The village of Raciula, Moldova, as seen from the top of a hill.  The large white building on the side of the next hill is a monastery.

 This is a lake next to the village of Raciula.

 Rather than have a horse pull his wagon, this villager has a tractor pull his wagon loaded with his produce.

 About 4 kilometers from the village of Raciula, is another monastery run by the Russian Orthodox Church monks.  This is the entrance to the grounds.  The person in the foreground is Doina Stepanenco, our translator.

 The church is in the middle of the monastery campus.  It is being renovated on the outside.

 This is a close-up of the monastery church and the entrance door.

 This is the alter inside the monastery church.

 This is the inside of the cupola of the church.

 All of the walls have pictures painted on them of different people and events.

 This church has no pews or seats.  All of the attendees stand or kneel on the bare floor.

 This is the choir loft.

 Here is the monastery water well.

 The monks make their own grape wine for their church services and store them in these wine kegs

 Walter and Arlana, in our coats and by some large birch trees, walking though the woods right outside of the monastery.  We are on our way to see an artesian well.

 This is a shelter covering the opening of the artesian well.  The pipe is located near the floor. 

 This hill has a lot of springs feeding the stream nearby.  Here is a little step bridge across the stream.

 Here is a home-made picnic bench with chairs cut out of tree logs in somebody's backyard.

 This reminds Arlana of the Sacred Grove located in the upper part of New York State.

Here is a lake located right outside of the monastery grounds.