Monastery Visit-part 1

So at the St. Nicolas festival a few weeks ago, we met these nuns that live on 60 acres in the middle of BFE, or Wagener, SC, which is as close to BFE as anything is. So, Julie and I decided to give a dose of culture to our kids. We were able to go on Tuesday, but I had to reschedule my Indian lunch with Amanda. Sniff. I'm lokoing forward to seeing her this Tuesday, though!

Wagener is half way to Aiken, down 50 roads and 950 mobile homes. There are 3 older women who live there, tow "mothers" who have been working on this monastery for 13 years and have been living on this land since 1999. This particular part of land gets barely any rain, but the tornadoes don't bother it either. When the mothers first arrived, there were hardly any indegenous plants and no birds or squirrels. One of the mothers is a Master Gardener and has worked hard to bring back the nature that should be there. The third woman has only been there one year, and she is Sister Labeauf-our tour guide. She lived in Maryland up until a little over a year ago when she left her grown children and grandkids and pharmacist job and took up the habit (and a pair of Keen's, which I found amusing). So these women are as self-sufficient as anyone else and do a massive amount of work themselves. They dip candles daily and make wine when fruit is in season. They are in a double wide trailer right now, slowly collecting half of the ONE MILLION dollars they need for a permanant structure. But already everything on the land, including the land, is debt-free.

Julie and I talked to the Sister about life, and decisions, and peace and solitude...the kids threw birdseed on the cat and wallowed in the dirt. So, we all were happy.



This is the dog that just wanted some luv!


This is the nun that Elias quickly made friends with as soon as the dog that just wanted some luv came near us.


Playing like a "dead roach." That's what the sister called it!