The outdoors has reached a beautiful mid 70 degree temperature and brightly colored flowers have bloomed.

Once spring arrives it can be easy to forget about Moldova's harsh winters though they left quite an indelible impact on me after having prepared and stoked fires daily for over 12 months of my 23 months here.

I won't forget the beauty of my village when everything is glazed in ice and blanketed in the whitest fluffs of snow.

I also won't forget the times when I saw elderly lying face-down in the snow after having fallen--one of them in my village main street--with cars driving around them and people on foot looking away.