessed with the American friends that I have here who are just as excited to celebrate American holidays as I am. It was really fun being able to cook some of the meal and actually be a part of the preparations for the day. It was nice because a lot of the ingredients came from America from missionary teams that had come through so there wasn’t part of the traditional meal that was missing. I made my first pumpkin pie and was really glad it turned out alright since I was using the only can of pumpkin that we had! I’ve heard that you can buy pumpkins here but I haven’t seen them anywhere. My mom had sent me a kit of American styled origami that had a turkey in it so part of the day was spent trying to make a turkey. Luckily I managed to figure it out! We also were able to watch a downloaded football game so it definitely felt like Thanksgiving in all ways. Christmas is very different here than it is in America. First off since most of the population claims their religion as Christian Orthodox, the official day of Christmas is on January 7^th according to the Orthodox calendar. So basically most of the Protestant Christians celebrate Christmas on the 25th but then get the 7^th off again for the Orthodox Christmas. New Years eve is also a really big deal here, I think much more of a holiday than Christmas is. I’ve seen Christmas decorations in a lot of the stores and I think that some people set up trees if they can afford one. I know that there will be a big tree set up somewhere in the city eventually so at least I know that I won’t be without some Christmas here. I didn’t realize just how crazy Americans are about Christmas and giving presents until I came here and started telling people how we celebrate Christmas. They were just amazed when I told them about the amount of presents that we give each other. I’m really glad that I’m going to have the chance to see what Christmas is like here and take a break from crazy American Christmas for a year. I’m sure I’ll appreciate it a lot more when I come home.

Last week my friends surprised me with a birthday party since they are all going to be gone for Christmas when my birthday rolls around. It was quite the surprise since my b-day won’t be for another month! We also went bowling which was fun since none of us have been for a while. I’m certainly blessed with great friends here! They even bought me a sparkly wig for the event!

Thanks to all you that send me updates of what’s going on. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that your holidays will be great if I don't hear from ya!

Hey everyone! I just want to start this update saying thank you all so much for your prayers and support. The past few months have been interesting and hard at times but just having so many people back at home that care really makes it so much easier to be here. There are so many times when I get an email or postcard (okay, so I guess the postcard thing was only once, just want to say thanks guys! That was really awesome!) from people back home and it completely makes my day. Thanks for thinking about me!
(this doesn't have to do with anything I was talking about-this is a picture of a bunch of old guys playing chess and backgammon...its really cute, a group of them are always on these benches at this park playing games)

So there have been a lot of new things going on lately. About a month ago I was really starting to get bored and was feeling like my time here was just dragging on (hopefully not the feeling you get when you read these incredibly long updates). I began praying a lot about it and I figured out that my problem was that I had too much free time and not enough things to do. It was about this time that one of my friends from work invited me to come to a ball-room dancing lesson with him. I figured that it would be something cool to go to once and then politely decline to ever go again. Well, it turned out to be really fun so I decided that even though the lessons are in Russian, I’ve taken enough dance lessons in the past to understand what’s going on. The crazy thing is that lessons are three nights a week for an hour and a half each lesson. Man, when Moldovans want to learn something, they really go crazy over lots of lessons. I’ve heard that its like this for all types of things that they want to learn, they’ll have three or four lessons a week. In America, we hardly ever have more than one lesson a week for anything like this. So anyway its been a total blast and I’ve met a lot of cool Moldovans that aren’t Christian so I finally feel like I have the chance to witness a bit. There certainly aren’t many Moldovan Christians in dance lessons because it is considered a sin here by some churches to dance in any way. Yeah, thought I was getting away from the “dancing is a sin” thing when I left NNU but I guess its true that your sins follow you wherever you go!!

In Moldova around this time all of the Protestant churches have harvest celebrations that are somewhat like our Thanksgiving. Its not a holiday here or anything but rather the churches just chose a Sunday to have their celebration. Basically for the harvest celebration, people in the church donate all different types of food to the church and then the church gives this food to those in need. The church also puts on a big service much like something we would see for a Christmas program. This past Sunday was the “Seceris”, as the day is called in Romanian, at the church that I’ve been going to here. The service was outside and consisted of three hours of sermons and different performances by musical groups. Luckily one of the sermons was given by an American in English and then translated so at least I could understand some of what was going on. There were also these amazing displays of different kinds of food like a display for fruits and vegetable and then another display for bread and sugar. There were also these giant bunches of grapes that were made up of normal sized grape bunches (yeah see the picture, way to hard to explain). It was really interesting to see how big of a deal harvest time is to the people here. In America, unless you’re a farmer, the harvest time doesn’t really mean very much any more. Anyway, Seceris is definitely different than our Thanksgiving because it doesn’t involve a meal for the people involved. It is all about giving food to the church for the needy. I didn’t actually know that until I went to church expecting a potluck and afterwards was like “so, where’s the food?” only to find out that the point was to bring food for the poor. Good thing I didn’t bring a dish for the non-existent potluck!

