The Village of Leova

We are back to Anenii Noi and what an eye opening 2 days we have had.
We arrived at Leova close to midnight. It was kind of an erie place in the dark, but, we first went to Pastor Alexii's home where his wife met us and gave us a little snack after our long journey. Then we went to the church, a very old building to get settled in for bed. There was no running water and the bathroom was out back behind the church.
Now, in Moldova, when you say out house--it is not like those we have experienced in the US. It is a building, yes, but inside is just a hole! Try squatting over one of those with arthritic knees! Not a pretty picture! Pastor Alexii to the rescue--the next day he fashioned a "toliet" chair for us, using an old chair with no bottom and a potty seat. Now the only problem was if the chair moved, the chair leg may go into the hole. Yikes!! We had a lot of laughs about it and one of our team members, Emma, from England cracked us up about that until our sides ached. Then Igor translated for Alexii in Russian and we would laugh with him again!
All joking aside, Leova is a small village that has no running water at all. There are a few wells where everyone goes to get their water for the day. One of them is at Alexii's home and he says they come early inorder to get water--you come late and you may not get any for the day!
We visited 4 homes while we were in Leova to take them the food parcels--these particular ones were really having a hard time. The first one--the father could not work because of a back injury and his wife had gone to her doctor because she was having problems as well. They have a young son and the man's parentslive with them. The house did not have much but everything was clean and neat. They had a garden and crops they sell, so there was a lot of work to be done. The grandfather really impressed me for his deep faith in God and his belief that things would work out. At the 2nd house, a woman and her adopted son lived there. Her husband had left for a period of time to work in Russia, but he never returned, telling her he no longer wanted her or the son. She works some but does not make much money. She was happy for me to cut her and her son's hair.
While some of us were visiting, the rest of the team cleaned rust off of an iron fence enclosing the church. They planned to paint it over the next day and half.
After lunch, we invited the children from the village to come to the church. We met in a gazebo infront of the church. I told them a story about Zacchaeus and then we sang some songs in english and then they sang to us in Russian. They were so cute.
The next day the fence was finished, we made 2 more visits then packed and came back to Anenii Noi. One of those visits was to an old lady who is a member of Alexii's church. She recently received her retirement pension and she gave it to the church. I have never met a more selfless woman. She kept telling us how much she loved God and even though she had so little, she insisted on giving us some "compote"--juice--that she had made.
Tomorrow morning the 3 from Belgium leaves and it will be sad to see them go. In such a short time, I have made 3 very good friends.