Today we went to church in Burlacu (pictured left), we were all revved up for a four hour service, but because of the heat, Pastor Andrei made sure it was no longer than an hour and a half.

Very, very hot day, we were all melting, it's amazing how inventive some people can be, there was some ingenious fan-making skills coming into force!

Relaxed in the afternoon at home, before going to a youth picnic in a clearing down the road, lots of fun and games and yummy food, taught them Splat (a game) and then played volleyball, although this didn't last long after we discovered the more brutal methods of chucking the ball AT the players, rather than over the net.

Finished off the day talking in the front garden, and Kat and I, Becky, Simon, Angela and Eugenie all spent around a hour star-gazing as the whole of the sky was incredibly clear!

Livvy and Kat.

Salut!

Today was the final day of the holiday club, which was a lot of fun, although today was extremely hot and some of us struggled a bit under the heat!

The club finished just after lunch today, and ended with the kids having ice creams and Haribo bought from the local shop! Angela, Egor and Elona went into Cahul (pictured right) this morning to purchase further equipment and stuff for MoldMed and the other clinics in neighbouring villages - very successful trip, managed to get everything needed besides paint for the new family room in the Burlacu clinic.

Had a nice relaxed afternoon today playing with the children, and discussed plans with church team for a project to support street children. Yesterday the men had their mens evening, which was a big success (although you would have to ask Simon for more details, as obviously, being girls, we were not allowed to go!) We had dinner at Eugenie and Andreis neighbours house, had v.interesting conversations with the whole family about education, work and university across whole of Europe.

Found out a bit more about hardships faced by young people trying to get work in this country. Big news from yesterday, was that Kat and I both got the chance to wash our hair! Needless to say, it was obviously much needed, as the colour of the water running from Livs hair was murky brown!

Yesterday, we also walked with Elona, Lucia (Egors wife) and Angela to another clinic in Burlacu. Very very hot, long road, almost melted, was nothing to do but have an ice cream in the nearby shop to revive ourselves! Handed out some more equipment and discovered what that clinic would also like equipment-wise.

Tinkling the old ivories again!

We have church tomorrow morning, so must be off, and we need to have a vocal rehearsal for our debut performance in the church tomorrow! Aaaah! (by the way, Simon managed to fix church keyboard today! This had been out of action for over six months).

Hope all is well at home,

Larrivederri! Livvy and Kat

Busy, busy, busy!

After the success of last night cooking evening and Angela's bread and butter pudding (carried out under a parachute canopy, very surreal), we had another holiday club day which ended with an important meeting to discuss the Street Children project.

And Livvy has managed to learn quite a few moldovan phrases to communicate with the children, no mean feat!

Angela met up with the doctor who visits Burlacu Medical Centre again this year to discuss current health issues as well as the immediate equipment requirements.

Pastor Andrei conducts a game of 'Raza Raza Guske' - for a translation of this game, please see previous blog :)

Cooking, fellowship, games and laughter

Buna! Today was jam-packed with a long day at the holiday club.

Children at holiday club helped to act out walking around the 'walls of Jericho' and helped to read out the ten commandments (as some found paper under their chairs)!

Lovely weather all day, and enjoyed lots of time playing outside with the street children and teaching them how to use Livvy's big SLR camera! Played games up on field of Raza, Raza, Guska! (duck, duck, goose!).

Team for holiday club shared tea and pancakes with local honey as we discussed plans for tomorrow. We also taught them two new games to play in games slot, The Kings Keys (which the locals found hilarious and played better than us!) and Splat.

We returned with Eugenie and Andrei to their house before visiting the lovely Tamara (pictured right) where she made us a fantastic evening supper! (many seconds had by all!) This evening we had a ladies evening where Becky and Angela taught the women how to cook Bread and Butter Pudding and we all talked about our favourite foods, and how food differs in our nations.

Lots of laughs had by all. We also sang some Christmas carols! (and all the women sang songs for us - beautifully.) Lovely day and looking forward to tomorrow!

Kat and Livvy!