My work here has been going good…I’m still in the middle of this video project that I’ve been working on for a long time. I never realized how much goes into a video like this. Its definitely got me watching movies and videos with more appreciation for all the different things that need to come together for the right effect to be created. Please keep me in your prayers about this project. I’m starting to get a little frustrated that its taking this long and that certain parts haven’t worked themselves out yet. I gave myself a deadline today for two weeks from today for it to be done…I think that lack of pressure has definitely been a factor for why its taking so long. Even though I hated the pressure of homework and deadlines in college I think that I really need motivation in order to get anything done. Like I said, please keep me in your prayers! One thing that you may be able to help me with is music. I’m trying to find Christian instrumental worship music for the background of my video. It sounds like easy music to find but I have been looking everywhere and can’t find what I need. I suppose why it is so hard is because I need upbeat (let me emphasize- not slow) music without any voices and not from the 80’s or orchestra-like. Oh and it also has to be popular enough that I can buy it through iTunes. Basically, I need music from a modern day worship band that isn’t afraid to rock out a bit but at the same time isn’t too crazy for a Christian business video. If you have any ideas, shoot me an email with the artist name and/or song title…your song could be a little bit famous if it works!

Some of the most exciting news for me is that I’m moving soon to an apartment here. I’ve really enjoyed living with a family but I think that it has been hard adjusting to both being in a strange country and not living on my own anymore as I did in college (well, sorta if you consider living in the dorms “on my own”). I had been praying about if for a while and was starting to think that there was no way that I was going to be able to find both a place that was affordable and a roommate who wouldn’t drive me crazy. Then out of the blue one of my American missionary friends here asked me if I knew anyone who was looking for an apartment because she was looking for a roommate. So God definitely worked that one out! I’m moving in two weeks to a fully furnished and affordable apartment completely free of Russian dance music. Yeah, so all the younger people here love this techno/disco dance music and all three boys in the house I’m in now listen to it at full volume all the time (even if it is a sin to dance, I guess listening to dance music is okay). I’m so excited to be moving and its made my outlook of being here for an other five months so much better. It was hard trying to explain why I wanted to move out to my host family. The culture is so much different than in America because most young people here live with their parents until they get married, and a lot even stay with their parents after they’re married too.

Last weekend the American embassy put on a weeklong American western film festival….I only had the chance to go to one movie but it was a great one. It was the movie “Maverick” and if you ever get the chance to see it, you should watch it because it is pretty ridiculous and entertaining at the same time. It was weird to get to go to a theater and see an American western playing in English…made me feel like I was home for a little bit. (This is a giant cowboy hat and a regular sized cactus that was part of the decorations for the film festival)


Thanks again for keeping me updated on what’s going on in your lives…I really love hearing the latest news! Please remember me in your prayers if you think about it. I’ve been having these strange headaches for about a month and a half and I don’t think its anything serious but they’re still annoying when they hit. I haven’t had one for a week so maybe that was the end of them or maybe they’re waiting to hit again. Its so interesting to see how God answers prayers, reading back over my prayer requests from my last few newsletters I realized that God has taken care of all of the requests that I’ve had....yeah one cool thing I wanted to share was that I had said in my last letter that I was struggling to get into a daily habit of reading my Bible. It suddenly hit me a month ago or so that if I was on some sort of reading plan that I would probably be able to stick to it better. I found a website that has reading plans for reading the Bible in a year. Its pretty cool because it has the reading on the website and it keeps track of how many days I’ve read and how many consecutive days I’ve been there. I’m definitely a little bit behind and will have to catch up if I want to be done with the whole Bible in a year but it has really helped me to read consistently. Here’s the website in case you want to try it out : http://www.biblereadthrough.com.
(Sorry, I'm a little short on relevant photos this update, this is a very beautiful Orthodox church/monastery that is right by my house) I’ve had some interesting food experiences in the past few weeks and my water bottle recently had an adventure so I’m going to be writing some more blog entries soon so check back if you’re interested. I’m hoping that by saying I’m going to write about this stuff that I’ll actually have enough pressure to do it.
Hope you’re all doing great!

