Visiting

This week I had the opportunity to do more visiting than I have done previously. It’s kind of exciting to start developing new relationships, challenging as it is with language ineptness. However, for one of the visits anyway, it was my language ineptness that was the reason for the visit. Part of our language training involves having ‘language contacts’ – people who are brave enough and patient enough to spend time with an unknown foreigner, and to make conversation with that stranger even though their vocabulary is more limited than that of a child. Up until now my only official language contact has been ‘Sora (sister) Maria’, who cooks the main meals for us at the OM Center. (All the fellow believers here are referred to as ‘sister’ and ‘brother’.) As she is preparing lunch each day for 20-30 people, I sit with her in the kitchen, sometimes grating cabbage, sometimes chopping carrots, and I learn how to say some of the words related to what we are doing. Maria is extremely patient with me as I forget a word two minutes (or less!) after she told me what it is. Yesterday I remembered the word for pot lid and for cabbage, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of the word for pot or for carrot. Aside from kitchen vocabulary, Maria asks me about my activities and I flounder around trying to tell her where I went the day before or what I ate for breakfast at my hosts’ home. She corrects my warped sentences and laughs with me when I know that what I just said makes absolutely no sense and she can’t figure out what it is I’m trying to say. Sometimes we have gone into the other room and drawn pictures – e.g., mushroom - on the whiteboard in order to communicate.
So this week I was given a new language contact, as part of our learning is also travellling around the city and finding our way. For my first visit, Liuba took me to show me the way and to introduce me. Liuba is another OM’er, a Russian-speaking Moldovan, (who also speaks Romanian, as most Moldovans do speak both languages) and she works in the personnel department of OM Moldova so it is one of her responsibilities to help the newbies get established. We took a trolley-bus – my first time - and went way to another part of Chisinau that I’ve never been before. It took an hour on the trolley as the power lines came disconnected a couple of times and there was a lot of traffic too. When we got there, there were rows of apartment buildings and we entered in the very dim, dreary ground floor of one of them. We made our way through the dark entry way to an even darker elevator where I had to get the flashlight out of my purse (that I always carry) to read the numbers on the buttons. As we stepped onto the elevator I wondered what the chances were that it would actually take us where we were going without breaking down. But we got to the fifth floor, again – dim hall and just nothing fancy concrete walls and floors – and knocked on the apartment door. We were welcomed by Ludmila , Liuda for short, and her little daughter Otilia, who is 1 ½. Liuba left me there and I spent an hour or so visiting and making conversation with this lovely young mother. She very patiently and gently corrected my mistakes and I felt at ease and encouraged by her willingness to spend this time with me each week. She and Otilia walked me to the bus stop, where I got on a rutiera, which got me back to the OM Centre in 20 minutes! Next week I will be on my own to find my way there but I will look forward to it. Today as I head off for my weekly shopping trip and visit to the internet café, I am thinking of what I will get to take to Otilia and Liuda that will be nice for them and a tool for language learning. I’m thinking maybe a children’s book…
Another visit that I had this week were with Olga Molcan, the President of the Baptist Women’s Union of Moldova. That was a really special time and I look forward to attending the women’s annual conference next week, which she invited me to.
Now, I’ve run out of time at the internet café – and I did want to show you some photos – will have to wait for another day. Otherwise, I will be taking the rutiera home instead of the bus, and you all know how I feel about rutieras!! Thanks to friends who have commented – so glad to hear from friends old and new alike. God bless you all...
ok - it's another day and I have a wee bit of time so let me finish about the other visit. On Thursday evening I went to the home of sister Rachel, whom I met at teh little Pentecostal church I have been attending in Ialoveni. She lives not far from me but as I arrived after dark, she had to come looking for me. Her son, Vitalic, was a great help when I called, as he speaks English very well. We had a wonderful visit once I got to the house. There were two other sisters who came over to join us and we had some great conversation, with the help of Rachel's son. There were a few times when he and I got into some interesting discussions on the side about various topics from politics to religion to America and Canada!The picture above is me and the women and here's a photo of Vitalic and his mother.