Soviet Sleeper Sofas
(Thursday 2 May, Chișinău)

We flew with FlyOne, a (very) budget Moldovan airline – the seats were very compact and we could not easily lower the trays – but it was punctual.

We were picked up in Chișinău by one of Igor’s drivers as both Igor and Lucia were working. Igor is still arranging lorry pick-ups in the USA via the internet and his Moldovan carrier business is growing back a little. Lucia has a new job managing a project on money laundering for the Council of Europe, a human rights organisation. We were entertained by their children Ana, Bogdan and Victor until they were free. This involved a walk to the park and ice creams followed by a meal with the whole family. Mike had a restless night as usual and Geoff ended up on the sofa in the next room!

Classic Outhouses
(Friday 3 May, Chișinău and Leova)

Pastor Ilie’s son Samuel from Leova agreed to pick us up at 10 am but did not arrive until 11.30 am due to heavy traffic in Chișinău. We set off to visit his brother Ilie Jr., but 500 metres down the road his car broke down. It had a broken starter motor and the pieces of wire which he usually used for ignition failed to work. What was plan B? There was no plan B! The car eventually obliged after 20 minutes and we rather hoped it would not happen again in heavy Chișinău traffic.

Ilie Jr. started a recording studio four months ago, together with his business partner Dima. They have decorated and equipped a fifth-floor block very well.

“They were concerned by the state of their small church which was built in communist times without proper foundations and is showing signs of wear and cracking.”

Translator Ana eventually arrived at 3.20 pm and we set off towards Leova. We were due to speak at a Bible study meeting in Sîrma (5 km beyond Leova) at 5 pm. We finally arrived at 5.30 pm but no-one seemed to mind. There were 14 present, including Pastor Ilie. As usual, they were concerned by the state of their small church which was built in communist times without proper foundations and is showing signs of wear and cracking. The outdoor loo is currently modelled on the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Sirma Church, Moldova - CEEM

The congregation at Sîrma (Pastor Ilie & Samuel pictured right)
 

We had a tour of the Pastor Ilie’s place, showing his latest inventions: a log splitter, a branch shredder, a cardboard baler and a snow clearer.

We then discovered that we would be the first guests staying in the newly refurbished church building. Four years ago it suffered serious damage when a flood melted the mud bricks and badly damaged the back wall. CEEM have helped supply building materials and tools, and Samuel and Pastor Ilie have performed wonders in reconstruction.

Guest room at Leova - CEEMThe new guest room at Leova.

Geoff and Mike broke down the bulk packs of Tozer’s seed into small packets. The seed were donated by Tozer’s and Mr Fothergill’s, two UK seed companies, had been successfully delivered by a minibus courier the week before.

Geoff dividing the seeds

The traditional seed-counting (and Geoff doing nights!)

The Seed Scrum
(Saturday 4 May, Leova)

Geoff assembling the seeds - CEEM

Ready for the audience

Breakfast was delivered to us in the church at 8 am and we prepared for the seed seminar which was due to start at 10 am. This was the first time we had held it at Leova and over 40 attended. Pastor Oleg from Hîrtop spoke on his successful tomato crop (4500 plants) and cucumber growing (500 plants) and fielded numerous questions.

Pastor Oleg giving his talk - CEEM

Pastor Oleg speaking at the seminar in Leova

Angela, an American plant scientist, spoke about her demonstration farm to encourage youngsters into horticulture and her pathology work (the study of plant diseases). Geoff described changes during his 70 years as a farmer and Mike talked about lettuce. Then he described the seed we had to give away. 450 packets of seed disappeared in five minutes and the audience asked, “Can you bring more next time!” The session lasted two and a half hours but they seemed happy enough.

We had a rather quiet afternoon during which Pastor Ilie took us to his field outside Leova on which he has been growing maize continuously for several years. He pays a nearby farmer to do the work but he is now encountering some serious weed problems, mainly with what is probably Johnson grass. After consulting Google, we thought Roundup (a weed killer) after harvest might help.

Anna translating in a field

Ana translating at the maize field

Pastor Ilie is also struggling with disease problems in his large polytunnel but the smaller ex-NIAB tunnel is still productive. The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) donated several of these tunnels to CEEM’s work in Moldova in 2008.