Have you ever wondered what outer space smells like? Well wonder no more! This air freshener has managed to capture the smell of space in a can and bring it right to your home for your smelling pleasure. Not only that but this freshener claims to be both a “neutraliser” and an “antibacteriser”….see picture for verification! (if any of you were curious, outer space actually smells a lot like cinnamon).

Wow, its been a long time since my last update!! I'm just lazy when it comes to writing updates and things have been very busy here. Well, that might be a bit of a lie....I haven't been too busy to play around on the internet and watch movies so I guess that I could have written my blog sometime instead of doing those things! Isn't that the best excuse for anything, "I've been busy". Well anyway, things have been going great here. I finally decided that I will be staying here at least until late February sometime. If I have enough money to keeping living here and I feel that God wants me to stay here longer then I will definitely stay longer but for now I'm planning on Feb. (this is a picture of sunset over Chisinau) One of the things that God has been teaching me lately is that flexibility is one of the most important qualities for being a missionary. There are so many times that I have been stressed out about plans or details and when it comes down to it, its all in God's hands. God doesn't expect us to have it all figured out. That's his job! He just wants us to be willing to go when those plans finally do come into focus. I saw one of the most incredible examples of patience and willingness to accept God's will the other day. My supervisor here was supposed to go on a major trip to South America for a conference and had been planning a long time in anticipation for the trip. Somehow the dates got mixed up for his trip and he ended up missing his plane causing him to be unable to go at all. Throughout the whole thing, he was calm and said that the whole thing was in God's hands. I just know that if I was in that situation, I would be so upset and angry to be missing out on such a cool opportunity to travel and would definitely not be so trusting in God's will. It was quite the example for me of how we are supposed to be open to anything that comes our way and to believe that God knows better than all of us about what is best.

So many things have happened since my last entry...I don't really know where to begin. I'll try to give the briefest account of what's been going on. I've been very blessed lately to suddenly have a lot going on and to always have people to hang out with. I expressed to some around a month ago that I was starting to get bored here and that I didn't really feel like I had met many people to be close friends with. God definitely answered my prayers and I have been meeting a lot of good people here lately. Thanks for for all of you that have been praying for me!! God certainly answers prayers. (here I'm helping de-pit cherries with my friend Tanya to make compote which is basically canned juice. Its the best stuff ever, I don't understand why we don't make it in the US)

One of the best parts (at least in my opinion) of being in Moldova in the summertime is the overabundance of shesliks otherwise known as BBQs to Americans. Sheslik is the Russian word for shiskabob so at these events the main food is pork or chicken shiskabobs grilled out over an open flame. I've been very lucky to be invited to a few different picnics and have been amazed a how incredible the food turns out every time. I have to say that sheslik far beats out the usual American hamburger or hotdog grilled out at BBQs. A month or so ago my host family plus all of their friends and extended family had a big sheslik out in the forest to celebrate my host mother's birthday. It was so nice to get out of the city for a little while and to be able to see a bit of the country side. A volleyball net was set up and all of the young people played volleyball for almost the whole day. I must have been missing playing sports or something because I just couldn't stop playing even when my arms got really sore. It was definitely a memorable day.


One of the strange things that I learned about birthdays here is that they are not always celebrated. Since so many people are poor, birthdays are too much of an extravagance to celebrate every year. So for these people their birthdays are celebrated every five or ten years. I just couldn't believe that...in the States I've never heard of not celebrating someone's birthday unless of course their birthday is forgotten. Another thing is that the presents that are given are for the most part very practical. For my host mother this year, I pitched in to buy her a baking pan which was considered a very nice gift. I couldn't believe how happy she was when she received it. Sometimes its so easy for me to forget how poor some of the people I see all the time really are...some of them dress very nice but they only have a few outfits. I've heard that so many people are like that here. They put on the appearance of having money but really they only have a few nice outfits. I get tired sometimes here wearing the sames clothes since I could only bring what I could fit in my suitcases on this trip. But when it comes down to it, I have more clothes in what I brought than what most people have in their whole wardrobe. I just don't understand why I am so privileged. Sorry, I feel like I'm always preaching in these blogs about how blessed the US and I know that that is the typical thing for missionaries to say but its just been weighing on my heart so much since I got here. Its so hard for me to know what to do with all of the resources that God's given me. I feel like I'm so selfish sometimes.

My internship has been going very well....I'm so lucky to be doing different types of things and to be learning new things all the time. Right now I'm in the middle of writing a script for a two to three minute video that I'm putting together. I've never done any project like this before so its been really fun to learn some new programs and to get to be creative. I've been so blessed to be able to be an intern in this organization...it is everything that I was looking for in an internship and the experience has been so valuable so far. It really hit me the other day that I am doing exactly that I've wanted to do for such a long time. I have this note that I wrote when I was in grade school in which I said that I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up....I can't believe how long ago that was and how blessed I am to have the chance to live out this dream. Thanks again to all of you that have been so supportive!!!

