Field report from Norvell Van Coots.

This year’s trip began no differently than any other. I boarded the Austrian Airlines flight in anticipation of a smooth trip to Vienna, but concurrently dreaded the five hour layover while awaiting the final leg to the airport in Chisinau, the Moldovan Capital. I considered myself prepared, the Vienna airport being well known to me as the transfer point on at least the last 6 trips, however no matter the books, the lectures on mp3 player, and my travel pillow, the airport is relatively uncomfortable with few places to sit, and where there is seating it is hard metal mesh. None the less I made it through what seemed more like ten hours to board, to my surprise, instead of a Canadair propeller driven commuter plane, but what was now a small jet! Apparently international interest in Moldova has generated enough visitors that the servicing airlines have upgraded their fleets to commuter jets. And so the adventure began…

Day 1. Saturday. It was a lovely sunny and mild afternoon upon arrival in Moldova, the fields viewed as the aircraft made its final approach for landing were all lush and green, and there was no hint of impending Fall. I was met by my translator and God-Daughter, Rodica Elitsa, and once in a taxi was happily on my way to her sister, and our country coordinator, Dr. Angela Curtean’s apartment for a Welcome to Moldova dinner. There I received an informal briefing on the past year of the project, the political environment in Moldova, and any changes that might be impending due to Moldova’s attempts to meet requirements for inclusion in the European Union. The Western Europeans would like to end the system of orphanage-boarding schools and develop a system of foster homes, or a pay system to return children to the homes of relatives for a government stipend. The problem is that for that type of system to work in the poorest country in Europe, there would need to be a strong social services program in place in each of the villages. None such exists. As a compromise Moldova has agreed to close some orphanages, ten this year, return the children to their homes or the homes of relatives; but in a hard lesson learned after they closed the first few, they will leave the orphanages open as day schools providing three meals a day, an education, and extracurricular activities for the children who will then return to their village homes effectively only to sleep. During the dinner we also planned the sequence of visits and events during the ten days that I had on the ground. I then went to the apartment of a relative from whom I was renting the space for the week to unpack and get organized and finally lay down to rest. The next morning, Fall had arrive in force as it was cold, gray, and overcast and it remained that way, with periods of heavy rain, for the rest of the trip. This actually made the trip somewhat gloomy this year.

Day 2. Sunday. An easy day to rest after the long trip, greet other members of the Curtean family, do some strategic planning for the coming year, and go to the nearby Blue monastery for a special evening service.

Day 3. Monday. We went to the nearby Orphanage at Orhei, the director himself a graduate of the school some 50 years ago, who is as proud of the carpet making workshop there as he is his own initiative to raise bees for honey. He is very successful in this endeavor as each child trained in bee keeping gets a hive and “bee family” upon their graduation so that they can supplement their income with a honey business. The carpet program there is very mature and the instructor is truly an expert. The looms are rented from Dr. Peter Grosdev, and he will periodically serve as our subject matter expert on the quality of the carpets. He has some additional needs . He would like a covered swimming pool for the children to use to learn to swim. This is going to cost Lei 700,000, or roughly $59,000. Additionally he would like to be able to visit the US with 2-3 of the most talented students each year.

Day 4. Tuesday. This was Teacher’s Day all across Moldova, so there was no point in going to any orphanages as most of the teachers and directors would be away. So we spent the time in Downtown Chisinau and met a few folks who might be influential as the next set of national elections will be held at the end of November.

