first day here

---

hello, all -- wendy here -- we have just returned from a full day of visiting monasteries and a picnic with other volunteers. they are all pretty young -- in fact, i am the oldest of them all by quite a number of years. there was a lot of climbing today, so i'm sure adrienne and i both got our exercise. there is a footprint that is kept at the top of a steep mountain, a footprint of Mary, the mother of Jesus, they think. so we trooped up there and mostly slid down. then, more climbing around the monastery. then, we saw a portrait of Mary on which the face of Jesus suddenly appeared some time ago. I saw it, and it really looks like the face of Jesus on her cheek. the 'enter' key doesn't work, so this is one long paragraph. there were also some healing waters at the monastery, which i placed my hand in. one member of our party went swimming in them -- well, the waters are kept in a receptacle slightly bigger than a large bathtub, so it would only have been a matter of getting wet -- not really swimming. our host made our lunch today -- delicious sheep cheese, bread, some meat, and plums, cucumbers and tomatoes. the plums were fantastic. later, we stopped to buy a watermelon on the side of the road. it was one of the best watermelons i have ever eaten. living conditions here are more rustic than i imagined they would be. and, somewhat surprisingly, i am having a bit of a difficult time with it. i am going to struggle through the first few days with knowing i am not as clean as i would like to be, and see if i can adjust. i know it's part of the experience. all over the city there are billboards of advertising that i imagine very few people that see the billboard can afford to buy. people are really terribly poor here. you may be wondering how we are writing these blogs -- well, each neighborhood in our section of the city has a room filled with 8 - 10 computers that are connected to the internet. we literally got off the bus from the picnic, saw the room -- which we had heard about from others at the picnic -- and decided to stop by and check our messages. we pay 5 lei for an hour, which is not even 50 cents. so, it will be easier to stay connected than i thought. we are looking forward to a thorough bath (cold water only), shampoo, and another night's sleep. as i write this we are a bit sleepy, as you can imagine. tomorrow, tatiana is coming at 11 a.m. to show us the city. all i know about monday is that Igor will take us to a few places, i think orphanages, to see where we want to work. his english is not that good, so i'm not sure if this is what we'll be doing or not on monday. if you have any messages for adrienne and me, you can post them here, or send them to [e-mail], or [e-mail]. it's really good to see messages from home.

---