Day 1

Lots of traveling. Hannah and I worked on several word coinages including “smold” n. the object with is in the act of smoldering or the products produced by said smoldering action. We picked up breakfast/snacks for our first leg of the flight (San Fran – Pittsburg). Kris managed to get us in good with the check in lady and we scored bulkhead / exit row seats on all our flights!. In Pittsburg we meet up with the Brubakers and our team was complete :) The flight from Pittsburg to Frankfurt was the long one… we talked, read, slept in ever imaginable position or favorite being the floor in front of the bulkhead and played with our newly downloaded iPhone apps. When we got to Frankfurt we exited the secure area to go to a German grocery store and pick up lunch. German beer all around. We began to note that many Europeans wear what we called “random acts of English” on their clothing. Ficitcous logos and slogans which have no seaming rhym or reason adorned so many unsuspecting obviously non-native speakers.

From Frankfurt we boarded Air Moldova for our final destination – Chisinau. As we exited customs we were greeted by Victor the Lord’s Army Pastor in Chisinau and a few members of his teenage small group. They stood in a single file line facing us and the first one had a sign that folded out letter by letter to spell welcome he stepped aside and the second one had a stack of papers each with one team members name written out on it. As the final one was revealed a loaf of beautifully woven bread was extended toward us, cradled in a traditionally embroidered cloth. We felt so welcome and double cheek air kisses were extended all around.


We were escorted immediately to victors house were we were treated to a mountain of yummy Moldovan food. After the feast it was really late and time for the “up for 26 hours straight” travelers to head to bed. They had divided up amongst 3 families. Mark and Hannah stayed with Victor and his family. The Brubakers stayed with Lula and Olga’s family. And Pete, Kris and I stayed with Natalya.