Canada Day

July 3 2016. We are 2 days post Canada Day here, not that we saw any celebrations except ours, more on that later. It was a big surprise to us that no one had a Canada flag out, but we overcame our surprise. We had a special FHE night on Friday. Everyone who came received a Canada flag pin, Deb decorated the Church in Canada  colors, we played some Canada games,  ate Canadian food ( which is actually a weekly tradition for these youth) and we made a impressive power point on Canada, including pictures of Raymond, Bow Island and the Cardston temple. Hey, Pinto McBean now has new fans in Moldova. One of the games was seeing how many sticks one could balance on the back of ones hand, and then dropping and catching them. One got 5. Then we did a Bella Coola game, ring on a string and most importantly, floor hockey with rolled up newspapers. People are very competitive here. Oh the slide show, one picture was of hockey , Canada  beating USA in the Olympics. Just had to be done. It is still very hot with the occasional cloud burst. Today we drove thru about 12-18 inches of water for about a kilometer, in a low spot, rather exciting. Thankfully, unlike many other cars, we did not stall. Lots of heat though and oh so humid! Crops in the farmland are really growing, especially the sunflowers of which there are literally hundreds of fields. We had our closest miss this week in a car, inches from a head on collision, a crazed Mercedes driver. Other than near death, not too bad, helped one couple move to a new place, helped with some lessons, and taught several classes. So what do you eat on Canada Day? Well, in Moldova, you eat beaver tails, or fritters or scones. We made a big bunch, from scratch, and thought we had way too many. We also bought a big watermelon and cut it up. Well, we had over 35 to FHE and the beavertails, some with sugar, some with jam or nutello, were gone in minutes. They looked tasty, not that we had any. I guess it is a sign of success that we have such a growing group, but these old people are really searching for ideas.  The food, they will just devour anything homemade here. We had 4 YSA for dinner today, and needless to say, there are few leftovers. I am not sure if I am a good cook or not, it really does not matter. The missionaries without air conditioning, they are just roasting each day. We learned today that the proper way to wash dishes is not to fill the sink with water, but to have the water running continually and keep the soap on the side. Oh, another highlight, Peggy Plumb from SLC, sent some baking supplies over. We got Cream of tartar, vanilla extract and coconut and taco seasoning. She is an angel, but she sent enough volume that we may have to stay 4-5 years to use it all up.

The sunflowers are starting to bloom, another week and the country side will be very yellow. They are harvesting winter wheat this week.

A shepherd on some public land. What we found out this week, when they get the sheep home, they get milked and the milk is made into cheese. Imagine milking a sheep and I used to complain as a boy about a cow.

Kind of interesting, the horse waiting for the farmers, and they are out hoeing corn. Many of the farm workers are quite old, like our age.

We see the odd baler here, but most hay is cut with a scythe, and thrown by hand on wagons like this. It was quite  a big load. They were on a main highway.

Ring on a string game, person in the middle gets 3 guesses as to where the ring is, and it is supposed to move frequently, not everyone got that concept.

 A couple of pics of floor hockey , Moldovan style. Elder Jerome from Raymond is center on both pics, he has that Raymond competitiveness with sports. By the way,parents and family, his language is great and he is a great missionary.

One of our walking paths in the forest, all these trees have been planted, oaks and maples.

Apricots are on, this tree is not far from our home, they are for sale everywhere. Cost, about 50-60 cents a kilo. You can find enough public trees to pick , if you wish.

This is an example of the very small individual stores out among the apartment blocks, very specialized, very plentiful, very Russian.

There are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere, often with very little protection from the sun. This operator stands behind her fruit. Peaches are also coming on.

Path between buildings, often old asphalt, usually crumbling. The white van on the left is a maxi taxi, on of the main ways to transport people. Oh, the buses are a little pungent in the heat.

School in the neighborhood, no parking lot, in fact you cannot drive up to the school, only paths are available. The sign say welcome, all student are gone for the summer.

The neighborhood, lots of highrises and blocks for a country boy and girl. This is part of one of our walking paths.

This is what you use to keep people from parking in your spot. They lock upright, and then fold down when you unlock them. These are everywhere.

Another small fruit shop, and the very small one is a cigarette shop. These are very hot, confined and usually busy. They are everywhere.
So we are in the heat of summer. We found out our air conditioner drips on the neighbors canopy and was keeping everyone awake below us, so now we have a bucket on the dumb thing until we figure out a solution. Galeată, a bucket is. When it rains heavy, it rains buckets here, not cats and dogs. Makes more sense. We tied a string on our bucket so it really does not rain buckets on a unsuspecting passerby.