April 21-22nd

Salut!!!!!!

April 21, Monday

-Went to the Hospital again to visit Raisa, made friendship bracelets with her and the girls in her room, she'll be having her TB test very soon

-Stopped by the store and Stella's House 2 to get some measurements for furniture, etc.

-Went to a Bible study with Costanza and Irena, dinner, hung out with the girls watching the second part of Anne of Green Gables. Melody left to go back to the states. Leah and I slept over at the house again

April 22, Tuesday

-Woke up fairly early, took the bus back to our apartment, got some good sleep, had an off day, chilling at the apartment, catching up on my pictures finally! some cleaning, etc. and will be back to the house with the girls tomorrow.

Big hello to all my friends just getting back from Iceland. I love you guys! Hope you had fun!!!! Write me!!!....Goodnight!!!!

Apartment *CLICK ON THE BIG PICTURES TO VIEW ALBUMS*

Photobucket Album

Cupcui Orphanage

Photobucket Album

Chisnau Countryside

Photobucket Album

Random Pics

Photobucket Album

April 20th

Hello Hello!

So last night Leah and I slept on the very comfortable couch's at the house, got up early to take a bus back to our apartment to get showers and ride the bus back to the house to ride to church with the girls, since we didn't exactly know where it was yet, we still don't, lol.



Anyway so we're trying to hurry and get ready, I took a shower and was in the other room getting ready and Leah gets done with her shower and all a sudden I hear a huge crash! I was like um Leah? Are you ok? she replied the sink fell! I was like omg did it break? she was like, break is an understatement!...so she was bout to get out of the shower, slipped, grabbed the sink that we were warned was loose, and it came crashing down into lots of pieces, shown below, lol. She cut her finger really bad in the process, I had to run and get her paper towels. Anyway, it wan't so funny at the time but now we're both cracking up about it! Oh Leah...LOL!!!!! Hey, it makes a great story! hee hee, anyway the people who own the apartment are fellow missionary americans, so no biggie, I guess, lol. How does she always manage to have the greatest stories? LOL!

Went to church where we had an interpreter, today is palm sunday for them and next week is easter. It was good, everyone we met were extremely nice, the worship is great! We were singing along in English since we knew the songs. :)

Walked to Mc Donald's after church, it tastes the same as in the states, the coke was stronger. But it was huge and was very very cool! After eating we poked around in some of the stores, all the clothes are so expensive, wow! And took a very very very long walk around the city trying to figure out a bus route to get Leah and I from our apartment to church on sundays but after like 3 miles we pretty much gave up and will just meet up with the girls at the house and ride in with them, lol.



We came back to the house, chilled, taught the girls how to make friendship bracelets, etc. Then took the bus to our home sweet apartment :)

Hope everyone is well! Please pray for Leah's finger, lol. Goodnight and will write soon!

April 18-19th

Buna Ziua! (pronounced boonuh zeewah- Good day)

April 18th Friday

-Went to the hospital in the morning with some of the girls to visit Irina’s older sister Raisa. She has been there since early February with TB. She has another TB test soon to see if she will be released to come back home to Stella’s House. We’re all praying she will!

-Went to Stella’s House 2 to see the progress of it, still a fair amount to be done but it’s a beautiful big house with three stories! Leah and I will be helping with that house as well, painting, etc. About four of the girls from Stella’s 1 will be going over there when it’s finished along with a bunch of girls being held in the Straseni orphanage near Chisnau. That’s the orphanage that had very poor windows that Philip Cameron Ministries came in and put in all new windows so the kids wouldn’t freeze at night. Leah and I should be able to go there soon. They have around 500 kids but we’ll go to visit with the older girls who will be going to Stella’s 2 soon.

-Drove to Cupcui orphanage in the afternoon. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous! Green sloping hills, vineyards, horse and buggies, sheep, so picturesque!!! Melody said some of it reminds her of Scottland. The orphanage is an hour and a half away from Chisnau with about 50 kids living there. It only took a few minutes for the kids to warm up and when they did they sure didn’t leave us alone! They are adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fell in love with them! They don’t even care that you can’t speak their language, a little love and attention and they love you! Love is a universal language after all! We were there around 3 hours, running around with the kids, teaching them hand claps, playing red rover, passing out candy or copii. Just simply loving on them! I had a blast! When we had to leave the kids got so sad, clinging to us, asking if we’d be back tomorrow, completely surrounding our van and then running after us! OMG!!!!! I loved it so much and can’t wait to be back, which will be almost every weekend, yay!

-We stopped by the mission house, used to be Stella’s 1, to use the bathrooms, then drove back to Chisnau singing worship songs with the girls. We had a bit to eat and Leah and I stayed the night at Stella’s House since it was too late to catch a bus to our apartment.

