Busy day in Rezina

I am in Rezina for the week. I took a 2 hour bus ride to get here and got off a little before my actual stop but they found me eventually haha. It's been a little harder here for me, and less people speak english. Today we went to the church here and I did 8 haircuts in the 3 hours that we were there so I'm just a little worn out haha. Thursday and friday i will go to a childrens camp and help there. Then monday I will ride back to Chisinau with the team here. Pray that I would find my place here soon and that God would use me this week.

Pictures

Click here to see some pictures I've uploaded. There are some of the view of the city from where I live, the zoo, moldovan mcdonalds, and some random ones. Check it out :)

Blog Worthy

During the days here at the mission center, we work (whatever we do, for me it's haircuts all day or helping out with whatever) until about 5. Then after 5 we have free time. Usually my roomate and I cook dinner then just relax the rest of the night. But after two nights of doing completely nothing, we had to do something. We really wanted to play cards, but Christians in Moldova do not play cards. And we were told that in our packet and both didn't bring any. But we figured since it was just the two of us that it would be fine to play cards. So we took small notebook paper, kids craft scissors, and a black and red marker and make our own deck of cards. So this is the fabulous picture of our finished deck. We're so proud :) haha. Theyre definitely well appreciated since we drew out every one. I thought it was blog worthy.

Praise the Lord, I have a phone....and clippers! :)

Today has been such a busy day. This morning my roomate and I went to the zoo with one of the familes here. It was fun and gave us something to do on our day off. They didn't have very many animals on display so in a few cages they had regular cats and in another they had a dog that they said was a coyote or something haha. It definitely was a dog. Then we went to eat at mcdonalds. It's so crazy...walking into a mcdonalds here is like stepping into the U.S. Pretty much everything is the same. Cheeseburger and chips(fries) :) Then we met up with one of the girls that works at OM to go shopping. She is from here so she knows everything very well and she speaks english good too! We rode the bus for almost an hour to get to the shopping center. It was very big and nice. and air conditioned! It is like a mall with some smaller stores and a huge walmart/meijer type grocery store in it. I found some clippers for real cheap, so I'm so glad I will be able to have those to cut guys hair now! Then I asked the girl we were with if I could get a cheap phone somewhere because i wil be traveling around most of the time I am here. She told me her brother had an old one that I could buy from her for half the price. Definitely a God things. The other missionaries had told me they weren't sure I would be able to get one at all and before I came I was told they were too expensive to buy. so I'm very glad I will be able to have this with me as I travel and maybe to call home on my birthday :)

Moving to Rezina

On Monday I will be moving to a village called Rezina. One of the guys here will drive me to a bus stop somewhere and I will ride that for two hours. This makes me quite nervous actually. haha. Probably more so than flying by myself. Just because I know most if not all of the people riding the bus will not speak english. I will also have one of my suitcases with me and I dont want it to get in the way and annoy people on the bus. So just pray that on Monday I would be fine riding the bus there and get off at the right spot. I know Christ will be there right beside me the whole time so I have no need to worry.

While I am in Rezina, I think the first few days I might help out with a childrens camp type thing. Then I will cut probably the missionaries hair there...I think there are only 4 or 5 there. One of the missionaries has opened her house to orphans and wants me to cut all their hair so that will be awesome! Pray for strength,patience, and endurance as there could be many kids haircuts. haha.

I will be in the village from Monday to Monday. I dont think I will have internet there, but I'm not positive. I really have no idea what to expect there, but it will be good.

Cutting hair in Moldova

Cutting hair should be the same everywhere right? wrong. Yes, the techniques are the same and hair is hair. But the language barrier makes it difficult to understand what exactly they want their hair to look like and its hard for me to figure it out. One of the number one things we are taught to do is listen well to the client and understand what they want, but it's difficult to listen and understand when I don't understand the language. The styles are not the same here. I think I want so much for every person that walks out of my chair to love their hair and I worry that they dont or it's not exactly what they wanted or what they are used to. I think in the states when someone likes their hair a lot after I cut it they express it and here they just say thank you and leave so I'm left wondering if it was what they wanted or if I did it ok. Im sure after a while of being here I will learn the styles and see how exactly they get their hair cut. One thing that's made me laugh here is when I've tried to explain layers in the hair, all the girls just get so confused. They don't understand. So the only way to explain it is the stairsteps in the hair and they all come to me asking for the stairsteps in their hair. Now I know to ask if they want the stairsteps instead of layers. I've only done a few guys haircuts and my clippers are not working over here still so one of the girls let me borrow her from home and its different getting used to them. So pray that I wouldn't let the insecurities take up any space in my mind. Even though I know it's more about the relationships built through cutting hair, I still want them to love what I do their hair. So if it's googling Moldovan hair pictures all day or whatever, I will learn the styles here and know what is common. I know God is using me through this and ultimately that's what it's about. That what little thing I can do will further the kingdom and bring glory to Him.

The picture at the top is my "office" as they call it. haha. It's just a little bathroom that smells not so awesome lol. But it works good. And I'm glad I can have a space where they can come.

The Market and random thoughts

Yesterday my roomate and one of the other girls here and I went into town to go to the store. To get to the store we had to walk for about ten minutes up some hills then ride a bus/15 passenger that is used as public transportation. To get into the bus you have to walk through the front passenger door and hand the driver 3 lei. Then you sit down and if you need change the driver will pass the money back and it will be passed from person to person until it gets to you. The streets are not good in Moldova so it's quite a bumpy ride. It's quite a different experience from a busride home in America. After a few minutes of riding we got to the market. It pretty much looks like any regular store in the states but none of the food is familiar. To say I was a little overwhelmed is an understatement. haha. I had no idea what the price conversion was or what I would need to eat for the next week or just any clue of what to do. To get fruit you pick up a fruit, give it to someone to be weighed and then they will price it for you. Then you can go on shopping. I ended up getting some pasta, ketchup, eggs, bread, jelly, water, and some frozen dough with meat inside. Needless to say, my meals for the week will be very boring. haha.

Going on my third day here I've realized some things: the toilet paper is pink, ketchup comes in bags that look like IV bags from a hospital, the sun shines at 4 in the morning, I'm going to have awesome leg muscles from walking 4 stories of stairs atlest 10 times a day, the people here are very warm and inviting, the food here has been good, it is very hot here and not sweating is just not an option.

I'm so glad God's placed me here for now. How could I ever doubt that He always knows what He's doing? Every closed door in the past year had lead to this and as much as I wanted to change God's plans a year ago I'm glad he's brought me here.

Doing haircuts has been a really good way for me to get to know the people here! I did 7 haircuts yesterday which included 3 really energetic hilarious kids. I've done 1 haircut this morning and have 5 or 6 for the rest of the day. One of the couples here is leaving to do missions in another country so I'm going to get to teach them how to cut hair a little bit so they can do it when they leave.

I feel like I'm adjusting a little better now. My body is used to the time now and I can finally think because Im not so tired haha. I'm so glad that my computer charges here with a converter! I was sure it was going to get fried but it did charge. My clippers however are not working so well and my trimmers just stopped working altogether. So keep praying that God would work through me and use me to bring glory to Him. and that my clippers would work so i can do guy haircuts more easily! haha :)

Here is a picture of the view outside my window and my oh so creative meal of meat in dough and ketchup. If you click on the pic of the view you can see it bigger.