The stars of Eikomena

I paid another quick visit to Moldova.

Projects Abroad sponsors an A Division football team there, called Eikomena. We have a UEFA coach, Victor Afansiev – known by his first name and patronymic “Victor Ivanovich”. He’s pretty good at cajoling, encouraging and developing our team and the results this season so far have been okay.

We will be putting in a link on the Moldovan pages of our website to the new team site in due course. In the meantime, volunteers or interested colleagues can train with Eikomena. They can really become part of a live working European football team. At the same time, there are plenty of opportunities for training kids because Victor Ivanovich is also deputy head of a children’s sports academy in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital.

You can follow our team and Moldova’s Divizia A on Soccerway here and you can wish our team good luck for their next two matches against Sheriff on 4th October and against Floreni on 20th October. Please feel free to email the five English-speaking members of the team:

Peter Radu wwwbelenikii@mail.ru
Vitaly Bulala vbulala@gmail.com
Dmitrii Plamadeala kaka55@bk.ru
Stas: stass_mun@yahoo.com
Viorel Catrinici viorel89@mail.ru

Chisinau is where the team and our office and Moldovan colleagues are all based. It’s pronounced “Kishy-Now” and it’s a nice city of about half a million people. I really like the centre, a leafy provincial capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and largely unspoiled. The Second World War – the Moldovans fought on both sides – passed it by although there was a huge battle on the Prut River a few miles west. Then Moldova joined the Soviet Union and they built a lot of tower blocks. But still, the Latin-Slav mix, the copious red wine (and the odd vodka) and the excellent local sausages all serve to soften the sharp edges. Chisinau can be quite relaxing.

Peter Slowe
1st October 2007

The stars of Eikomena

I paid another quick visit to Moldova.

Projects Abroad sponsors an A Division football team there, called Eikomena. We have a UEFA coach, Victor Afansiev – known by his first name and patronymic “Victor Ivanovich”. He’s pretty good at cajoling, encouraging and developing our team and the results this season so far have been okay.

We will be putting in a link on the Moldovan pages of our website to the new team site in due course. In the meantime, volunteers or interested colleagues can train with Eikomena. They can really become part of a live working European football team. At the same time, there are plenty of opportunities for training kids because Victor Ivanovich is also deputy head of a children’s sports academy in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital.

You can follow our team and Moldova’s Divizia A on Soccerway here and you can wish our team good luck for their next two matches against Sheriff on 4th October and against Floreni on 20th October. Please feel free to email the five English-speaking members of the team:

Peter Radu wwwbelenikii@mail.ru
Vitaly Bulala vbulala@gmail.com
Dmitrii Plamadeala kaka55@bk.ru
Stas: stass_mun@yahoo.com
Viorel Catrinici viorel89@mail.ru

Chisinau is where the team and our office and Moldovan colleagues are all based. It’s pronounced “Kishy-Now” and it’s a nice city of about half a million people. I really like the centre, a leafy provincial capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and largely unspoiled. The Second World War – the Moldovans fought on both sides – passed it by although there was a huge battle on the Prut River a few miles west. Then Moldova joined the Soviet Union and they built a lot of tower blocks. But still, the Latin-Slav mix, the copious red wine (and the odd vodka) and the excellent local sausages all serve to soften the sharp edges. Chisinau can be quite relaxing.

Peter Slowe

Volunteers on the 2 week special, Moldova

By Scott McQuarrie, Programme Advisor

Two things struck me as I flew back into Moldova for my second visit. First was the intense heat! Had air traffic control made a massive error and sent the plane to Africa? Most of Eastern and Southern Europe had been consumed by a ferocious heat wave with temperatures reaching an extreme 45 degrees Celsius (113F). Just as well for my Scottish skin that I packed the Factor 40! Secondly what was the friendly person in the immigration queue saying to me in Russian? It sounded interesting whatever it was. Anyway I knew I was back in Moldova as a sense of excitement and confusion surrounded me.

My main role was helping set up a new sport project in Moldova. Having seen Moldova’s national team draw 1 – 1 with Scotland some time ago it occurred to me they must be pretty bad at football if they couldn’t beat my home country. Maybe the game was in need of some development? Joking aside, Moldova’s football structure, from national team to grassroots, is still in its infancy. Therefore work is needed at youth level to create a strong senior team. Our project aims to play a part in this process. Volunteers can now receive coaching methods from a UEFA qualified coach, train with the Projects Abroad football team (Eikomena PA) and help develop youth football by coaching children between 7 – 18 years old.

Scott playing a fine game of chequers

My trip also coincided with the volunteers undertaking a 2 week Care & Community placement. There were 7 volunteers helping in a variety of placements. Some were involved in helping disabled children at a local swimming pool, working at and orphanage and also a day care centre. The placement where I met volunteers Ryan, Alex and Rachael was at the Oncology Hospital, a children’s cancer hospital. Each volunteer was spending time with the children on numerous activities including colouring in, origami, and games. I played my part by being convincingly beaten at chequers by a young lad in the group. The children spend 2 weeks in the hospital and return home for 1 month on a cycle until their chemotherapy treatment is over. Doina, one of the project supervisors and also in remission from cancer herself, told me how disappointed the children were when she got delayed one day and couldn’t make it to the hospital. By contrast she also said how delighted the children were to receive personal attention from these volunteers. It was a real reminder to me that this is a worthwhile project for all involved, even if it is for a short period of time.

