Paștele Blajinilor (Memorial Easter)

In the Moldovan Orthodox Church they celebrate Easter for the dead.  Everyone from the village that has a loved one in the cemetery.  They clean the cemetery a week or 2 before and then either Sunday or Monday (depends on where you live) after Easter you take baskets of food, house wine, sweets, fruit with about 2 cups.


 At the cemetery they set up bowls with a few snacks in, a towel, candle and red egg. They have a few of these that they give away. They set up food on the table cloth on the grave or the table that they have next to the grave.  They talk to everyone around the cemetery and wait for the priest to come around and give a blessing over the grave and then they give away the bowls of food to friends, then people come over and share the food and wine at your table.  Below are some of the pictures from today. It was a beautiful day and so nice to see the whole village come together to remember those who have gone before them.

A view from the top of the hill that the cemetery is on that overlooks to the Ukraine. 

You can see the tablecloth with the food on. The blessing cost $ too...

 Our host family at the grave of Bunica's husband who was 49 when he had a heart attack while making delivery to the Ukraine.  Her sister died 3 days later of heart attack also. 

 Gifts given from strangers. The poor people (gypsies) from Ukraine came over and collected food from many people in the cemetery .                                                                                                  What it looked like shortly after the blessings were done.            

The gifts given to us. A beautiful tradition which we were happy to be included in. 

 Love from Moldova, Marcy and Tom

Kiev, Ukraine

 The arch of the Soviets to show the friendship they share.  It was built before the Soviets took Odessa or started the war on Ukraine border...

We booked a private tour of Kiev on our way home for our 6 hour layover. A young man and his father ( the driver) met us and below you will see what we saw.

 First Micheal the archangel that watches over the people of Ukraine. 

 The original founders of Ukraine. 3 brothers and a little sister from Scandinavia

 Now it gets confusing because we saw so much in such a short amount to time I could not keep everything straight.  Because of this and our short time there we plan to make another trip to the N of us and see more of the country and people. . Ukraine unlike Poland (Catholic) but like Moldova is orthodox with a church or monastery on every bloc. Many were reclaimed after the Soviets left. The Soviets often used the houses of worship as storage buildings.

 Easter markets were going on in the squares of the churches. They had large wooden eggs they gave to artists to paint and the squares were full of them.

Some of the good things that were offered at the Easter markets. Below you have another tradition of painted eggs. You must touch 10 of them as you walk down the row to have good luck! 

One of the churches with the Easter market. Below some of the food we ate.  Very good! There is more to come but it is time for a walk.  Love from Ukraine.  Mard

Easter & Poland

Easter Brunch with host family the ladies have cooked and baked all week without eating any of it. They fast from eggs, meat, fish and milk products during lent, in the  orthodox faith.They fast and have a lot of rules that we may have had when i was growing up. I don't see the catholic faith doing now. 

Easter bread made with eggs and milk in the shape of a cross on the top. This bread is taken to the monastery or basilica at 11:30pm and the people pray until 4am when the priest blesses the food (a basket with bread, red eggs, some meat, house wine and food that will be eaten at the Easter meal. We got up at 3:15 to walk to the monastery. As we were walking many people were walking back already. I asked the kids if service was over and they said no. But, when we got here it was over! So we had a lovely walk in early morning of Easter.  It was cloudy so we didn't see the full moon either.

School was on vacation now for a week and a Monday so Tom and I headed to Chisinau to catch a plane to go and visit Poland. We had a flight to Warsaw and then we trained down to Krakow.

 We belong to a group called Couchsurfers where you request to stay with people in their home and they host you for a day or 2.  It is a site that you have to fill out a profile for and then people look at your profile agree or turn down your request.  We were invited to stay with a young woman from Krakow in her apartment for the week.  She is a law student and her girlfriend is studying to be a chef for the family restaurant in Krakow. Joasia made us traditional Polish foods, helped us buy our tickets, came on the bus with us when we went to the thermal springs on the Slovakia border, told us of great places to go and the times to go to avoid crowds, where free events were in the city, she was wonderful and witty and a lot of fun and spoke Polish which is the 3 most difficult language in the world as well as English. . We understood nothing in Polish, Joasia was a gift!!!    

