Martisor

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t written in my blog lately. I’m wondering the same thing myself! It’s not like there’s nothing happening – and that could be exactly the problem. There is so much happening that when I get home in the evening I am simply exhausted and don’t have energy to do much more than prepare a light supper and then veg in front of the TV for a couple of hours. I’ve been told that it’s normal at about the 6-month mark to be feeling tired, and struggling to deal with the reality that begins to hit: I am living in Moldova!!!! It’s not a visit anymore. It’s not a great adventure full of questions and mystery – it’s a day-to-day life with normal everyday struggles, plus the fog of coping with those challenges in a new language. However, the good news is – I am indeed coping, and thriving, lest any of you begin to think you need to send cards of concern and sympathy. I am fine!! I am happy!! I LOVE what I am doing! I’m just tired, but spring is coming!
Speaking of spring, in Moldova, March 1st is considered the beginning of spring and the whole week till the 8th is some kind of festival which culminates in a day to honour women!! So on March 1st, guys give their girls and friends give their friends, etc. a little pin made of red and white yarn tied in a bow and decorated with some kind of flower or coin. It’s called a ‘Martisor’ and I was given one by Ana, one of my Moldovan team-mates. Then my Romanian teacher also gave me one – they are very pretty. You can follow these links to find out more about Martisor:
http://social.moldova.org/articole/eng/357/
http://www.folkromania.com/cms/articles/traditional_celebrations/march
The wonderful thing is that March 8th, which would be the equivalent of our Mothers’ Day except that it’s not just for mothers. It’s for all women, and everything closes down so people can celebrate the wonderful women in their lives. At OM we have the day off and we are organizing a social event for all the women on the team – we’re going to go to a sauna for the afternoon!! Cool, eh? Well, actually, I suppose it will be hot.
Now you may be wondering what’s been keeping me so busy. One of the new things that I was responsible for last week was to welcome and host the new team members who arrived from USA – 5 of them! I’ve been helping them get oriented to Chisinau and life on our team, had them for dinner one night and have been trying to answer all their questions. As a member of the personnel department this falls in my court, and along with Ivanir I have been doing all possible to help them get settled, arrange their language lessons and language contacts and all the things that Personnel helped me with when I first came. It’s nice to be on this end of it and actually know some stuff!
This photo was taken the day after they arrived when I took them downtown to experience the fun of the rutieras and the joy of the Piata Centrala. Front row is Brandy, Donna, and Ersebeth. Back row is Myra, Mike and Ron. Ersebeth is Hungarian and here for a 3-week short term experience. Mike and Myra, as well as Brandy, are from Georgia. Ron and Donna are from Washington state.
One of the new recruits, Brandy, is doing the Global Action program and will be studying the core study program together with Dana and Claudia. Guess who gets to facilitate the study? Yours truly!! So that is another couple hours of group time plus preparation time each week for this course, which covers foundational things like Bible survey, hermeneutics, discipleship, mission and other subjects. I am excited about this, and the nice thing is it is in English.
I am also still teaching 3 English classes a week and with the addition of all these Americans, the Moldovans are really being encouraged to learn the language and being given lots of opportunity to do so. Another course that I will be teaching is a Missions course for Moldovans who plan to do cross-cultural missions. I am currently trying to find time to pull that course together so that when the students have enough English to take the course, I will be ready to teach it. And my Romanian will be getting better, too, so that I can help them more when the language is a problem. It’s all about communication!
As well as these things, I still have major responsibilities in the Public Relations Department. I will be picking up the Moldova News from the printer on Monday to send out to other OM offices, such as OM Canada, who will send it to your church if you let them know you are interested. E-mail me for more details.
But apart from my ministry with OM, I am also working on building a life and some relationships outside of work. I’ll tell you more about that in the next edition…