Farewell, Sister Glykeria; Happy Birthday, Tristen

About three and a half years ago a woman monastery was established at the rectory building of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. The priest has his own house and the building was not being used for the most part. So the parish invited the nuns to live there and to pray for us on a daily basis. For the most part, the nuns are self-supporting, although members of the parish also contribute to their support and welfare. Medical care is provided by a doctor who is a member of another parish.

Recently Sister Glykeria had a stroke and was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has been released but the doctor does not want her to live in a house with so many steps. So she is being transferred to California. Her son came to help with the move.

The parish had a luncheon for her and a basket was passed around so people can make donations to her. Some of us brought gifts for us and many of us signed cards. One card had on the cover a picture of the nuns at the chapel and a message in the inside.

Later in the afternoon Tristen, from the Republic of Georgia, had a birthday party at Cathedral Gardens and it wasd open to everybody in the parish. Unfortunately, nobody knew until that day and most of us had other plans. Dr. Charles, Jennifer, Jack, and I were the only ones there who did not speak nor understand Russian nor Georgian. I speak some Russian, but not enough to carry on a conversation. At one point Dr. Charles told me that he agrees with everything that Tristen said, but he has a problem with Tristen's third declension. Those of us who know Russian know that there is no such thing as a third declension in Russian.

Although most of the conversations and all the speeches were in Russian or Georgian, those of us who do not speak the languages were still made to feel at home and we were out being left out of the party. Food was constantly being passed around and so was the wine. We all had a great time. There was also dancing and a certain individual really impressed me with his Russian style dancing. I had no idea that he could do it.

One of the guests was a gentleman from Ghana and apparently he was fluent in Russian. I mentioned to Fr. John that I had never met anybody from Africa who could speak Russian and he assured me that there are quite a number.

Swenta putting hot on Sr. Glykeria	Monika, Sr. Glykeria, and Swentana	Sr. Glykeria's son with her
		I hope to be doing business with this exhibitor
	Our library is always here and we need them
	Plenty of good food was being served	Who's paying attention to signs?
	An extremely important crew!!
		Light Rail station
One of the performing bands		Barvarian custom and one of the woman knows how to sound German
Too bad I did not talk to the artist about his work. I love it!
	Jewelry	green house
A very friendly exhibitor
	Another band

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