Below you will see random pictures taken in Krakow on very cold days with freezing rain and snow. 

 Central square of old town inside the city gate, St Mary's Church behind where a trumpet is played to mark the hour from all four directions of the tower. Below is the church of the 12 apostles.

 Memorial to the king who united Poland in the 13 or 1400's, and below is the Warwal castle. Krakow was not hit by bombs in the
                 II World War so the old stuff is old stuff

 This is one of the few original places of the Jewish district of Krakow. The area use to be slummy but is being re-gentrified and is now restaurants and shops and very clean and cute.

 A bridge connecting the 2 sides of the river Krakow is built on. Below is a photo from the bell tower of Wawal Castle's Cathedral. 

Now we go to Warsaw. The town was completely leveled by bombs during the war, There are a few corners on buildings that are original but not much else.It has been recreated post WWII from paintings done before the war. The history was interesting but not like Krakow. below are the pics from there.

 Any one know who this guy is? Hint he is from Poland, Look at what he holds in his L hand...

 This bench plays Chopin's music they have them in the old (new) district of Warsaw .

 Memorials built by the soviets when they were the occupiers after the war.

 The old central square that is really only 60 years old.

 An Easter display in one of the old churches that I thought was interesting...

 The little mermaid. She and the mermaid in Copenhagen are sisters and both are viewed as protectors of the City they are found in.

 This is a replica wall of the old Warsaw ghetto. And below is the court of justice with a memorial to the Poles that tried to fight the Germans while the Soviets sat across the river and waited to help until the Germans took Warsaw.

 We had one day in Warsaw and then had a 6 hour lay over in Kiev, Ukraine.  The next blog tells of our day in Kiev and then back in Moldova.  Love from Poland... Marc

Signs of Spring and what that means

School gets the afternoon off to clean up the grounds around it, and the stadium ( soccer field that needs a lawn mower) Tom came along to help and these are some pictures of the afternoon. The truck is what most trucks here look like, the old Soviet leftovers, they still run but aren't real comfortable...

Yes, the woman on the end has on a dress and shiny shoes.  She worked in them with us.  Teachers here look frumosa (beautiful) for all occasions! I haven't got the hang of that yet... 

 The sure signs of spring the cherry trees in bloom with the tulips!

We spent the morning at my language teachers father in laws. He has a huge garden on top of the hill that overlooks the Ukraine crossing. He grows strawberries, (capsuina) and sells at the market, so I am finding my sources of fresh fruit. 

The goats are having babies, I have not seen sheep here much but many people have a (capri) along with the ducks and chickens.  The baby goats skip around and are fun to watch. 

A good gospodina (house wife) in Moldova takes everything out of the house every spring and cleans and beats all the rugs. They hang rugs on the walls too. So, Tom helped, and the ladies I live with are surprised that men from America help with the house work.  I told them I married well!!! 

Easter Lesson!  A woman in our Methodist Church in New Ulm funded an Easter egg hunt here in Moldova.  I used the ressurection eggs with the hunt so we could remind the kids of the reason for Easter (Pastele) . First I bought 100 eggs to dye. The kitchen ladies helped me.  They dye eggs here to but only red because the orthodox tradition has it that Mary didn't know Jesus was being crucified and she had been at the market and bought eggs that she put at the foot of the cross and some blood got on them and dyed them red. We had alot of red and a few green, blue and yellow.

 The Baptist pastor at the church we attend speaks excellent Romanian so he came to help with the hiding and the explanation of the Resurrection cards and the story.  We did this activity in class 3,4,5. My partner teacher is seen here with Pastor David and the charge to GO!

You can see more cherry trees in bloom on the hill.  This is the view from my classroom window.

The kids had a great time and the rain didn't come as was forecast!  Thank you Jesus! 

Back in classroom, the special numbered eggs had a Bible verse matched card that the kids read and then David talked about the props that went with the card. The kids were so attentive, and so impressed that an American could speak such good Romanian.

This was the 3 grade, you can see the fun they had on their faces. Someday's it feels good to be a teacher!
 Hristos invatat!
Adeverat de invat!
Christ has risen!
He is risen indeed!
The greeting given for the next 40 days...Happy Easter!!!  Love from Moldova