So one of the most eventful things that has happened recently was that I got the chance to take a week vacation in Romania. One of my good friends, Eli, from my hometown of Grangeville has been working this summer in Romania for some missionaries so I got the chance to travel there to hang out with him and travel around Romania. It was a crazy week of traveling all over the place but I had the best time. There are so many things that happened but I'll try to keep this really short. First we went North to a town called Braşov which had a really neat old section of town. (this picture is looking over the all the beautiful buildings in Brasov) Many of the buildings were really old and from the medieval period of this time. There were a lot of beautiful churches around the town and we were able to see some Orthodox services going on.
(This big church sticking up out of the other buildings is called the Black Church...so big and beautiful) Its so incredible how much work was put into these churches...all of them had such beautiful paintings on the inside and on the ceilings. Randomly, there was a medieval fair going on the weekend that we were there so we were able to see a parade, hear some awesome music, and watch some actual jousting. I think that the coolest part of this was the jousting...it was like a medieval rodeo! It was really something to see the horses running at each other and people flying off of horses...made me feel a little bit like I was back in good ole G-ville at a rodeo. (this is at the fair )

After that Eli and I traveled to Bran to see "Dracula's Castle" which really wasn't ever owned by Dracula or anything like that...in fact the character of Dracula is just made up and the real guy who is the inspiration for Dracula was just some crazy ruler who liked to impale people back in the day.... I'm really glad that impaling isn't a common form of torture anymore, if you knew the full story behind it you would know what I'm talking about. So anyway the castle was pretty cool and luckily we didn't see any vampires or impalers. (this picture was at a meadow that we hiked up to that overlooked the town of Bran)

After that we went South to the Black Sea for some good beach time. The town that we ended up in on the sea was really cool too because it used to be a Greek city thousands of years ago so there were bits and pieces of Greek remains around and just a lot of neat churches and mosques to see. One of my favorite things that we saw was this big mosaic floor that dated from 600 or 700 BC. The beach itself was a lot of fun too. Overall the trip was a ton of fun and I'm so glad that I got the chance to see some awesome Romania culture! (this picture of the town of Constanţa was taken from this tower we climbed that was part of an Islamic mosque by the sea...this tower was so cool, I wish we had towers as parts of our churches!)

Thank you to those who have been keeping me updated on what's going on at home. I really appreciate hearing about what's been happening. Please continue to keep me in your prayers. Some of the the prayer needs that I have right now are: 1)to be able to learn more Romanian and to use it more (I learned traveling around Romania just how terrible my Romanian is and that I need to start putting more time into my lessons), 2) to be more effective in sharing my faith directly with Moldovans because I feel that working in an office that I don't get out to meet enough nonbelievers, 3) that I will be motivated to read my Bible and pray more. I have been slacking off a lot lately and I just can't seem to get into a regular pattern of devotions. If you have any prayer requests, please send them my way. I really love hearing from you all!!!

Second post

Hello everyone! I hope that this finds you all doing well. There are so many different things that I wish I could tell you all about Moldova but I know that no one wants to read a ten page paper so I will try to keep this as short as possible! So many things have happened in the past three weeks and I can’t believe that pretty soon I will have been here for a month. God has blessed me so much here...I've met some incredible people so far and feel that I'm starting to adapt to the culture. Last week was a little hard and I was missing home and wondering a little bit why I'm here. The past week has been so much better and I'm really starting to feel that God has put me here for a reason.

Some of the biggest news in my life here is that my working permit came through for me to stay here for a year. It was a very long process to obtain it involving many steps and a lot of things that I didn’t understand. So many things in Moldova involving the government are long drawn out processes. My second day here I had to go get a round of different medical tests taken in order to prove that I’m not going to bring any diseases into the country if I stay here. I had to get approved by all of these different doctors and some of the tests were really weird. For one test I had to stand inside of this big Russian machine that took up a whole room in order to test my breathing or something like that. It was a little scary. Just a glance at the Moldavian medical system makes me hope and pray that I don’t get sick while I’m here….we are so blessed in America to have good health care and a government that isn’t corrupt.

So even though I have been approved for a year, I'm still not sure how long I will actually be here. I'll be here somewhere between six months to a year. I have been praying about it and I don't feel yet that God has given me an answer . Since I'm still adjusting too I don't want to make a hasty decision....frankly I'm just really bad about making decisions and committing to a year anywhere is hard for me right now. Please keep me in your prayers that I will know what God wants of me.