In the evening, we visited Brother Eugeniu for a look around and a meal. Four of Brother Eugeniu and Aliona’s children have left home: Alex in Russia, Elisei and Liuba in Denmark and Nichita in Chișinău, studying to be a teacher. That still leaves Lidia, Maria, Sophie, Ghenadie and Adam at home.

Eugeniu and parents - CEEM

Brother Eugeniu, his parents Valentina & Ghenadie, Geoff & Mike

The next-door house which was damaged by a falling tree has been repaired and Brother Eugeniu’s crops looked remarkably good. Besides the garden he is also working his parents’ plot and another for a friend. Brother Eugeniu took us to visit his parents. His mother Valentina is now 80 and his father Ghenadie a little younger but with poorer health. Ghenadie still maintains 80 bee hives and we were all given samples.

Ghenadie's bee hives

Ghenadie’s bee hives (and a honey separator pictured left)

After this Pastor Ilie and Brother Eugeniu took us on a tour of the Prut river valley south of Leova. Ana left for Chișinău in a minibus.

The Prut Valley

The Prut valley on the border to Romania

Resurrection Day
(Sunday 5 May, Leova and Burlacu)

It was Easter Day in Moldova following the Orthodox calendar. Both Geoff and Mike spoke at the church service. There was a plethora of contributions from the congregation, including six items from the youth choir.

Leova and Burlacu Choir

The young people met on Saturday for choir practice

The service in Leova lasted two hours and Geoff and Mike were called to the front and publicly thanked for helping the church. Iulia, a medical doctor from Chișinău, travelled down on the day with her family to assist with translation.

Geoff preaching in Burlacu - CEEM

The interpreting in action

We left Leova after lunch and Samuel drove us to Burlacu via Cahul. Svetlana and Nathanael joined us to pick up Caleb from his grandparents. We left money for new microphones and fold-up chairs as well as for our maintenance. There are always more needs at Leova than we can fund and we will discuss some of these at our next committee meeting.

At Burlacu we discovered that we were to stay at Pastor Andrei’s house and not the orphanage like last year. Pastor Andrei found that he had not seen enough of us the previous year! All four of his and Eugenia’s children were home for Easter as well as two married partners so there was quite a houseful.

Pastor Andrei's house - CEEM

Livia, Eugenia, Mike, Geoff, Iaroslav (Livia’s husband), Pastor Andrei, Ruslan (Emi’s husband), Emi & Adriana (Adrian took the picture)

We attended an evening youth meeting with numerous games of volleyball and food provided by the young people themselves. Mike spoke and this was followed by a good discussion on how the young people can share their faith with non-Christian friends. We had supper with Eugenia as Andrei retired to bed feeling tired!

Cross Bike Season
(Monday 6 May, Burlacu)

After breakfast Geoff and Mike travelled to Cahul with Pastor Andrei and his son-in-law Ruslan. They wanted to buy medicine for Andrei’s father who suffered a stroke recently and we were under instructions to buy 2 kg of “Nunta” chocolates for the upcoming wedding of Philip and Laura who got engaged during their visit to Moldova in January. Evidently “Nunta” means “wedding”.

In the afternoon Mike helped Eugenia with some weeding and we were joined by Geoff and Adrian to plant a decent crop of watermelons. All of their vegetable and fruit crops look very good this year due to rain coming at the right time.

Mike in vegetable garden - CEEM

“Thorns and thistles” (Mike weeding)

We visited Pastor Andrei’s neighbours Agneta and Anatolie to inspect their crops. They had actually started harvesting early potatoes from one of their tunnels and the quality was excellent. In fact, all their crops were looking good, including a large area of outdoor potatoes. They also have an old NIAB tunnel still in use.

New vines and veg field - CEEM

“New vines and veg” (at Agneta & Anatolie’s)

In the evening there was an open-air concert outside the culture house with a 20-piece orchestra and choir from the Baptist church in Crihana Veche (south of Cahul). We helped transport chairs to the site and Geoff showed his kitchen skills, helping prepare sandwiches for the choir after the event.

Assembling of chairs for concert

“Event management”

Girls and Geoff in the kitchen

Mirela, Sorina, Olivia & Geoff in the kitchen

As is usual in Moldova the audience was sparse when the concert began but grew to about 80 by the time it finished. The guest speaker was the pastor from Crihana Veche who is also an MP. The village youths thought it necessary to accompany proceedings by revving up their motorbikes noisily while riding up and down the street!

