Bacioi where Shelbi lives

For now I live in a small village called Bacioi that is named after a shepherd who had four daughters. Each hill in Bacioi is named after one of his four daughters. (sadly I do not know the names) We are located just south of the capital Chisinau.

This is the house I live in that belongs to Mariana and Vitalie. My room the the far right with all the windows. It has an amazing view of the hills.

 There is running water sometimes but not very often. When there is water it is just a trickle from the faucet. Instead of the faucet we use the many wells around town to cook, bathe, and drink from.

This is one of the beautiful wells in the village

you can actually see the water at the bottom of this one

There are always goats tied up everywhere grazing on the grass. Each one has a leash tied to a steak in the ground. They are used for their milk and sometimes you can see them so full of milk it's dragging on the ground! That's gotta hurt.

This is my host grandmother who is Vitalie's mother. She lives in the house with us and works so hard! Her name is Vera and she is a nurse aid at a hospital in Chisinau. At first I thought she cleaned the hospital, but then I realized she cleans the people in the hospital, lol. She is amazing and I love her. Here she is making prajole (a fried meat patty) that is delicious. I asked to visit her at work, but she said my Romanian needs to be better first, lol.

This is Mariana, my host mom who is actually a year yonger than me, so it's hard to call her mom.  She is so amazing and patient. Her 3 year old son, Marius, actually took this picture and it turned out really good. She says she only wants one more kid, but I am always telling her she needs many more.

This is Vitalie with Mariana and their car behind them. Vitalie is such a typical guy. His car is his pride and joy.

John is helping Vitalie with the rabbit hutch. We are getting a forth rabbit but I'm not sure when we will get to eat them. 

This is Vitalie with his father-in-law (Mariana's dad, Visalie). Visalie is a hoot and is always wanting John to drink more wine with him. He talks a ton and I never really understand him, but he keeps on going.

We went to church last Sunday with my family and it was very interesting and different. I didn't understand anything that was said or sang because it was all in Romanian. There were many loaves of bread, bottles of oil, and bags of rice on tables with candles lit and stuck in them. Then there was a giant chandalier thing hanging that they would pull down and put candles in. I went up to the front with my host mom I think to get blessed by the priest. He put part of his robe over my head and said something. Then he looked at me and said something else to which I replied "Thankyou." Then he realized I didn't speak the language and asked in English, "Were you baptized in the Orthodox Church?" I told him, "No, I was baptized in the baptist church." I then went on to follow my host mom. Later we took the communion of a berry soaked in wine and as I was walking away from the priest, many women shoved candy and cookies in my hands. I didn't know what they were for so I ate them. It was actually nice because we did not eat breakfast since it was Sunday, though again I don't know why.



A couple of days later church came up again and I mentioned I grew up baptist to my host mom. She said the baptists here do not believe in God, are not a religion, and are a cult. So, who knows what the priest thinks of me now, lol. This will be a future learning topic.

There are some horse and buggies around but not many. I tried to snap this picture without being too obvious.

Also last weekend we had a BBQ in the forest with my host family. It was Mariana and Vitalie, Mariana's parents and Mariana's brother and his fiance. The men actually get to do the cooking here because it has to do with fire.

This is Mariana's mom. You can see the van behind her with the doors open so we could hear the blaring Romanian music while having our picnic.

This is Marius, my 3 year old host brother. He is a mess and a half. He loves cars and pretending to drive one and pretending to be a dog and eat things. It is common here to allow children to have small amounts of alcohol. Here he is about to drink his beer.

Here is eveyrbody at the picnic

My amazing Moldovan family :)

This is the nice outhouse at the school. I only recently learned we have one at the house. I have been using the indoor toilet this whole time at the house but have learned it's better to use the outdoor one because there is no running water.

Its a one squat-er and is tiled so it is high class. We actually have an indoor toilet in the school but we haven't had running water so we use this instead.

These are the not as fancy ones. One side for feme (women) and one side for barbat (men)

A multi-squatter

Thus is life in Bacioi so far. I have really lucked out with a great village and an amazing host family. It's amazing how people can connect even though you don't know each other's language or customs. Moldovans are such hard workers and have been so accepting of us so far.