The other big news in my life right now is that in August I will be taking a ten day trip to Egypt!!! Two of the other Hope interns that are working in Ukraine asked me if I wanted to go with them and its unbelievably cheap to fly there and stay for ten days so I couldn't pass up an offer like that. I definitely didn't think that I would be going anywhere like Egypt when I was here but I'm sure glad that I have the opportunity.

This past weekend I got the chance to go to Southern Moldova with my host family for a big birthday party. We were in a village that is so close to the borders that we could see Ukraine and Romania where we were. Even though in distance it is not extremely far to the village that we were in, with the conditions of the roads it took us around three hours whereas in America the same trip would probably take an hour. Two weekends ago I went to Northern Moldova for a wedding with my host family. It is so incredible how different it is in the city of Chisinau compared to the villages. In Chisinau the city is basically like any other city in America, there are some big differences like everyone is so much poorer and the buildings are much more run down but much of the technology is the same.. There is good transportation and modern conveniences for the most part that I am used to. In the villages however, its like stepping into Fiddler on the Roof. There are farm lands everywhere and a lot of people get around by horse drawn carts. (this is the house where my host family's grandparents live in a little village in Northern Moldova) There also isn't much running water anywhere and definitely no one has flush toilets. Last weekend I was at my host family's grandparents' house right before the wedding and I decided that I wasn't going to find a flush toilet so I might as well get used to the outhouse. The outhouses here are different than ones that I've used in the States...here there is no seat, just a hole in the ground. Anyway when I walked in I must have tripped on something because my white flip flop flew off and was suddenly teetering on the edge of the hole!! I lunged for it and Praise God was able to rescue it before it fell in. I don't even know what I would have done if it had fell in and I can't imagine how embarrassing it would have been to explain to everyone why I wasn't wearing shoes at the wedding.

The weddings here are pretty different than in the US. They are more like a church service than anything. They sing a bunch of songs and a few different people get up to preach and then other people get up to perform songs. The whole time the bride and groom sit in chairs up where the pulpit normally goes and try to look excited and happy even though the sermons are so long. There is also a long series of prayers from the parents of the bride and groom and then the bride and groom themselves. The wedding itself takes about two hours. The reception is also pretty different from what we are used to. The majority of evangelical Christians here are Baptists and there is definitely no dancing at the reception (hmmm they are really more like Nazarenes :)). Instead everyone sits at tables and eats for hours at a time. Just when I thought that the meal was over, something else would be brought out and everyone would start eating again. Throughout this time there was a lot of different people who either sang songs or played instruments. There was also a person who had a microphone who walked around and asked random questions of the guests at the reception and conducted various games with the bride and groom and the other guests. (this picture was taken right out side where the reception was, a stray horse with a cart attached walked right up to the window). It was so hard to sit there for such a long time and not know what was really going on since I couldn't understand the language. I think that if I am invited to any more weddings in the future I will have to decline because they are so long and drawn out! (This picture was at the reception, these are relatives of the family that I'm staying with. Its so hard to get people to smile for pictures here)

The church services that I have been to so far have been pretty close to what I am used to. They are a bit more conservative than American services in some ways in that all of the married women wear scarves on their heads and jewelery is considered worldly. Its weird because the women will wear very stylish dresses and high heels but it is bad to them to wear any jewelery. The services are around two hours long and are similar to American services except that there are more than one preacher that speaks and they don't sing very many songs. There is also a good number of performers who take their turn singing or playing instruments for the congregation. It is not unusual for there to be four or five different performances within a church service. Another strange thing is that weddings are conducted during the Sunday morning church service. It is basically the same as a regular service except that the bride and groom sit on the stage and the message is more geared toward them.

Another interesting experience here so far has been the shopping. Most of the shopping here is at open air markets where pretty much anything can be bought. I went a few weekends ago to a clothing market and was pretty surprised by the selection of clothing. There was even a big section for wedding dresses. It was so weird to be at a market like that and there to be these intricate wedding dresses all outside and girl running around trying on dresses. For the most part, things like clothes and electronics are more expensive to buy here and of lower quality than in the States. The food is much cheaper for mostly everything but there are plenty of things that they don’t have here that I’m used to. Some weird things that can’t be found here: peanut butter, zip lock bags, marshmallows, brown sugar, and very much lettuce (I had some at someone’s house but I can’t find it in the stores). The fresh fruit in the markets definitely make up for it though…right now raspberries, cherries, and of course tomatoes and cucumbers are in season and very cheap. Everyone here eats so many tomatoes and cucumbers together. Almost every meal that I eat involves either of these. I don’t know what happened to me but all of sudden I’m loving so many things that I used to hate like raw tomatoes, mushrooms, and cabbage. I really eat so differently here than I do in the States.

