Olesea's Family Gets a Home Today!!

Can't wait to go inside! Shade trees and flower beds at the entrance.

The garden area/yard is in front of the house. The house sits sideways on the lot.

The family really loves their new home even though it needs a ton of cleaning.

The largest of the 4 rooms is quite lovely.

Victor climbed his new tree!

Elena Barlow succeeded in gathering enough funds to buy this home for Olesea and Uri and their 4 boys. They moved in today. The home cost $2,000 US dollars and it includes 4 rooms, running water to the yard, electric, telephone, a wonderful root cellar that had bottled fruit, compote and vegetables, a huge grape vineyard they can harvest and sell, many outbuildings, a rabbit hutch, fruit trees, some furniture, a summer kitchen with a gas stove, and even a dog house with a little dog for the boys! The neighbors are absolutely terrific: on one side is a widow doctor and the other side is Lidia's (our NGO) sister. Both of these neighbors are donating clothing, food, furniture, bedding, and friendship to Olesea.

By American standards this house might at first appear to be disappointing. By Moldovan standards it is in Olesea's words "a miracle." They have an outhouse, running water to a faucet in the yard so they don't have to carry buckets of water from the community well, a gas stove to cook on, lots of out buildings with possiblity of raising animals, plenty of room for gardening their food, and some good climbing trees for the boys. The pet dog was a surprise for them to enjoy. The house definately needs cleaning and some repairs but if they are willing to work they will have a wonderful Moldovan home and as an added bonus they can harvest the established vineyard and sell the grapes for money.

We are grateful to have participated in obtaining this house for Olesea. Many others donated and we thank each of you profusely on behalf of Olesea. Elena sacraficed much of her personal funds, Elena's friends helped with generous donations, and Martha Burke came through with the final $200. It is hard to imagine that only $2,000 could buy such a wonderful home; so little to us Americans and yet so very much to the average Moldovan family. Your donations have blessed this family tremendously. Thank you!!!

Check out the slideshow of their new house and the boys discovering it...