Helping in Moldova

Dear All, 3 Oct., 2011

We’re sorry that we have not written for a while, we have either been out of town and internet access is difficult, or we have had trouble with our internet connection.

While we spent the first part of September in Hungary, we spent the last part in Moldova. Moldova is a small country nestled between Rumania and the Ukraine. We were in the capitol of Chisinau and the 2^nd largest city Balti. To see the effect of almost 50 years of Communism rule on the people of Moldova was very interesting to say the least. Their whole system is based on dishonesty and distrust. There is little robbery, but stealing is as common as sneezing. Stealing is only bad if you get caught, and if you can get away with it, then they think it is a good thing. This makes it very hard for members of the church who are trying to be honest because their whole system takes advantage of their honesty. The people all know that the government from the lowest to the highest level is dishonest, but they accept it because that is just the way things are. Employees cheat their bosses and the bosses aren’t honest with the employees. For example, one young sister is trying to earn and save enough money to go on a mission, but it is very hard because her employers only gives her 10-15% of her salary. The rest they keep and tell her that the company had some losses so they can’t pay her the full salary. If she complains they tell her if she doesn’t like it to quit. They know she won’t because the unemployment rate is so high that getting another job will be very difficult.

We were in Moldova to cover for the humanitarian couple that returned home about a week before a Neonatal Resuscitation Training team came in to conduct 3 two day courses. The team consisted of a nurse trainer from the Univ. of Utah hospital, and administrator also from SLC, a nurse who is head of the nursing dept. at the national university in Jordan, and a neonatologist from Minneapolis. All came for 1-2 weeks donating their time to administer the course and bring about $25,000 worth of equipment which they used to teach the course and then left in the country for the local doctors to use in teaching others. The church pays for the equipment and their expenses while there, but that is all, so the church can afford to conduct many such courses throughout the world. In the 18 years that we have been keeping track of the donated humanitarian services in Moldova the church has donated over $2.7 million. Those who are receiving the training are very grateful especially when the can use that training to save the life of a new born baby. For us it was wonderful to be a part of that service, to share and to give. We took care of the local arrangement responsibilities and saw that all went smoothly. We provided for lunch and 2 snacks breaks each day. Susan’s relief society service made our jobs a snap, very busy each day, but we knew how to handle every situation. When we got back to the office our everyday responsibilities had just piled up and we had a mountain of work to do, which took a good week of 12 hour days for 5 days. This last week we reviewed and authorized almost $200,000 in humanitarian projects.

This week we also picked up our German driver’s licenses which are good for life, and we were permitted to also keep our WY. License. Normally stateside licenses have to be given to the German Government while living in Germany. Then when you return to the states you can get back your stateside license back if you render your German license back to the government. We were able to keep ours because Susan’s license gives her permission to operate a motorcycle (you didn’t know I was married to a biker chick), and mine allows me to drive up to a 11 ton truck (no I don’t have a tattoo).

Sunday night 1 week later and I’m going to include some pictures and post this blog.

Picture 1 is a statue of King Stephen who founded the Balkan empire, which at one time included 17 countries which included Hungary, Rumania Moldova, Czech etc.

Picture 2 is a picture of one of the classes learning to intubate a newborn, Dr. Rob Payne is the instructor

Picture 3 is a picture of some of the missionaries, the NRT team, and us

Picture 4 is a Picture of a beautiful fountain found in the middle of Chisinau the capital of Moldova