(this is in downtown Chisinau, these people have a stuffed bear and caribou and you can pay to have your picture taken with them. I didn't realize that until after I had taken the picture and the person that I was with told me to stop taking pictures)

My internship has been going great. I really like all of the other employees here and have had a good time getting to know them. On Saturday, my organization held a conference for business training for local entrepreneurs and clients. When they were trying to find a job for me to do for the conference, they asked if I had ever video taped anything. I said yes thinking about some of the weird videos that I made in college with my digital camera (Some of you may remember the classic, “Nemo, the killer bug”). Definitely a bad idea to tell them that because it led to me being in charge of video taping the conference and I haven’t ever worked with a real video camera before. Anyway it turned out to be a fun job and now I get to edit the video to make a clip for our website. When it gets done maybe I’ll send you all the link to our website so you can see a little bit more about what I do here. I have also been working on putting together case studies of different clients that have been helped by the loans here. For this I get to travel to where the clients are and take pictures and do interviews. So far everything that I have been put in charge of has been a lot of fun and I’m really enjoying being here. (this is one of the women that I did a case study on...her business has been helped by microloans)

My Romanian has been coming along slowly....there are so many people here that speak English that it is hard for me to practice a whole lot. Luckily so much of it is similar to Spanish so that makes it easier to learn since I've had some Spanish in the past. Everyone here is so incredible at languages, a lot of people know three or four different languages fluently and can speak other languages to some degree. It makes me feel pretty dumb when people ask me what languages I speak and I have to say only English.

(this is my host family and me in Northern Moldova at their grandparents/parents house)

Well, this has turned out to be just a long as the other entry….if any of you are still reading this, thanks for your perseverance!! Like I said before, let me know how you are doing. Just because I’m in another country doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get email! I really miss you all so much! O zi buna (have a good day)!!!

I made it!!

Hey All!! Just in case you were wondering and waiting in suspense, I made it to Moldova!!! Okay so maybe you weren't since that is old news and I should have started this blog a week ago. So anyway, I just want to start by saying thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family who have supported me financially and spiritually through your prayers for my trip to Moldova. I have been blessed so far to have made it here without any problems of any kind.

For those of you that didn't even know I was gone, I left the 23rd of May for Lancaster, Pennsylvania for three days of training at the HOPE International Headquarters. HOPE is a Christian micro finance missions organization that operates micro lending branches in twelve different countries around the world. The training was with the other interns that are working with HOPE for the summer. It was so much fun getting to know all of the other interns and the employees of HOPE. It was like God instantly provided a new network of friends who would be going through many of the same things that I will be this summer. Most of the training was an overview of the basic concepts of microcredit services and how sharing the message of the gospel could be integrated into this type of work. Basically, microcredit services are providing entrepreneurs in poor countries the opportunity for to take out small loans to either start new businesses or build up already existing projects. These people are either too poor to have any collateral for a loan or the banking system in the country is set up to only serve the rich. Small loans given by a microcredit agency such as HOPE International have the effect of creating wealth for the family involved in the business and anyone employed by the business. These loans have been known to completely change whole villages by giving people the opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty by their own creativity rather than just taking a handout that will disappear in a short amount of time. Along with microlending, HOPE also provides savings services for those who do not have access to a bank allowing the poor to provide themselves with a cushion of safety. So yeah, there is a free lesson about microcredit for ya! The training in Pennsylvania definitely got me excited about the work that I will be doing this summer. I feel so blessed to be a part of this type of ministry!

Another cool thing about my time in Lancaster is that a whole group of us from HOPE got to go on a tour in Amish country. As those of you who know me well would guess, this was definitely an exciting thing for me!!! If there is ever a time when I go missing and can't be found, don't worry. I'm probably just hanging out in Amish country and can't call because there is no electricity there! (this is a picture of me eating Amish ice cream next to this really cool shop that sold all different types of laid out insects.)

