The Abingdonian 2019

66 The Abingdonian Moldova Project A group of Lower Sixth pupils travelled to Eastern Europe in the first weeks of the summer holiday for this year’s Moldova Project trip. Working with Abingdon’s partner charity Agape, they organised two summer camps for Moldovan childen, one based at a school in the Moldovan town of Ialoveni and another in Lacu Rosu in Romania. Here some of the boys reflect on what they feel they gained from the experience. The trip to Moldova has taught me so much, especially when I was able to see the effect of our teaching and the activities we ran throughout our time in Moldova. A great thing about this trip is that there is a language barrier, which not only encourages the children to speak English but also creates a rather niche opportunity for us Abingdon boys to learn a language which is not spoken widely in this country: Romanian. The amusement on the faces of the children when we mispronounced a word five times in a row was astonishing! This entire trip would not have been possible without the help of Agape, and being able to work on the front line for a charity was something I had never experienced before. I was able to see very clearly in both Ialoveni and Lacu Rosu the effects that this charity has on so many young children I have made friends in Moldova that I hope to keep for a number of years. The trip was inspiring and I cannot fully express in words how incredible the trip was for not only the children in Moldova and Romania, whose spoken English improved significantly, but also my own personal growth. This trip has changed me as a person and I hope to return to Moldova one day. Matthew Buhler, 6TJG Any expectations I originally possessed of what I would find in Moldova were completely thrown out of the window upon arriving in Chisnau. I had expected to feel very much like an outsider, but the hospitality provided by my host family, and everyone else we worked with on the trip, was second to none. I found Moldova itself a very interesting country, as it is nothing like any of the others I have visited. I thoroughly enjoyed the three days spent running activities in the school in Ialoveni, as I immediately began forming friendships with the translators and children alike; these certainly carried through into Romania, and I know that I will continue