Slobozia Mare Village Gets Clean Water!

Only 3 days after arriving in Moldova, Fred and Mariam Kitchen came with us to the most southern part of the country to attend Slobozia Mare's closing ceremony. It was "only" 3.5 hours one way but they were great about it. The Kitchens are serving as the Young Single Adult/CES missionaries in Chisinau for 2 years. They left 7 children back in the United States to come here and serve the wonderful young adults of Moldova.

The contractors that did the work, the mayor and her secretary, and Raion inspectors. The mayor is the lady standing next to Toni.

Elder Kitchen gladly received fresh apples from one of the ladies who now has running water.

The lady of the house kept trying to give us bottles of wine to thank us for bringing water to her home. We kept giving the bottles to the mayor. She kept trying to give them back. It was such a fun time.

The lady in pink came down to the home we were inspecting the running water in and insisted we come a few doors down and see HER running water. She was so delightful. We went down to see that the water was indeed running inside the house but because the sink had not been installed yet she had a garden type hose hanging from a nail in the wall of her kitchen. She was sooooo proud of that hose! She kept hugging us and thanking us.

This wonderful lady showed us her running water and gave us jars of homemade jelly.

This family had been busy installing a kitchen in anticipation of running water coming.

Here is the lady in pink again. She had a bathroom sink but it wasn't hooked up to water yet.

The mayor is showing us that the school has water by washing her hands in preparation for lunch. Before she was the mayor she had been the director of this school.

The mayor had a masa (feast!)prepared for the closing celebration. It was delicious! Everything came from their personal homes- vegetable gardens, fruit trees, their animals (butchered for us). Reminds me of the expression regarding a ham and egg breakfast: the chicken contributed but the pig was really committed.

The mayor thanks LDS Charities again for bringing water to Slobozia Mare.