I left Pennsylvania Saturday evening and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 7:30 Sunday morning after a long yet very comfortable flight. I had a seven hour layover there before flying out to Moldova so decided to get out and see the city a little bit. After asking for help from some uptight Germans (Chels, I think they were Nazis and luckily was able to escape from them), I rode a train into the city. It was really weird being there so early in the morning on a Sunday morning because there was hardly anyone out on the streets. There were so many beautiful buildings there and specifically churches that were just so huge and built so intricately. I really wish that I would have had more time to spend there to find out the best sites to see. One thing that I was able to do that was really neat was that I went to the Jewish museum that was there. It was so strange because I was the only tourist in the whole museum and everything was obviously in German so it was hard to know what was going on. The curators kept trying to help me understand and gave me some English guide books for the museum but it was still hard to know if I was reading the right part for what part of the museum I was in. Anyway Frankfurt was pretty neat but I was too excited to be going to Moldova to really be able to enjoy it.

So finally after so much anticipation, I made it to Moldova on Sunday May 27th in the evening. It was such a strange feeling to be in a place where English is not the main language spoken! I did not have any contact information for the person picking me up at the airport who is director of the office here where I work. Luckily I must have looked very lost or else very American because right after I got out customs he and his wife came up to me to ask who I was. It was such a relief and a blessing to have made it without any problems. (here is a map of the country since I know that many of you have no idea where I am)

One of the first things that I noticed right away in Moldova was how warm it was and how many trees there were in Chisinau. This city is the capital and largest city in Moldova and is where I will be living the whole time that I am here. For some reason I was not expecting the country to be very green or beautiful but there are definitely parts that are. After leaving the airport, Ghena and Lena (the director and his wife) and I all went out to to eat at the most common and cheapest restaurant here, Andy's Pizza. It is like a nice version of American fast food yet is cheaper for me than any restaurant in America. The funny thing is that there are a lot of McDonald's here but only rich people eat there and the service and food quality is much higher than in the US. I've heard that it is not uncommon to see people all dressed up eating there.

After eating, they took me to my host family's home. It was very dark out and we had to drive the car into these little alleyways along these very dark streets to get there. Ghena and Lena had warned me that the family was very poor and that the conditions of the house where not the best. They told me many times that if I did not think that I could handle the conditions that I could tell them anytime and I could move. I really didn't know what to expect when we arrived at the house. From what I could see in the darkness, all of the other houses in the area were very crammed together with no lawns or anything like houses that I often see in America. When I arrived at the house, there was only a curtain for a front door and I felt like I was stepping into an hut in Africa or something. When I ducked inside, I was very surprised to see such a clean and bright living area. I was greeted by a large woman speaking very rapid Ukrainian who hugged me tightly and kissed me on the cheek. It was quite a welcome to Moldova! (this is the closest thing I could get to taking a picture of my house...it is completely surrounded by other houses and structures so it is difficult to stand back to take a picture)
Right away all of my fears of living in a hut for six months vanished. The house itself is very small compared to what I am used to but it is very well taken care of and clean with all of the modern conveniences that I am used to (and there is a front door, they just have a curtain over the door to let cool air in :)) The family that I'm living with consists of Nadya, the mother, and her three teenage sons, Jake, Igor, and Dima. Their father died of cancer about nine years ago and from what I can see his death was very hard on the family. They are all so proud of him and talk about his accomplishments all of the time. It is very sad. Nadya also has a daughter, Irena, who is my age who is married and lives in an apartment with her husband. Even though the house is very small, my room is in fact very large and is the largest bedroom in the house. Amazingly enough, there is a piano in my room so hopefully I will be able to find some time to play. If I can find a piano teacher that speaks English, I will try to take some lessons.

(ha ha, no this isn't the toilet I have to use everyday....it is just one that I saw at church yesterday)

The people here are different in many ways than Americans. One difference is that people out on the streets in the city do not smile at all and often avoid eye contact. Its so hard for me to pass people on the street and not make eye contact or smile or something. Someone at my work told me that people will think that I'm crazy because he said that only the mentally ill walk around on the streets smiling! People here are also very direct in their speaking habits. People have told me here that I need to be very honest when someone makes food and I don't like it. I realized after they told me this that it is very hard to tell someone to their face that you do not like something that they made or bought for you. The other day I was shopping with one of my news friends here and she bought us cups of this type of drink made with yeast. I absolutely hated it but when she asked me, I couldn't bring myself to answer honestly. Its funny how different cultures have different ways of acting.

(this is a war monument to a battle between Germany and Russian during WW11, there were soldiers all around it when we walked by it doing drills or something. It was a very strange experience to see all of these military men all over the war monument)

Besides the drink that my friend bought for me, I can't think of any other example of food that I have not liked. The food here is just incredible. It is now a good fruit season so there are people always out on the streets selling fresh fruit. The best right now are the cherries and strawberries. The food that my host mother cooks is also very good. No matter how warm it is outside, we always have Ukrainian soup to start with along with this amazing bread. She also makes a lot of dishes with potatoes and chicken or crepes filled with cheese or jam. Oh, and the best thing so far has be the capote. When they first brought it out I was very scared because it looked very weird. It was in a big jar and it looked like pieces of potatoes soaking in water. They poured me some of the liquid and told me that one of their American friends liked it very much. When I tried it I realized that it was like juice but ten times better. They make it with all types of fruit and it is the best.