Day 5. Wednesday. The day started early as we decided to head to the South of the country in order to visit our three orphanages there, two of which are in the Gaugazian autonomous region. This is a region of Moldovans who are more ethnically Turkish, are Christian, and speak more Russian than Romanian. As a matter of fact, most people in this region would rather that Moldova return to being a part of the Russian Empire rather than being part of the European Union. We arrived first at Leova, whose Director is truly wonderful. Due to the EU rules the school currently only has 220 children, significantly reduced from the more than 400 in previous years. The project is doing well there, with workshops for both carpets as well as textiles and wood working. The Director has a vision to educate the children professionally for integration into the greater society. She is slowly converting the school into a day center, but using our projects and several that were developed locally, into a VOTECH model and is currently working to get permission to give vocational technical degrees to graduates of the school. The students have participated in several expositions in St Petersburg, Russia, taking 2nd and 3rd place in dance and music, and 2nd place for the best overall exhibit. They also took 1st place in a creativity competition sponsored by Holland, this competition highlighted the woodworking and textile worships which we run. She would like for us to take over a building built by the government of Italy which was used as a playtime center for younger children, and would now be used as a center for families with children with severe disabilities and would become a sort of occupational therapy for the children. The anticipated cost of this would be $1100 per month. I did no commit us to this due to the cost, however should we become well endowed or receive a special grant, we can consider adding this to our work there. The woodworking shop, one of the best that we have needs new tools. The Director has also asked us to buy some tools for the shoe repair training program. The children have been making their own tools, and have been repairing all of the other children’s shoes, thus saving the orphanage the cost of contracting out for shoe repair.

The next site visited was Cahul. There a EU grant for Euro 300,000 has allowed the center to develop into a VOTECH center and to build a building housing social apartments for student who have graduated but who have not yet become situated in school or in the work force. There are psychologists assigned to the social apartment building to help the graduates learn to manage money and to set them up with additional life skills until they can become fully independent. She has asked us to find a sponsor willing to rebuild their decrepit sports stadium for use for physical education classes.

Finally, we made it to Ceadir-Lunga, in the heart of Gaugazia. The carpet and wood working programs are doing exceptionally well, so much so that both workshops won 1st place in a competition held in Comrat, and they routinely give gifts to visiting dignitaries and representatives from international agencies which consist of wood and carpet creations from our workshops. They did not have any specific needs but thanked us for all of our continuing support.

Day 6. Thursday. The day started a little later as we were traveling to two of our earliest program sites, Straseni, which was the site of a US military built clinic in 1999-2000 which I had a part in while assigned in Germany, and Casanesti. Both sites are doing very well. Straseni has been supported by small grants from the International Womens Club of Moldova, made up of women from the various embassies and socialites from Moldovan society in Chisinau. They have participated in an exhibition sponsored by the IWCM, and will have a booth at the holiday expo sponsored by the IWCM on 4 December. They need additional tools for burning designs into wood, several gallons of liquid lacquer for finishing off wood projects, and due to the expertise of the textile and carpet instructor who hosts training seminars for other vocational instructors, they would also like to have a laptop computer with a proxima projector. I think that this will be worth the investment.

Day 7. Friday. We headed out to the orphanages in the North part of the country, specifically to Balti, which is a major city predominantly of ethnic Russians, to Carpineni, and then on to Grinautsi-Moldova. Balti has carpet, textile and woodworking programs, all of which are doing very well. They need assistance with purchasing new sewing machines as most of theirs are more than 40 years old. At Carpineni they had been without running water for a week due to a broken valve in the main water line. They also discussed a problem that they have had with a Rotary Club project sponsored by Switzerland. This project would have provided a dedicated gas line to the school for use in heating and cooking. They were to provide a document guaranteeing that municipal gas lines would extend to the site of the orphanage by 2008. The project would then provide the linkage to the school. The document was provided, however the village ran out of money and the municipal lines did not make it to the school until 2010. The Swiss Rotarians saw this as failure to act and subsequently cancelled the project. The project cost was Lei 100,000, or $8,547.00 . I have promised to speak to one of the US Rotarians who works with charities in both Moldova and Romania and is well connected in Rotary Club circles. Hopefully he can broker a favorable solution. Carpineni laid out quite a feast for me for lunch, and even though the preventive medicine doctor in me was worried about the food at a site without running water, I cautiously ate the food with the most steam being produced, and drank a cup of hot tea. I would come to regret this decision.

