The village of Raciula, Moldova, as seen from the top of a hill.  The large white building on the side of the next hill is a monastery.

 This is a lake next to the village of Raciula.

 Rather than have a horse pull his wagon, this villager has a tractor pull his wagon loaded with his produce.

 About 4 kilometers from the village of Raciula, is another monastery run by the Russian Orthodox Church monks.  This is the entrance to the grounds.  The person in the foreground is Doina Stepanenco, our translator.

 The church is in the middle of the monastery campus.  It is being renovated on the outside.

 This is a close-up of the monastery church and the entrance door.

 This is the alter inside the monastery church.

 This is the inside of the cupola of the church.

 All of the walls have pictures painted on them of different people and events.

 This church has no pews or seats.  All of the attendees stand or kneel on the bare floor.

 This is the choir loft.

 Here is the monastery water well.

 The monks make their own grape wine for their church services and store them in these wine kegs

 Walter and Arlana, in our coats and by some large birch trees, walking though the woods right outside of the monastery.  We are on our way to see an artesian well.

 This is a shelter covering the opening of the artesian well.  The pipe is located near the floor. 

 This hill has a lot of springs feeding the stream nearby.  Here is a little step bridge across the stream.

 Here is a home-made picnic bench with chairs cut out of tree logs in somebody's backyard.

 This reminds Arlana of the Sacred Grove located in the upper part of New York State.

Here is a lake located right outside of the monastery grounds.

 The guests of honor at the ribbon cutting ceremony of the clean water project at the village of Festelita.  From left to right is Lidia Jubea (the project engineer), a couple of Raioane officials, the Moldovan Minister of Environment, Doina Stepanenco (our translater), the vice-president of the local Raioane, and Sister and Elder Kneib

 A local villager presenting gifts of appreciation.  These gifts included a wreath of bread, a towel, matches and a candle, and a plaque.  A reporter is taking pictures.

 The line of gift recipients at the ribbon cutting ceremony at Festelita.  The mayor is at the far left and the engineer's son on the far right.

 An older lady from the village, who nodded her head "yes"  when Sister Kneib ask to take her picture.  She was sweet and Arlana wanted to hug her but just patted her on the shoulder instead.
She is one of the recipients of the clean water project for this village.
The others in the back ground are getting something to eat. 

 After all was done the villagers partook of the food and drink at the ceremony. 

Elder Kneib in the Mayor's office in Festelita signing papers relating to the water project.  Moldova society requires a lot of paper work!

 On 19 September, we took part in an open-air ribbon cutting ceremony in the village of Festelita.  A part of the program was the singing of these village ladies dressed in traditional fashion singing folk songs.  They were accompanied by an accordion player.  They were eager to have their pictures taken with us because of the chance to be seen in America!

 

We visited the old church described above on 19 September and heard its story from a resident of the village of Causeni.

"This is the 19th Century"

A couple of weeks ago we meet a young man (26 or so) in our finance manager's office.  He ask us to go look at the school he attended in a village called Gradiste.   He said the last 3 years the village has been working hard to renovate the school, the kitchen needs a fridge and other appliances.   Tuesday of last week, (I think) we set out.
    The school did look nice they have done a lot of work.  Then we went to the kitchen.  It was built in 1977 and hasn't been touched since.  They have a huge electric oven and another electric stove that are covered with beautiful table cloth and potted plants.    They have abandoned this big room for a small room where they could hook 2 small stoves with small ovens to the gas.   The fridge is smaller than the one we have in our apartment.   They have 186 kids  from kindergarden to 9th grade, in the school and server 120 of them every day.  The serving area is a small window with a ledge and 2 steps up that the children climb to get their food, usually a bowl of soup.  There are lots of spills.    On the servers side it is a long reach even with my long arms over this long, wide, and low heating element that doesn't work.  One reach hurt my back.  I don't know what else was there but it didn't work at all.
    Then we got to the dish room.  As I said they have 120 kids to feed but only a set of 60 plates, spoons, and cups or glasses.  So as soon as one group leaves the dishes has to be washed for the next group.  They have a cook and a dish washer that is all.  The dish room had one deep sink.  The lady had a Big pan of dirty water that she was washing dishes in and rinsing  them under the running water I guess.  I wasn't sure.  The man and 2 ladies going around with us said they needed 2 sinks.  I said no you need three.  He said  "This is the 19th Century".  We all laughed but it wasn't funny really.  They have more than we can do them.  They need to be totally renovated.  We don't know if getting new appliances now would be good or not.  I guess you can move a fridge around the renovation.   We told them about Counterpart a US government program doing some renovations.
     I told them I had worked for 15 years in a school kitchen and that our workers had nothing to complain about.  That man said.  "Be careful they will ask for a raise, if they know how good they have it."  We laughed again.    Everyone count your blessings no matter your circumstances there are other people in the world who are worse off.   This beautiful country of Moldova is working hard to bring a better life to their children.

 

Traveling through the village of Satul Nou, Moldova, corn stalks were harvested from the fields and piled in the dirt streets.  The seed corn is harvested by hand and shelled by hand.   They use the corn cobs to burn for fuel in their homes.

 

There were many piles of corn stalks in the streets and beside the houses in this village.

 

An old shallow water well in the village of Satul Nou.

Three fishermen wading in the Solonet River near Rogojeni, Moldova.

Nearly every village in Moldova has a church such as this in the village of Carpineni.

There are a lot of monuments similar to this out in the countryside of Muldova.  This is located next to a major highway between Chisinau and Balti.

A field of sunflower seeds in Moldova.

Some goslings in front of a house along a lane in the village of Corpaci, Moldova.  The ornate fences are typical in these villages.

This is a typical scene in a country village.  Horse drawn wagons are more common than cars.

My favorite picture, so far!

Sister and Elder Reed Petersen from Gilbert, AZ out in the sunflower field with Sister and Elder Walter Kneib.

On the opening day of school at 8AM in the school yard in Chisinau, Moldova, all of the students and parents are gathered.  Here the children listen and dance to the song of a local pop music star visiting the school.

Tradition at this school is the senior boy carrying a first grade girl around the yard while they both ring bells.  This symbolizes the old welcoming in the new.

During the same ceremony, a group of students perform a song.

Here a group of older students dressed in native costumes performs a circle dance.

At the announcer and speaker table of the ceremony stands all of the dignitaries that were at the opening day celebration.

Among the dignitaries were Elder and Sister Kneib.  Elder Kneib spoke as did the vice-mayor of Chisinau and the director of the school.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated renovated boys and girls restrooms at the school.

Group picture of the dignitaries at the opening day of school.  The children gave flowers to their favorite person.  Sister Kneib received 15 bouquets.

Elder Kneib cutting the ribbon of the clean water project completed in the village of Elizaveta.  The mayor is holding one end of the ribbon.  The umbrellas are up because it is raining.  Elder Kneib also spoke at this gathering celebration.

At Elizaveta, the gathering moved inside, out of the rain.  Here the celebration turned to food, drink, and visiting.

After some of the village children of Elizaveta performed some songs, skit, and dance, they allowed us to join them for a group picture.  The engineer for the water project is Lidia Jubea, standing next to the mayor.  The church funded part of the project (a pipeline from Balti, a water tower, pump, and assorted valves and meters).  The village funded the remainder of the project of bring water to each of the houses in the village.