Transfers, parades and service

May 15, 2017   It is a beautiful day in Moldova after a day of heavy rain. They do get a lot of moisture in this country,but it is so beautiful here in the spring, green everything. Already the land is recovering from the onslaught of snow and the crops look great. Radishes are here, cucumbers from the green houses are for sale and the first strawberries from southern countries arrived. We can hardly wait for the Moldovan produce, it is fabulous! Well, we learned this week, or rather a sister missionary learned this week that having bullets as souvenirs on a plane is rather foolish and is not looked upon favorably by security. I had taken 3 missionaries to the airport early  Tuesday morning, to catch a plane, one to go home to America. She has packed a couple of bullets in her luggage, they were found, she was detained questioned, her luggage was taken out, and in the end, she and the other two missed their flights. We did some scrambling to get her on her way home, and to get the other two where they needed to be. I guess we all bit the bullet, that trip was shot and they were all a little shell shocked. Just think, kids. We have a few new missionaries again, we now have a Swede and I am sure his pictures will soon grace the blog. He spoke some Swedish to me, to see how good my Norwegian memory was. Answer,not that good. I was going to speak some Norwegian and it all gets mixed up in my old brain with Romanian. It was Victory day on Tuesday here, so the country had 2 days of holiday, there were parades on Sunday and also Tuesday, we got pictures of one of them. It was a commemoration of the Victory over the German army in WW2. It was very Russian though, but it seems here that all politicize the day for their own purposes. Have not seen that in Canada on November 11. One interestng tradition- people take flowers to the monument area and there was a huge pile of flowers at the remembrance area- flower of choice- a red carnation. We took members and missionaries to a school, to do some service, painting and tree trimming. I did a lot of hedges with an old pair of hedge clippers, but still enjoyed it immensely. It was a good branch activity, we just could not let that one get away. It seemed to be a week of a lot of driving here and there. We had a trip to Dancu to see our friend Fratele Paduraru, we just love that man. We bought him new glasses this week, he was like a kid in a candy store, could see again.  So there will be pics from the service activity, and some from the parade.

Here is Deb and Sister Langenstein, picking up leaves. This is how grass and leaves are picked up here, with a blanket.

Deb with a Moldovan broom, they seem to not realize that a long handle is a good thing. This is the size you see people on the streets and sidewalks sweeping with.

Just could not leaf this alone.

Young Bobby Covali, who knows all about attitude.

His dad, Sergei Covali, the district president.

Zlata, spelled wrong , a cute little girl who we  love. She can eat and eat and eat, but look at her slimness.

Evgeny Bekker, ex missionary and Elder Soloviov

Was it hard to see me with the camo?

The next several pictures are of a parade on Victory day, sponsored by the Democratic party of Moldova. Many of these parade participants are paid.

The band was very good.

All along the route, there were guards and police on the edges, to keep control. Any public event has huge nmbers of police.

The question is , do any look happy? I thought they needed to throw some candy or something.

3 flags, the Moldova flag, the EU flag and the Democratic party flag.  Again, see the guards.
In the background of this parade was a band, O-zone, apparently a famous Moldova band. If loud is fame, then they were good.