27 Jan 2009, Posted by justin in the category, 2 Comments

Moldova – Looking at Where We Are

Well, here we are in Moldova after all of this time! It’s really nice to finally arrive at our destination, and we’re both pleased that we don’t have to keep dragging all of our luggage everywhere!

The flight from Mosbach (Germany) was pretty good, with everyone clapping once the plane had landed (we’re not sure whether actually landing in an Air Moldova aircraft is a bit of a bonus or not, but considering their motto is ‘Born to Fly’ maybe people were just having a good day!).

It was nice to be greeted by a couple of the team members we’ll be working with at the airport. They took us out for tea, where we had a typical Moldovan meal made up of polenta, meat, sour cream and sauces, salad, sheep cheeses, a type of potato pastry, and other pastries made into a kind of flat pie with cabbage, cheese, cherries or apples. It was delicious and comforting to know their national dish is reasonably similar to what we’d eat at home.

On Sunday we took it pretty easy…had a nice sleep in and went for a bit of a walk. We are in the city outskirts of Chisinau, and as expected, it’s pretty poor. The streets are very muddy at the moment, and there are no footpaths to walk on. It’s interesting though, because there are plenty of nice houses around, yet they’re mixed with poorer down-trodden houses and wells that are well and truly in use. Many of the properties’ fences and walls are bright colours, and we can tell that in Spring and Summer the place would look quite pretty as there are so many trees. People have said the city is at it’s worst now with all the mud.

On Sunday afternoon we went to an English speaking church with a couple of the other team members. As soon as Juz walked in the door he got roped into playing guitar…Jessie will be up next service on keys. This follows the trend of the conference in Germany where we got thrown straight into things!

We’ve had a chance to check out the city centre, a twenty minute trip from the offices. This costs all of 30 cents to take a tightly squeezed bus (about 24 people in a 12 seater) into the city. The city varies immensely, where elegant buildings are mixed with shabby frontages. On the upside, this busy little city has beautiful parks which we’re sure we’ll spend a significant amount of time wandering through in spring and summer.

We’re both really happy to be here and are so glad to be joining a very friendly and welcoming team.