Transnistria in Quotes
"I told her she was doing a good job. She replied, "ketchup?". – Michelle at McDonalds
"In Moldova hospital, you pay with kidney." – Sam (Read it in a Russian accent.)
"I'd just peel a raw potato and it'd make for a good movie snack." – Candice
"Is this Wicked?" – Sam ——— "It's Celine Dion!" – Michelle
After a morning of apartment renovations.
"I don't have brown poop anymore because I quit eating chocolate. It's green from going organic." – Leah
"Leah was freaking Agent Orange this morning." – Candice
"You have a weird beard." – Yuna (said more times than I can count.)
"Who was a women's rights activist?" – Leah ——– "Aretha Franklin" – Meagan
"I don't know. I am only translator." – Peter
"I wish I had Shazzam right now." – Candice ——— "Now that's a classic movie." – Sam (Apparently Shazzam is some sort of music thingy for ipods or phones.)
At a cookout with some of the wonderful families we me and got to know during our time in Transnistria.
This One Time In Transnistria…
This one time in Transnistria, Candice and I were riding one of the local transport buses into the town center when the bus's door wouldn't shut. I attempted the shut it, but the driver shooed me away, jumped out of his seat, jumped off the bus while we were moving down the road and proceeded to fix the door. Then he jumped back on the bus and proceeded to drive.
This one time in Transnistria, I rode in the back of the sketchiest ambulance someone's crazy imagination could create. Straight out of MASH. The "stretcher" was bolted to the side of the "ambulance" and held up by straps bolted to the roof.
This one time in Transnistria, we were detained at their fake border.
This one time in Transnistria, one of my teammates got in trouble from our pastor for putting on make-up. He said that "christian girls shouldn't wear make-up." Things here are much more traditional and conservative compared to any experience back home. Things like whistling and playing cards were also frowned upon.
This one time in Transnistria, we spent an afternoon playing volleyball with some of the young adults of the church here in Benderi and having a blast until the mosquitos chased us back inside.
Myself with one of the boys from our kids program.
This one time in Transnistria a drunk lady followed Leah around in the grocery store angrily telling her to get out of her country.
This one time in Moldova I was in the capital with a teammate so she could receive medical treatment for some pain she was having. One morning we had to rush off to the hospital, but we were waiting at the hotel for the taxi to show up to take us there. The receptionist behind the desk pulled out a syringe and some unknown liquid and offered it to us to inject her with.
This one time in Transnistria our team began renovations on an apartment for one of widows of th church. The apartment was about half the size of the utility room in my house back in Ohio. Our first object was to throw out the bed. As soon as we moved some of the blankets, the roaches and spiders went crawling everywhere. Possibly one of the most disturbing things I've seen knowing that she spends most of her time on that "bed." I had to try really hard not to gag at the thought of it all. We managed to get the abomination out to the trash. Within an hour, someone had taken the bed and mattress for theirselves. Good luck with that.
This one time in Transnistria, we started up an afterschool kids program to be held in front of the church. We played games and shared/acted out Bible stories. We began with just 2 kids, but were averaging 15-20 each day by the end of the month. Our highest single day total was around 30 and we probably had over 50 different kids attend over the course of the month.
This month in Transnistria, God blessed us with the most incredible translator we could have asked for. Peter couldn't have come into our team's life at a better time.
Team Monarch having fun with the window frame we found at the church.
This one time in Transnistria, Jesse and I were asked to dig a hole about three feet wide and chest deep so the church's dog could use it as a bathroom. Still scratching my head on that one.
This one time in Transnistria, the team went to Andy's Pizza for dinner and had a 14 year old girl at the table next to us completely flip out when she heard us speaking English. She was so nervous she could hardly say a word. Not to mention she was in tears from excitement and joy over the fact that we were real Americans. That was easily the biggest reaction we've seen thus far to us being foreigners.
This one time in Transnistria, I had borsch with one of the other men living at the church at the time. We sat down for our meal and he pulls out a few cloves of garlic and offers me a full pieces of it. He lets me know that I am to dip the garlic in salt and then eat the piece as a whole. I probably had half a clove of garlic all together. My immune system was probably working at sky high capacity after that.
This one time in Moldova, when at the capital with the entire squad for debrief, the hotel we were staying in for a few days told us that we needed to take more showers. They were worried that the inspector would show up and they would get in trouble because of our appearance and apparently our oder. Not to mention, we had a breakout of lice affecting roughly 10 different people on the squad. Team Monarch has escaped the infestation so far.
This entire month in Transnistria, I watched as our team made a night & day transformation in only a way that God could have orchestrated.
Myself with Jesse on the right and Peter our translator on the left at the Black Sea.
This entire month in Transnistria, our team fell hard for the different relationships we had formed with members of the church, the kids from our afterschool program, our translator, and so many others. Each month it gets harder and harder to leave.
This one time during a day trip to Odessa, Ukraine, my teammate Leah was baptized in the Black Sea by our translator Peter.
This one time in Moldova, during debrief, some of the squad got into a soccer match with a family of drunk Moldovans. You haven't seen funny until you see a bunch of people tripping over themselves, trees, and the ground itself while trying to play soccer after a day of drinking. Everyone had quite a good time playing "soccer."
This entire month in Transnistria was the first time we went without seeing/sleeping with/killing a single rodent.
This one time in Moldova, I had a chance to see my friend Andy who works in the Peace Corp here. We haven't seen each other in over two years and it was great catching up with him and getting a tour of the area/city.
This one time in Transnistria, our team found out that we would not be traveling to Mozambique with the rest of the squad. Instead, we would be spending next month working with Iris Ministries in Harare, Zimbabwe!
Team Monarch with some of the youth at the afterschool program.