The orchestra assemble in front of the Culture House, Burlacu

The orchestra in front of the Culture House

Another Seed Scramble
(Tuesday 7 May, Burlacu)

Geoff and Mike walked round the upper part of the village past the mayor’s house before breakfast when the temperature was cooler than the 27 °C it reached later in the day. We thought of our cooperation with the mayor in the early 2000s: there is a water system tapping a spring in the hills that CEEM paid for at the time. It has since silted up and nothing has been done yet to clear it.

On the walk we noticed that Lucerne hay had already been cut and nearly every free space seemed to have been drilled with maize. A few gates were adorned with willow twigs as part of Easter celebrations.

We had another trip to Cahul, this time to buy tomato and cucumber plants for Eugenia’s tunnel. This allowed us to walk round the market which is always an enjoyable experience. On the way back Andrei hit a badger crossing the road. He stopped the car and hurried back – Mike thought he was showing concern for the animal, but in fact he was collecting part of the car grille that had been knocked off!

We cleared all the weeds from Eugenia’s tunnel and Geoff started the rotovator which roused Pastor Andrei who decided that the soil was too hard to cultivate and needed soaking. Geoff and Mike then went to Pastor Ghenadie’s and helped sow rocket, radish, basil, cucumbers and more watermelons. We then sorted and laid out seed for another seed seminar that evening.

Speakers this time were Pastor Oleg, Geoff and Mike, Pastor Andrei acting as translator. About 25 attended this time and there was not such a rush for seed with some left over which Pastor Oleg took back to his village.

Vegetable seed samples

Collecting the seed samples

After the seminar we were invited for dinner at Pastor Ghenadie and Ana’s at the orphanage. They currently have two in care: Maria (9) who was neglected by her mother and Victor (2) whose mother could not cope either. Viorel, one of the orphans from last year, is now in a special care home in Cahul. Mihaela, who attends the MealDeal, is in Chișinău with her mother. Her arm is still not fully healed but has shown some improvement.

Geoff and Ghenadie's children

Maria (centre) with Matias & Elis (Pastor Ghenadie & Ana’s children)

The Last Mămăligă
(Wednesday 8 May, Burlacu, Hîrtop, and Chișinău)

Mike did an early morning walk while Geoff was resting a problem ankle and leg. Pastor Ghenadie picked us up at 10 am to take us back to Chișinău via Hîrtop to visit Pastor Oleg and his wife Angelica. We also took Emi, Andrei’s daughter who is 6 months pregnant, and Mirela, Ghenadie’s cousin who is working in Chișinău.

Pastor Oleg is growing a few early cucumbers (500 plants) and has been harvesting for several days already. The rest of his two large tunnels is filled with 4500 tomato plants of different varieties: Qualitet, Marifet, Matisio and Corvinos. The earliest plants have five trusses set and he is taking sideshoots to continue cropping.

Oleg's vegetables

“Where our food comes from” (Pastor Oleg’s cucumbers)

He has also filled space with lettuce and radish that we donated last year. We visited his church and then left for Chișinău. We stopped halfway for lunch and Pastor Ghenadie received a phone message from his father Vasile requesting a cup of coffee. He was driving a lorry with 28 tons of grain in the opposite direction – we met him a mile up the road. We then dropped Emi at Ialoveni, a suburb of Chișinău, and Mirela in town. The traffic was dreadful and it took us nearly two hours to reach Igor’s.

In the evening, we took Igor’s family for a traditional Moldovan meal at La Plăcinte, a restaurant chain. Mike had mămăligă, known as polenta in Western Europe, with cream cheese, scrambled egg and pork or chicken with garlic oil.

Lucia’s brother Roman and sister Rodica are both staying with them at present. Roman is driving a lorry for the UN World Food Programme serving refugees from the war in Ukraine.

Carrying the Wedding Favours
(Thursday 11 May, Chișinău)

Igor delivered us to the airport for our return flight on Wizz Air. We had to pay for extra luggage with various gifts for ourselves and the wedding couple and for some reason they would not let us put it in the hold, so it had to be cabin baggage. This could have caused problems with liquids but we sailed through security with a bottle of water and a jar of honey.

Written by: Mike Day and edited by Philip Bowes, CEEM Charity Trustees.