The soon to be world famous Rabbit song

Too set the scene we were first served rabbit [full carcus] in a small country church, we all had a few bits to say we’d tried rabbit, we paid Yura in chocolate to eat the rest! [Kidneys and all!] The song was created after out second rabbit experience: The leader of the day centre brother Michael as he introduced himself to us as brought us into a small room and brought out some pasta with meat on top innocently we all thought it was chicken until mine and Heather Arneill’s arrived out with an 8 inch leg bone on it… With Trish remarking “That doesn’t look like chicken!” so the song was created…

Catch the rabbit, catch catch the rabbit
Catch the rabbit, catch catch the rabbit
Kill the rabbit, kill kill the rabbit x 2
Skin the rabbit, skin skin the rabbit x2
Boil the rabbit, boil boil the rabbit x2
Eat the rabbit, eat eat the rabbit x2
Boke the rabbit, boke boke the rabbit x2
Rabbits of the world united.

Sadly you can’t get the tune nor the actions but if you ask me nicely next time you see me I shall perform it for you. Here’s to Trish realising half way through the flight from Chisinau to Budapest that she had left her mobile phone on, to people setting off the metal detector in Chisnau airport and not being searched, to falling asleep, to all the stuffed peppers, singing a blessing, to the catapillers on the wall, to the laughter and to amazing time we had.

Check out some more Moldovan maddness pictures.

Why Moses is still alive… [Even more Moldovan thoughts]

On are last day our Moldovan friends decided to take us to their equivalent to the Grand Canyon- It was beautiful. Within the cliffs were caves that used to be under ground churches many years ago. They took us inside one of the caves. As I entered I heard Trish shout back “Moses is still alive” as I made my way further into the cave I discovered that it wasn’t just our team there but this old man wearing a robe with long hair and beard. What was even funnier was that all the time we were there laughing, joking and taking pictures of ‘Moses’ on the way out our translator turned and said… “By the way Moses speaks perfect English!” Trish turned red very quickly! I understand that reading about it will not be as funny as being there but you'll get the idea. I said in my last post that I would also share with you the Rabbit song which we made up when we were in Moldova but thought it may offend some vegetarian readers if there is any? Let me know the consensus in my comments- would you like to know the song and the reasoning’s behind it? Including pictures!

And the greatest of these is Love... [More Moldovan thoughts]

Still trying to recover from Moldova the trip has provoked a lot of thoughts which will take a while to process and put things in perspective. It’s always hard to put these kind of things into words but one thing I learnt is one of the greatest things there is to learn- How important love is and the emphasis Jesus puts on it for so many reasons. This lesson learnt from my little star Olya- We can be good at and do so many things but without showing love both in action and voice it’s useless. [I’m not going to go on much more about these kind of thoughts as Ill only get frustrated with myself for not expressing it properly]

One day we were driving along and spotted a sign for Kiev, Odessa and Moscow- Which was pretty cool what was funny was that it was a good days drive to Odessa let alone Kiev and Moscow! The sign seemed to just be there to point you in the general direction!

Some more team quotes:
"This is really starting to piss me off"
"Its all about the love"
"Where the bleep are you?"
"Did you know my auntie had twins?"
"Are we lost again?"
"Thats deffinitally not chicken!"
"You know"

Here’s to kids singing jingle bells when we gave them packs for school, the mouse on the wall, the plastic bag, to Moses being still alive, to the bridge not collapsing, to Ruths alarm going off at 3.30am, to Trish taking pictures of all the toilets, to one point thinking during a church service that I was going to be asked to dedicate a child and again to my little star Olya and to the greatest of these being Love.
Still to come- Why Moses is still alive and the Rabbit song.

Moldovan Thoughts...