The final stop of the day was Grinautsi-Moldova in the far North. This orphanage houses children with mild mental retardation. The Director is young and full of hope and promise and has done a tremendous job. Since last year the facility has been upgraded with windows and a flush toilet in the clinic area, and each of the buildings has a fresh coat of paint in different pastels. The children still use an outhouse as there are no working toilets in any of the dormitory buildings, but they look healthy and are happy. The small building constructed specially for the woodworking and ceramics workshops looks good. The carpet workshop is improving, but I understand that it is harder for children with special needs to keep their attention focused on the intricate and repetitive work in carpet weaving than it is to keep them focused on working with clay. He is doing so very well with his initiative and drive to help the children that we really would like to help him in any way possible. We still hope to establish a shoe repair program and need a sponsor or grant for the $6000 that it will take to set up and sustain the program.
Some of his needs include the following:
1. Lei 2500 ($213) to replace a water pipe from the well
2. the medical clinic still needs basic instruments
3. playground equipment
4. new doors in all of the buildings
5. insulation for the above ground pipes
6. physical education clothes
7. school supplies
8. repair of the walls in the dining facility
9. a clothes changing room next to the shower
10. a digital video camera with zoom
11. an inflatable swimming pool for the summer Lei 1000 ( $85)
12. physical therapy/ kinesiology equipment
13. basic construction equipment
14. the microbus used to transport the students needs repair.

By the time we arrived back in Chisinau, the food at Carpineni had caught up with me, and I became ill. Thankfully I travel with my own personal pharmacy in a bag, and so I began taking medications to combat the symptoms and the bacteria that had caused them I had to be well for Saturday as we were participating in a ceremony with the Association of Moldovan Nobles who are partnering with us in the hopes of opening a craftsmanship workshop and cultural center in Chisinau to partner talented children with adult master craftsmen in order to sharpen their techniques. The ceremony was also to be a small exhibition of the works of the children from our 10 orphanages.

Day 8. Saturday. Though dehydrated and still a bit ill, I dressed in my tuxedo with all of my honors received for my years of work in Moldova, and headed by taxi to the National Library. There I was met by Count Leonid Akulov, the president of the association, and several other members. The ceremony went well, we had several dignitaries including the wife of the US Ambassador to Moldova present, and everyone was duly impressed with the works of the children. I went back to the apartment to rest and continue to take medicine and drink special rehydration concoctions.

Day 9. Sunday. I awoke feeling a bit better, and good thing as we were to head back up North near Edinet to visit the site of our very first workshop, the orphanage at Cupcini. This is run by a wonderful couple who have adopted me as their “brother”. This year they had a special sheepskin for me as a gift and several ceramic figures made in the projects ceramics workshop. The carpet making workshop and wood working shop are still doing very well making the necessities for the orphanage as opposed to decorative items. This school is another of the sites designated to cease being a boarding school and to turn into a day center. The Director, Valery Gudumac, shares the same sentiments that he will need to continue to provide the necessities to the children who will do nothing more than sleep at home or at the homes of friends or relatives. He has asked simply that we continue the programs uninterrupted regardless of the future form the orphanage takes. There will continue to be a need in the years to come in Moldova.

Day 10. Monday. The last day in Moldova was spent finalizing plans to ship back to the USA numerous items collected from each of the orphanages in order to use them for fund raising exhibitions. We then held the usual farewell dinner with family and friends.

Day 11. Tuesday. Departure from Moldova on Lufthansa, also by jet. While on the flight an American passenger became ill. I volunteered to assist with supportive care duing the flight from Chisinau to Munich, and for that Lufthansa was gracious enough to reward me with an upgrade to business class. I subsequently gave away my seat to the husband of a Moldovan lady who was sitting next to me, and took his seat three rows up. This proved to be beneficial as my travel companion was a very interesting American businessman, who believes in charity and in children’s charities. We talked for several hours during the flight to Washington and became friends, and when we landed he reached into his wallet and pulled out more than $1000 and handed it to me saying simply, “use this to help the children.” So, one good deed leads to another, and the trip ended on a very high note. All together, despite my illness, the trip was very worthwhile. We are doing good works there in Moldova, and we are truly appreciated for anything and everything that we do.

Cheers,

Van Coots, MD
President, Project Moldova Inc.