Saturday, December 15, 2007

Snow!

Yesterday afternoon, Joni took this picture of snow falling on our gate.
We snapped this picture this morning from the street. You can see the accumulation! And then it continued snowing most of the day.
This is looking down our street. The snow makes everything look so much nicer, and is a lot of fun.
The problem is that they do not salt, sand, or plow the roads in Chisinau. So, the sardine-can packed minibuses slip and slide trying to gain traction on hills and such. It makes the ride across down much more interesting, especially at night as roads become sheets of solid ice!
Today we attended an international craft fair hosted by the International Women's Club. I think every humanitarian and international aid organization was represented, along with representatives from over a dozen countries. International foods, music, dancing, crafts, and information about what each organization is doing. The proceeds go to various charities here in Moldova. You can read more about it here.

One of the highlights was that Peace Corps and a few other American groups were selling American books, magazines, movies, and even American food-- Campbell's Soup, Hungry Jack pancake mix, etc. That was a very big deal to the large number of ex-pats who were there.

There were also Moldovan schoolchildren performing traditional songs and dances, accompanied by Santa Claus. They went around to each booth and sang carols and blessings. Santa Claus was pretty terrifying. Joni got this good pic of him loudly bringing Season's Greetings to some foreigner.
The snow was a blessing. Overall, it was a great day and we felt like we contributed to some good causes. It's sad to think we'll be leaving here in a week; the time sure has flown.

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