Got back from Moldova late on Saturday night. No words can describe the time we had. I have nothing negative to say about the trip. Moldova is so similar yet so different from Ukraine. Moldova is full of hills, forests, valleys and lakes where as Ukraine is vastly flat. In Moldova one minute it looked like you were driving down dirt tracks in Africa the next minute driving through Italy as Moldova is covered in Vineyards, Moldova would not have as many built up areas as Ukraine and the roads would be worse. It was also great to go and experience somewhere new and to not be so familiar with everything and everyone. The team was amazing in all ways it was so good to be part of a small team and not to be worrying about and checking up on 46 other people. They all got stuck in and the craic was mighty- the laughter was much! We left Northern Ireland the Moldova 6 and became the Moldova 8 Yura and Eugenia stayed with us for the full week in a way they made the trip they were so much fun and had such a heart for their country great people and great new friends [Yura was cool when he spoke english he had a Northern Ireland accent!] The 8 of us drove around all week in a blue mini van which we nick named the miracle machine due to the roads it took us along. The kids we were working with would break your heart I had not seen as much poverty before the kids literally had nothing. They either lived on the streets or came from very poor families and/or their parents were alcoholics. Let me tell you one story about the kids- We arrived at one day centre and were told a lot of the kids had head lice which to be honest I freaked at and didn’t let the kids near me… and these kids were just crying out for love and attention but I would barely let them come near me. [Don’t worry the team is lice free we had daily inspections!] but as I watched the kids cry as they left us- I felt so guilty for not loving them as I watched them walk home to dear knows what situations. Thank fully God gave me a second chance on Friday we arrived at a day centre and the kids all had chicken pox which I had already had but apparently it can give you shingles. This wee girl of about 1 and 1/2. Came to me and wanted me to pick her up then wanted a kiss and I just fell in love with her she was covered in chicken pox with sweat lashing but she was so cute, I played with her for hours blew bubbles as she laughed and tried to burst them. At one point she took my hand and took me for a walk “walka walka” she would say. At the end of the day I watched her walk down a dirty beaten track home with a girl of about 5 walking her home – I’ll never forget her. I’d also like to just say from my previous post that its definitely not a Ukraine thing its teams all the way… I loved it. I thought at one point I was now torn between the two countries but a wise person told me your hearts not torn its just bigger!
Some team quotes:
"There’s nothing like a good smelling man!"
"I’ll give you a bar of chocolate if you eat…"
"Oh my actually goodness"
"Would you like to see my puppet show?"
"Are we going up that hill?"
"Your lying!"
Here’s to accidentally kicking Heather in the stomach, getting searched by the police, going to the Romanian border, all the grapes, Trish’s Russian word association, peel banana, eating rabbit and to my little star- Olya. This Moldovan report will be continued… this is getting long.

Heading East

On Saturday morning Ill head off with a team of 6 to work in day care centres for street children in Moldova. Really excited and looking forward to it. It will be different to teams I have lead in the past in that it’s a smaller team, to a place I’ve never been before and all the team is older than me. It’ll also be a good tester for my future to see 100% whether my drive is for Ukraine or for teams in general. My enthusiasm for the Moldova team is just as high as it was for Ukraine so I’m taking that as a good sign. I have all the essentials packed and my many phrase books- Did you know that Moldova does not have its own lanuage but speaks a mixture of Russian, Ukrainian and Romainian?! Did you also know that Moldova has a break away state called: Transdniester? and also did you know that Transdniester have their own passports, money and stamps?! and did you know that in Moldova the life expectany of a woman is 7 years more than a man?! and did you know that the international dailing code for Moldova is: +373?! and also did you know Moldova used to be part of the former Soviet Union?! and did you know that the population of Moldova is 4.3 Million?! [Someone has been doing their homework!] Someone also had to buy a skirt to wear in church in Moldova- £10 in Peacocks, Ballynahinch couldn't beat that with a big stick!

Today in the Carphone Warehouse

At work tonight a lady came in, sat down on one of our stairs and read a book about planes for about 20 mins got up and left. Not a word out of her- Random

Coldplay end in Belfast

Coldplay have announced that they will finish their current twisted logic tour in the Odyssey on 21st December- I'll be there- You have to love the presale ticket system! Plebs can get tickets on general sale on 9th September.