Volunteering in Moldova

I have been in Moldova for two weeks now.
On the first day I started, I pulled out my camera and started asking about who takes the pictures for the newspaper. It's not something they really put much effort into before, mostly because of the lack of resources, so I've been taking photos for them. So here's some of the photos to give an idea of the kinds of stories we cover. It's been such a great learning experience for me so far.

On the first day I started working, I went to a a rehab centre for drug addicts in a village outside Chisinau. It was started by a former drug addict with some funding from UNDP. The people moslty work with animals and farming. This is one of the people living there, with a calf that was just a day old.



This is a man who lost all of his family when they were deported to Siberia by the Russians in the 1940s. This happened to so many people and they have never received any compensation for it. It is the 58-year-anniversary today and I just got back from a demonstration about it.



This was by far the hardest story I had to cover. I went to the funeral of a 33-year-old woman who just passed away, leaving her husband and 3 children. She was away working in Italy when she got sick. A lot of Moldovians go work in Italy to make money. The father also sold his kidney to try to feed his family. Apparently there is a huge trafficking of organs problem here. So it was a really sad story. I almost cried three times while in the house, where the woman's body was, with people not crying, but wailing all around me.



A lot of the people that live in the villages come to Chisinau to sell their fruits and vegetables in the market everyday. There has hardly been any rain this summer, which has been bad for the farmers. And also bad for the people that live in the city because of the raised prices.



I have also been able to cover some cultural events. This is a famous Romanian pianist.



I have a little column every week in the back of the paper where I can post any picture I want that i've taken, something a bit less serious, Moldova through my eyes.
This is the first picture published.



And this is the second one. It's a woman working in one of the underground bathrooms in one of Chisinau's many parks.