More after the jump…..

Scott and Igor in the new office, Moldova

I also helped Projects Abroad Moldova move into their new office. The office is now situated in the centre of Chisinau. It takes about 5 minutes walk from Stefan Cel Mare (the main street in the centre of town). It’s ideally located for cafes, bars, shops and banks. I’d also recommend visiting Restaurant Equator just around the corner – you have to take stepping stones over water to your table and then eat by a large waterfall.

Peter with a statue of Marx

Back in Moldova after ten years away! The Trabants and Moskviches (two Communist ere cars) have mostly gone. True, they were death-traps, but it’s still sad. The carousel in the airport broke down and they’d forgotten my hotel booking, so Moldova hasn’t become organised at least.

Our Director in Moldova is Igor. He’s good fun, but his English is an excited kind of Russlish. When you ask him to repeat something, he does so much louder than before but otherwise the same. (To be fair, Igor speaks Russian and Romanian fluently, so English would be his third language).

Igor took me to the Noua Casa Orphanage which was quite something – lying on a beach on the banks of the Dniester doesn’t make up for being an orphan but it’s still nice – some volunteers are expected there next week.
“Motivations” is for the rehabilitation of young people who are confined to wheelchairs – the man in charge is Nicolae Beşliu (pronounced “Besh-liu”) who is really inspiring (although he rushes about a lot). Nicolae wants volunteers to help with swimming, drawing and loads of other things.

Igor also showed me the children’s cancer ward and an amazing day-care centre.

Then it was time to sign a partnership agreement with Eikomena soccer club. This is for sports placements and for young African footballers to get some European experience. After signing, I had to kiss the officials, which is what Moldovans do (and which is not at all what the English do).

I took a day off to visit Balta. Stunning. In Stalin’s days, it was the capital of the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. I’ve attached several pictures of this wonderful unknown run-down place. What history! Marvellous!

Peter Slowe
July 2007

–there’s me pretending to enter the abandoned Communist Party HQ

-finally there’s a plaque on a disused cinema commemorating the first ever meeting of the Moldovan Young Communist “Komsomol”

By Scott McQuarrie, Programme Advisor

Scott with a huge hat, Brasov, Romania

Keys…check! Tickets…check! Passport….passport? After going back to my flat to retrieve my passport I was finally on my way. Destinations Romania and Moldova. I had always wanted to visit Eastern Europe, although I do have to admit I need to reacquaint myself with where Moldova was on the map. First stop was Bucharest in Romania. I was picked up by Mircea (Country Director) and Leo (volunteer co-ordinator). The drive north to Brasov takes around 3 hours. It is an enjoyable and scenic journey passing through rural, urban and mountainous regions. Apart from Mircea and Leo’s singing, the highlight of the journey was winding through the serpentine roads as you enter Transylvania.

The main focus of my visit was to experience our Archaeology project which is based in Alba Iulia at this time of year. George (our archaeology co-ordinator) advised we would be assisting on an excavation in the grounds of a Roman Catholic Church. Over the next few days we uncovered bones, teeth, a human skull, washed pottery, cleaned profiles and visited the university restoration room (where items are reconstructed to resemble their original form). The whole experience gave a great insight into the archaeological process. The fact I really didn’t want to leave at the end of my time speaks volumes for this project. A truly fascinating subject!

Archaeology Dig, Romania

My bag was a little heavier when I re-packed to travel to Moldova due to the Polinca (a traditional Romanian drink distilled from prunes or pears) George had bestowed upon me. No Romanian experience is complete without sampling a drop – it’s strength just edging out its distinct taste. It has to be tried to be believed! With the taste of Polinca just about leaving my mouth, a day later I arrived in Moldova.

MORE…

Igor (Moldova’s Country Director) collected Mircea and I from the station and took us to our lodgings. There is more to Moldova than meets the eye in many regards. A good example of this was our accommodation – an old style Soviet block which looked fairly battered from the outside, the lift had it’s own particular smell but the apartment itself was lovely. Looking at Chisinau on the map reminded me of New York’s grid system (although that is where the comparison ends!). It makes navigation around town very intuitive. There are many methods of transport – trolley buses, auto buses and maxi-taxis. Each has their own charm but my preferred vehicle was the maxi-taxi. They are extremely cheap and sue to their petite size can slip in and out of traffic to great effect. When actually walking around the centre of town, with its array of commercial outlets and well dressed residents, it seemed in contrast to some of the statistics that I’d read before coming (80% of Moldova’s population was living under the official poverty line). However it is widely recognised as Europe’s poorest country.

Igor and teaching volunteers, Moldova

The projects I visited at an independent living centre for people with disabilities, a secondary school in need of English teachers and our Russian language teacher highlighted the great placements volunteers can get involved in. It was pleasing to know that volunteers can contribute in an extremely worthwhile way. With their help hopefully people will start to remember Europe’s forgotten country!