April 19th Saturday

-Today was a pretty chill, we slept in, hung out a little bit, took a bus back to our apartment to take showers and eat. Then Leah and I got to take our first bus ride by ourselves in the city. It was fine, but we were a tad nervous since the day before while with the house mom and Melody on the bus was so crowded! You can sit in the bus, it has about 12 seats crammed in there but then people can stand and they cram them in there too. You really gotta watch your things, the house mom got her phone stolen but she realized it and demanded it back from the guy, lol. But no worries, just like any city, you gotta be careful with your things. Leah and I will be doing that mornings and nights, it’s only 3 leu (30 cents). The buses run till 9 so if we’re here later we’ll have Anitol drive us back or just stay the night with the girls. That’s what we’re doing again tonight.

-Four of the kids that graduated from Stella's 1 last year visited today. Olga, 18, who is now working in a clothing factory, hung out with me tonight and taught me lots of Romanian! She is a very sweet funny girl! We had fun and they'll hopefully be here every weekend.

Well we're bout to watch a movie, write more later! :)
te iubesc! (I love you!) ~Elise

April 15-17th

Salut! (Hi in Romanian)

I hope all is well with everyone in the States! I miss it! Ok, not really, lol. I'm having a wonderful time here and doing well besides the jetlag, lol. Sorry I haven't been able to start my blog till now, my converter has been in my missing luggage that arrived today, yay. So anyway, here's a run down of what I've been doing so far:

April 15th-16th, Tuesday- Wednesday

-Flew out of home sweet home at 6pm, arrived in Washington DC 2 hrs later, small layover & we were off on our 8 hr flight to Frankfurt, Germany on a really big really nice plane :), small layover till we boarded our last plane, arrived a few hours later in beautiful Chisinau, Moldova!

-Melody, Phillip Cameron's daughter, and two of the girls (Costanza and Irena) were there to greet us. After messing with our lost piece of luggage deal we went to Stella's House to meet the girls. They are all so very sweet! Greeting us with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, I love them already! We had dinner with the girls, mac and cheese and chicken, yum, and were later brought to our apartment in the city.

-We were a little nervous at first until we found we were in the wrong apt building, that one was a little sketchy, lol. but relaxed when we saw our very nice apartment! Leah and I are living with two American girls. Shauna, a 23 year old who's already been here for 8 months. She's here as a teacher for an American family's children, she is very sweet and helpful to us newby's. And another girl, Sara will be arriving tomorrow.

-So Wednesday night we unpacked, settled in, and SLEPT!!!! Thank you Jesus! We were so tired! I slept almost till 1! lol, but it was well needed. I'm gonna sleep really well tonight that's for sure!

April 17th, Thursday

-Thursday they picked us up bout 2pm to run errands. Exchanged money, went to the store for groceries, picked up our luggage, not bad only losing one 1 out of 4 though, lol. Someone had grabbed ours thinking it was theirs and brought it back this morning, yay.

-Went to Stella's House, hung out with the girls and house parents, Anitol and Nina. They don't speak much English but are very nice and helpful! They have two young sons, the youngest I've already fallen in love with! & the smallest, oddest, but cutest little dog named Coa Coa

-Had dinner with the girls, played cards, they taught us some more Romanian words, we're gonna learn 5 a day, hopefully, lol. and they took us back to our apartment.

Driving around today in the day light and flying in yesterday, I've seen how beautiful Moldova is! It's very flat, but very green and peaceful in the countryside. In the city you can see the poverty and age of Chisinau, it was founded in 1436! Wow! But the streets in the city are poorly paved, lots of litter in some areas, apartment buildings with rust and broken windows, etc. But then right next door to that will be a brand new ritzy looking building. So it really just depends.

Driving in the city sure is interesting! They don't have lanes so cars are just whipping and jerking around, honking, when opposing traffic isn't coming, the cars will just spread out, lol! it's a little scary but very funny and entertaining! lol. The police don't stay in cars but you will occasionally see them standing in the street and will flag you down to get a ticket, lol. City buses are everywhere and very cheap, Leah and I will be using those daily once we get into the routine of things.

Although it's a poor country the people are very stylish, walking the streets in the cute dressy clothes, wearing stilettoes, nice hair, lol. I feel really underdressed when I'm in the city, lol. Oh well :)

The weather has been really nice, cool spring, they have 4 seasons just like we do, just more extreme. The winters are colder and the summers are hotter. But this really is the perfect time of y ear since air conditioning is not common.

Exchange rate: $1 is bout 10 Leu's, prices are about the same as the states, bread is like 30 cent, the government made that happen so everyone can afford bread, and it's really good too! Some things are more expensive, clothes I've heard are very pricey, but food and resaurant's are fairly cheap. so that's good.

I can't think of any other random facts, but I'm sure will have more for ya soon.Well it's about 1:30am here (8 hours later than Central time) so I'm getting to bed, I'll be posting pics soon. Tomorrow we're going to the orphanage in Cupcui, I'm sooooo excited and i know will have stories to tell! till then!