Does the monastery pay for work? 

There are several categories of workers on Valaam. The first responds to job openings and performs specific duties in exchange for a salary. The second group consists of trudniki – laborers who work "for the glory of God," that is, without pay. The minimum term of service for a trudnik is three weeks in winter and two weeks during any other season. The monastery provides trudniki with both food and accommodation. Some trudniki eventually find a permanent position and remain to work full-time at the monastery. The third category comprises volunteers; they, too, are provided with housing and meals, but they differ from trudniki in that they may not be active churchgoers, and they also work fewer hours.

"I'm from Siberia myself – a town at the back of beyond," said the second woman, 45-year-old Sveta. She is clearly well put-together: eyelid surgery, nose job, lip fillers, tattooed brows, lash liner and eye liner. "I had breast augmentation too," she adds. "But I took out my hair extensions before the trip. Who knows what would happen to them here." In her ears are diamond earrings. When she left home, her grown son joked: "The whole building is guessing where you've run off to this time – back to Bali? Egypt? Turkey? But Sveta's headed to a monastery..."

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