Tea, harmonicas and guitar

My fingers are freezing, as the computer is in an open entrance to El Pilar! Dave and I had tortilla and salad and cafe con leche here yesterday, with Isabelle. I gave her a pin of  the Toronto city hall, and she gave me one of hers. She is great fun - wish I spoke more Spanish!

Yesterday´s tea  was held in the salon for 33  people ( actually only 28 showed up - the rest were eating or sleeping).  In addition to  tea and oatmeal fudgies, it included duets on  harmonicas from a Korean couple, and hours of guitar by Jonathan, and American singer and actor. My favourite was Hotel California, but the pilgrims like the fire in the fireplace best. It is about 8´outside and maybe 10  inside, except in the salon when the fire is on, and the kitchen when there is cooking. About 12 pilgrims cooked yesterday - too cold to even leave the albergue.

We had a pilgrim with bedbugs yesterday - we washed all her clothes, and her bedding after she left, in 60' and hours in the dryer - it is still at work. We sprayed her backpack and hard stuff and left it in a bag. And we sprayed the ísolation room when she left this morning. She was incredibly grateful, and left a huge donation. She said she cried in the shower at our kindness, and from relief that she was receiving help, and she teared up  when she left this morning.

It tell the pilgrims we have bottomless pots of tea and coffee, and they take us at our word. It is unusal to find coffee when you leave in the morning, and doubly unusual to find tea, so they are very grateful.

The highlight  of the day for me was receiving a card from my daughter Aislinn, all the way from Kelowna, BC. What a treat to get mail, and such a special card. Phoning  from  here is very hard, because of the time difference, and people´s busy lives, not to mention our schedules, so contact by mail and through this blog is  so sustaining  for me.  Thanks for reading and commenting. 


Aislinn asked for a picture of the priests, and so far I haven´t found one, but the first link is to this stretch of the Camino, and the second is  to the Monasterio. 


http://www.galiciaguide.com/Stage-24.html

http://en.monteirago.org/camino/rabanal--a-spiritual-centre-on-the-camino-de-santiago

There were 25 wet pilgrims waiting when we opened before 2 yesterday, so today´s notice says we will open at 1 pm. Who knows what or who today will bring.

Dalene la hospitalera

What have I done?

Saturday Sept 15 in Rabanal

So, dinner with David and a pilgrim was great - the food was fine, and the talk was great - the pilgrim was a psychologist, so who and why the Camino was an interesting topic.
I was in charge of the Albergue while my partner David Arthur went to dinner with Claire and Keith, who are leaving tomorrow, then they went to Compline. There are 3 services a day at the church across the plaza, run by the Benedictine monks, who have a monastery beside us. I didn´t get to bed until 11, but for now I am not a pilgrim.

However, the day begins at 6 am, as we prepare breakfast, which is coffee and tea, hot milk, bread and jam. It is served from 6:30 to  7:30, then we encourage the pilgrims to leave so that we can begin the breakfast cleanup, then the cleaning of 4 bathrooms, containing 8 showers and 8 toilets. Then we also wash all the stone and tile floors, in the bedrooms, the barn, which has 16 beds, and the stone floor in the garden. The mind boggles! It took 4 of us about 2.5 hours, and tomorrow just David and I will clean. We have already registered 32 pilgrims, and will take 8 more if they show up. It was hot today, and several walked 40 km, so I have seen some damaged feet (to put it delicately).

David and I went into Astorga from 11-1, to pick up supplies for the hostel and pilgrims, and lunch type food for he and I. We are aiming for salad for lunch each day, as our cost for the pilgrim menu is covered each day.

I served tea in the garden from 5 to 5:45 - we went through many pots, and most of the pilgrims made a point of showing up for some, and the biscuits, of course. It felt easy and familiar, as will breakfast, but I am not looking forward to the cleaning, to put it mildly.

It will happen, but just how I don´t know. Wish me luck, and good rubber gloves.

Darlene, the  hospitalera