The “barrel” on top of the gatehouse chapel was taken down the other day and a a new one made to replace it. Many thanks to all those who have been working on this project. Aside from the monument in the field, this is the first thing that one sees when driving up to the monastery. We served a moleben for Xenia who is off to London, Ontario, to continue her studies in voice and piano, and we wish her much success. She has already won countless gold medals and honours in both fields and we shall miss her, although she promises to come back for visits. Marina, one of the women who has faithfully come every Thursday to prepare food for us, is leaving for Japan with her children on what could be called an educational trip as her children wanted to visit Japan and become acquainted it its culture, so another moleben was served for them. I received a nice email from Christian Rapp, our German friend, who spent five weeks in Sweden with his family. He sent us a photo of his wife and children and I hope that we can show it to you. He is a devout Orthodox Christian who loves to visit Mount Athos. We constantly complain about the price of gas [petrol] as it is constantly changing. Recently it was $1.43 [Canadian] per litre, then it went down to $1.31 and today it is up to $1.39, so whenever the prices falls, we all rush to fill our tanks.
