And the winner is...

Cherise and Laurie!!
On my last blog post I posted a photo of an item for you to guess its purpose. I was very pleased to have several people guessing as to the purpose of this metal thing. This quiz must have been more fun than the last one because even my sons ventured a guess. But no,Ben, it isn't a catapult. Nor Josh, is it for hitching my horse nor is it a real Moldovan playground. Janine thought it might be to hold a sign for my parking place and Sarah thought it was for beating rugs. Sorry, Sarah, but even having been here you didn't quite guess right.You're just going to have to come back for some remedial education! I suspect Ms. Beall knows what it is as she said she used it for years. But Ms. Beall, I don't know you and would love to know more about your connection with Moldova - so please drop me an e-mail if you don't want to reveal yourself on my blog (barbtherev@yahoo.ca)
So the winners are two people who have been here and were here long enough to have experienced a few muddy days. Those kind of rainy, muddy days when you arrive at a home or a church and you find your shoes absolutely conglomerated with mud. Wiping them on a mat just isn't good enough - before you do that you have to remove at least one or two layers of mud. So it isn't uncommon for people to place this kind of mud-scraper-off-er just at the bottom of the stairs to the building or outside the entrance gate. It's the first stage of mud removal before wiping on an outside mat, then an inside mat, then removing the shoes altogether upon entrance.
I'm hoping that my boys will see just what an interesting country this is and sooner or later you will have to come and visit me. I've got lots more things to show you that you will have lots of fun figuring out. For example, do you know how to tell whether a baby chick is male or female?
Thanks for participating, everyone! And thanks for reading my blog and taking an interest in life in Moldova. God bless you!