One of the interesting things about meals here is that we always pray silently to ourselves before and after the meal. They told me that we pray first to bless the meal and thank God for the hands that prepared it and then lastly to thank God for such a good meal. People here also eat so fast! I am always struggling to keep up and always the last one done eating. They are always trying to get me to eat more food here. Nadya is always asking if I'm hungry and offering me food. At first I didn't want to be rude by refusing but I have come to realize that if I eat everything that they offer me, I'm going to gain a lot of weight!!! Every morning when I have to get up early to go to work, one of the boys gets up and makes me breakfast since Nadya goes to work very early in the morning. I always insist that I can make myself breakfast and that I normally do not eat breakfast anyway but he always gets up anyway and has breakfast ready for me. One of the incredible things about this family is how giving and considerate they are.

One of the things that is very evident here is that the economy itself is so much poorer than that of the United States'. Most people here cannot afford to live in houses and instead must rent very tiny apartments. Everywhere I go I see these large apartment complexes. I suppose that it is true that most people cannot afford a house in big cities in the United States but in reality this city is not extremely large and with the skills that many of these people have should be able to afford to live in a house. I am very lucky to be with a family that has a house. So many of the buildings here are rundown and the city itself is just very poor in many areas. (this is an example of an apartment complex here)

Besides owning a house, it is also very expensive to own cars here. I only know one couple that can afford a car. Everyone else must use the public transportation in the city which is very highly developed and makes it very easy to get around if you know the routes. One of the easiest ways to get around and is the way that I get to work everyday is by minibus. These are basically twelve to fifteen passenger vans that have different numbers on them depending on routes and drive basically all over the city. Even though there is room for around fifteen people, sometimes as many as forty people will cram on to these minibuses. For me riding these minibuses is interesting because in order to get off I have to tell the driver in Romanian where I would like to get off when the bus gets near my destination. Since I do not know Romanian, this makes it a little scary for me to not only balance myself while riding the bus (oh yeah people drive so fast and crazy here), fight my way to the front of the bus and then tell the drive at the right moment where I need to get off. I learned that I must say "Opriti, va rog!" which means stop, please, and then point and say where I want to go. Its been quite the experience!

The reason why it is so difficult for people to earn a good living around here is not from lack of training or education but just lack of good income. Compared to the money that can be made in the United states, most people are only earning a fraction of what is possible here. Whereas it is not uncommon to see an income of $30,000 a year from a certain job in the United States, here in Moldova that same job may earn $2,000-$3,000 a year. In the family that I am living in, Nadya cleans for a living and earns $90 a month at a job where she works around six or seven hours a day, five days a week. I found out that this is a normal paying job and that she is lucky to be paid this much. For this reason, many people have left Moldova in the past ten years to find work in other countries since they can make so much money in other places. (this is the street that my house is on)

One of the great blessings about my wanting to learn Romanian is that the daughter of my host family, Irena, told me when I first met her that she would teach me Romanian without me even asking. She is studying to become a language teacher in college so she is very qualified to teach. I will be taking two lessons a week from her and hopefully soon I will be able to feel more functional in Moldova on my own! Most of the younger people here speak some level of English and most of the people that I know speak very well so it hasn't been too difficult to communicate here.

My internship here has been very good so far. There are about six other people that I work with in this office so it is nice to be able to be in such a small group of people. Every morning before we start work, we have a prayer meeting to pray for special needs and the work on the organizations. I'm so excited to be working in this type of organization here since it is so easy to see the need of the people for something as simple to us as loans to grow a business. Many of the things that I will be doing relate to writing up case studies to let people know how effective the ministry is being here. Please keep me in your prayers as I start new projects and case studies that they will have an impact on the people that will read them. I have learned so much about microfinance in the past week and a half and I feel so called to be a part of this type of missions. I praise God that I am exactly in the place where I want and feel that He has called me to be!!

(These are two girls that I work with, Valentina and Tanya)

Well I have so much more that I could say but I better wrap this session up. Next time I will write about my experiences of shopping here and also going to church. I'll also try to take more pictures! Sorry that this is so long...hopefully the ones after this will be better thought out and more organized. Thanks for your support and please keep me in your prayers! God bless!