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

The benefits of tea

I´m rushed today as we went into Astorga to shop for supplies, so must rush back to serve tea.

Yesterday´s pilgrims could not have been different from the German cooks of the night before. We had 7 from Taiwan - our previous total over 10 years for Taiwan was 11! We usually don´t host groups over 4, as they change the dynamics, and usually keep to their own group, but I made it work - the magic of tea! We also had a group of 5 Spanish, who usually keep separate, but once again, they loved the tea party. Also, 4 Danish women and a Danish man,  a couple from the USA who run a hostel along the Appalatian (sp?) Trail, an Austrian who went out and painted a lovely 9x12¨painting in watercolour of the church, (he is staying on at the monastery next door for a rest and to paint more) and a German girl who helped to set up for brieakfast this morning.

Tea was a smashing success. Everyone talked, there were bottomless pots of tea, and the oatmeal fudgies were a great hit, and I could eat them too! Hurrah for the soothing benefits of tea.

One of the Taiwanese women has 2 children in school at U of T, and when she found out I was from Toronto, she helped me to wash up from tea and told me about her visit to Ontario and Quebec.

It was a very peaceful and restful group, and I ended the day by going to Compline at 9:30. The service is entirely in Latin, and most of it is sung by the 3 priests. They did a blessing of the pilgrims - also in Latin. I had a very healing sleep last night, and woke promptly at 6, just in time to head down and turn on the coffee pot. And so it goes.

Darlene

First phase complete

Murias de Rechivaldo to Rabanal del Camino  Sept 14  16 km

I have arrived in Rabanal, where I will be working as a volunteer hospitalera. Even though my job doesn´t start until Sunday morning with breakfast, my training has already started.

But first, today. Angelica, the hospitalera at Murias, was an angel . She was so kind, making sure I had the food I needed - she cooked me rice instead of the pasta for supper, as the primera. Then it was chicken again, plus salad, and yogurt for dessert. I slept much better, and was ready to start this morning by 8, after a breakfast of cafe con leche, yogurt, and granola from home. Food is an incredible preoccupation, as an army ( pilgrims) marches on it´s stomach.  Then the other hospitalero adjusted my pack for me, and I was off. 5 km to Santa Catalina de Somoza, and another ccl ( cafe con leche). 5 more kms, all uphill to el Ganso and the Cowboy Bar, for a juice. Then more very steep up hill, and 6.5 km to Rabanal. ( I went from 997 to 1149 meters in height). It was hot again, and quite a challenge, but the scenery was beautiful, and then there were multiple stops to pick and eat the wild blackberries.

I had lunch - sardines on rice cakes, cheese and a cookie, while waiting for the Albergue to open. They opened late as there was a fiesta today. Then a rest, a shower, and setting up for tea. Tea in the garden with biscuits was lovely. Most of the 28 people here so far joined in and once again they are multiple nationalities, with 6 Danes, and 2 French Canadians.

Tonight I am having dinner with David, who is leaving tomorrow morning, so I have been instructed in how to do his job of cleaning half the bathrooms and the barn. We will go to Vespers at 7 then dinner, then Compline at 9;30, then bed as I start cleaning right after breakfast, which we serve from 6:30-7:30. I feel rushed already, so I will close with a deep breath. I can do it, I can do it.

Blessings
Darlene