Monday, rainy Monday.

My theory is that it's always good to have rain on the first day of a program. So, today was a good day.

We started the day with some housekeeping issues. Fairly uneventful until it got to the topic of laundry. It started out great. "Your laundry will be done for you.  Blue bags for your laundry and  laundry marking pens are on the shelf.  Put it out on Wednesday morning."

 And then the hammer dropped.

"Oh, that's just for the men. The women will do their own laundry in the laundry room on third floor."

Imagine the reaction of the women in the room. It was still a topic of conversation at dinner tonight.I doubt the basic insult will be forgotten soon. I think people might have been ok if the Brothers were having their laundry done for them. But when it's the laymen and not the laywomen, it stings.

Br. Mark and Br. David have both offered to let me put their names on my clothes. That would get the ladies in the laundry room talking!!!

My small group spent most of the day together. We have members from the Philippines, Vietnam, Papa New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand and the US. The people are wonderful. I'm completely in awe of the work they do.

I'm planning to interview each of them for the blog. You will find their stories very interesting.

One of the Brothers in my group works with street children in Vietnam. He gave each of us one of these sculptures made from bamboo roots by his students.

 This is the one he gave me. It looks like a father, mother and baby. It's really neat.

 This afternoon, we had a ceremony in the large chapel and then a tour of the Generalate and the local neighborhood. The we met for an aperitivo before dinner.

This, of course, is not a picture of the chapel.

 You'll notice the northerners look rather warm and those from warmer climates are freezing.

It's obvious the group is beginning to meld well. There are over 75 of us here. When we break into small groups there are four Spanish language groups, four English language groups and one French language group. However, when we have a social like this, there is much cross language conversation. I'm not sure if everyone really understands each other, but we are trying.

 After dinner seven of us decided to brave the rain and go for gelato. It was a cold wet walk, but the destination made it all worth while.

Hmmmm. Gelato!!!!!

And that was my day. More or less. It's late and I must get to sleep. See you tomorrow.

Ciao!