Hello everyone. I hope this post finds you all doing well and enjoying the cooler weather as we approach the Fall season. First, I want to give a shout out to my cousin Mark. I saw your name in the game preview for the Lebanon High football team and I just want to say keep up the good work man. I'll be getting updates from my Dad and look forward to seeing you play when I get home.
These past two weeks have been a bit crazy for me. Our partner organization in the US has given out its millionth loan and has sent a photographer, another employee, and myself travelling all over Moldova to meet with clients. The goal is to get pictures and a story from our clients in as many different industries as possible. Yes, I know it sounds like a relatively simple task, but with the unlabeled, unpaved roads here in Moldova it was quite an adventure.
Basically, the only way to find these clients out in the villages was to figure out what Rayon (a rayon is equivalent to our counties) they live in and get to that Rayon. These Rayons are about the same size as our counties at home, so you can imagine how large the area is. Once we thought we were in the correct Rayon, we had to hope we had cell phone coverage and then call the client. The client would then try to explain, using certain landmarks and the colors of houses, where he was located. Sometimes we found our way easily, other times it took multiple hours and a few stops to ask random people for directions.
In the end, we were able to visit almost 20 clients, all in different industries. Some examples of the industries include; auto repair shop, ironsmith, cement block production, various agriculture, livestock, hardware store, these are just a few. Finally, as you can see from the picture located at the beginning, we also met with a beekeeper. When we arrived, he began talking to me and I couldn't really understand what he was saying, but I just kept nodding my head yes. Apparently, I was nodding yes as he was asking me if I wanted to go in the middle of his bee farm. Next thing I know, they hand me a mask and I am walking through 50 hives that all together contain almost 100,000 bees, with a short sleeve shirt on. Needless to say, I felt a little like a POW. They crawled on my clothes and arms, but luckily I did not get stung. Not that I would willingly do it in a t-shirt again anytime soon, but it was actually very fun and they gave me a giant mason jar full of honey when I left. It is some of the best honey I have ever had and well worth the trip into the hive.
