Moldovan Hospitality

I think it’s about time I introduce you to my host family. I have been staying with a couple who are slightly older than me, and whose children are grown up and married. Frat (Brother) Ion and Sora (Sister) Lena have been more than kind to me since I have been staying with them. Every morning when I wake up and make my way to the kitchen, Lena usually has a hot breakfast prepared. In Moldova, breakfast can be anything from soup to nuts, literally! We have had soup for breakfast, mamaliga (see previous blogspot entry), something called ‘casia’ that was some kind of grain served with ground nuts on top. Yesterday we even had chicken and bulghur. Lena is vegetarian but Ion is not, so occasionally the predominantly vegetarian diet does give way for some meat. In this case, I think I heard the sound of the poor chicken’s objections a couple of nights before I met her on my breakfast plate. And I did see the naked (plucked) creature in a basin, head disattached, the day before so I wasn’t really surprised to see it on my plate the next morning. It certainly does bring the reality of the meal home though…
In the evening when I arrive home, no matter what time it is (except on Tuesdays when we have prayer meeting till 10 pm), Lena shortly comes and calls me to come and have something to eat. Usually in the evenings it is a very light meal – soup or just tea and bread. There is always something interesting and home-grown or home-made. Lena’s father keeps bees so they always have honey in various forms. And one evening, Lena poured me a glass of pure sweet grape juice – it was soooo good! And if Ion comes in while I am eating, he smiles and says, “Pofta buna!”, which is Moldovan for ‘Bon appetit’.
Anyway, Ion and Lena have been very caring about whether my room is warm enough and often I find a big plate of crunchy apples on my desk. On my birthday Lena was so kind to me and even now she still goes out of her way to clean my boots and warm them up by the fire before I leave in the morning. Sometimes, when I wash out some clothes by hand in the evening and hang them out on the line, the next day when I arrive home I find the clothes dry and folded in my room.
At the very beginning of my time here I understood next to nothing that they said. Now, though, Lena and I can actually have simple conversations, including her scolding me for sitting up too late at night (she saw my light on in the wee hours). Ion seems to have a few enterprises on the go and has a flatbed truck and several old vehicles. He and his wife attend different churches and so on my first Sunday I went to church with him in a 1985 (?) BMW. There is a young fellow who stays at the house sometimes and seems to work for Ion. I’m not sure whether he is a relative or not. They do, however have a young niece staying with them till the spring as her mother has gone away to Israel to work. This is fairly common in Moldova – parents going to another country for employment, leaving their children in the care of grandparents or relatives. There just isn’t enough jobs in Moldova and the ones there are pay so little it is barely enough to survive. Life elsewhere seems to hold a great deal of appeal for many people.
Which is probably why Ion and Lena’s children all live in Ireland. Sometimes in the summer they bring the grandchildren to visit. Since I have been here, Ion has been practicing his English phrases because soon he is going to visit his children in Ireland. He will be gone for three months so I imagine he will know a lot more English by the time he returns. Maybe by then I’ll be able to have an extended conversation with him in Moldovan!