23 Sep 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 1 Comments

The Morning Walk

I’ve mentioned before about the homeless lady who was searching in a bin just outside our apartment. But I’ve been thinking since then that for those of you not living in Moldova it may seem like this is an unusual occurrence for us. Sadly, that is far from the truth.

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29 Aug 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

Rebuilding of a Nation

At times the reality that we are living in a post-Soviet nation seems more real than at others. While there are signs of a Communist history in Chisinau, for me it’s when I hit the villages that the underlying currents of the country’s past become more evident. Empty factories and buildings mark just about every village, and many speak of times when villages were thriving before mass population shifts took place to the nation’s capital. (more…)

13 Jun 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

Scraps from a Bin

After taking in the luxury of waking at a leisurely time on the first morning in our own apartment (and getting used to the fact that no-one would walk into the room at any minute!), I sat down to a hot coffee and fresh bread for breakfast. The reality still hadn’t really set in that we were finally in our own place. After reflecting about how long we’d had to wait to get here and the challenges of living at the OM office for over 4 months, I reminded myself of how much we deserved this place – a good reward for our hard work and sacrifice.

Yet as I walked into our bedroom and looked out the window, I was struck by the sight of a middle-aged woman searching through the garbage bins. After sipping the dregs in the bottom of a few bottles, she continued searching and was obviously looking for something in particular. Eventually coming across a small piece of paper, I wondered to myself about the purpose of something so common. Making her way to the back of the bins and looking to the left and right, before checking a second time, she then lowered her pants and bent down to go to the toilet. Behind the bins, right outside our apartment.

And suddenly it struck me that I was here, thinking about how hard our last few months had been, and that this woman has probably lived a life of hardship beyond anything I could comprehend.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to do. Should I go and offer her my breakfast? Invite her into our new home? Leave a loaf of bread in the bin each week to avoid humiliation? Simply go down and say hello?

And I wondered how many others live exactly like her, from this same bin. And from other bins all around Chișinău.

While resources are poured into enabling free wireless internet in central park, people all over the city are living from scraps in a bin.

After taking in the luxury of waking at a leisurely time on the first morning in our own apartment (and getting used to the fact that no-one would walk into the room at any minute!), I sat down to a hot coffee and fresh bread for breakfast. The reality still hadn’t really set in that we were finally in our own place. After reflecting about how long we’d had to wait to get here and the challenges of living at the OM office for over 4 months, I reminded myself of how much we deserved this place – a good reward for our hard work and sacrifice.

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15 May 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

A Jar of Peanut Butter

What does it take for someone to treat a jar of peanut butter like a treasured gift? Perhaps it was the first step of opening our hearts and lives up to God to do whatever He wanted us to do. Maybe it was when, unknowingly, we committed ourselves to the biggest challenge we’ve ever taken on in our lives. Could it have been when we had to give up the securities of home and say goodbye to family and friends? Or was it during the past few weeks, when each day has seemed to get that bit harder?

Whatever the cause, a jar of peanut butter as a simple gift from a group of American volunteers brought a boost of encouragement to help us get through the challenges in front of us. Their thoughtfulness of buying it, carrying it with them, and actually bringing enough for most of us on the team to get a jar was truly touching.

Maybe a jar of peanut butter is just one of the simplicities in life that we usually overlook in our busy, stressful lives. When we can buy whatever we want, eat whatever we choose, spend our time doing whatever we fancy, care for people whenever we feel like it, and live wherever we like, why would we appreciate something so small? After all, it’s just a jar of peanut butter.

Or do we need to reach the point where we give up everything that makes us comfortable, so that we can be humbled and actually be joyful in receiving such a simple gift?

What does it take for someone to treat a jar of peanut butter like a treasured gift? Perhaps it was the first step of opening our hearts and lives up to God to do whatever He wanted us to do. Maybe it was when, unknowingly, we committed ourselves to the biggest challenge we’ve ever taken on in our lives. Could it have been when we had to give up the securities of home and say goodbye to family and friends? Or was it during the past few weeks, when each day has seemed to get that bit harder?

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06 Apr 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

A Matter of Perception

As I sit here and write, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, leaves are blooming and the air is filled with sounds of those living a quiet village life. There is something cosy about being in this place, in the middle of nowhere in rural Moldova.

The drive from Chisinau wound us from bitumen roads in a bustling city, to dirt roads over rolling hills in paddocks showing the first signs of next season’s growth. Agriculture is people’s livelihoods – if you don’t plant you don’t eat.

Yet even in farming there are disparities growing and it makes you wonder how the poorer Moldovans will ever keep us with the Jones’s. A local farmer pointed out the new tractor someone has just got from Italy, and then explained how someone has recently been to Holland twice to bring back amazing machinery for getting the water from the dam to the paddocks (an irrigation system that most farmers in Australia would now take as a given).

Arriving at the house (where we’ll be based for the week), we were greeted by a couple of cows, chickens and turkeys galore, plenty of pigs, old machinery pilled up in the back yard, an outhouse that most of us would usually turn their noses up at, and decomposing compost that hasn’t quite made it to the right place.

However, we were also greeted by an incredibly generous family and two of their five children, who welcomed us into their home and have volunteered to feed eight of us all week and have five of the boys stay each night. We couldn’t have eaten more at lunch if we tried and already know that later today there will be more food, hot drinks and home-made juice on the table ready for us. Here is a family that clearly does not have extra resources to go an buy something to make their lives that little bit easier (like an extra piece of farming machinery that would make such a difference) yet they have opened their home entirely and are displaying generosity and true love that many people never experience.

While we may have to put up with some of the harder aspects of being in rural Moldova this week, it really does feel like an honour to experience such hospitality and be around people who truly know what life’s all about.

As I sit here and write, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, leaves are blooming and the air is filled with sounds of those living a quiet village life. There is something cosy about being in this place, in the middle of nowhere in rural Moldova.

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18 Feb 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

A New Day Dawns

Numerous people have asked what a ‘typical’ weekday is like for us at the moment. The first point we need to make clear is that one of the most useful Romanian phrases we’ve learnt so far is ‘Videm paolock (We’ll see when we get there!)’. So while the following will give you a bit of an idea, our next day could be remarkably different as we never quite know what is around the next corner!

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28 Jan 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 1 Comments

A Clean Bill of Health…Despite a Really Bad Cold!

Yesterday and today were…hmmm…what shall we say…a good introduction to the Moldovan health system?

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