Final Thoughts

It's hard to believe that a week ago today I was concluding my time in Spain with Bishop Carlos. Being at home is still a little overwhelming, but nonetheless it is good. Now the work continues as I go forward to finish my final year of undergraduate studies, find the right seminary, but most of all pray for Leon and the pilgrims who pass through (or start) there. There is still much to do.

The people I met and experiences I had only confirmed my belief that the Camino desperately needs evangelists. No matter what reason pilgrims gives for their walking, it is clear to me that the Holy Spirit leads them to come to Spain for a transformative and perhaps healing experience. Some may claim they are only doing it because they can, or because they are retired, or because a relative died, or because they need to think about work, or because they like the "energy," but it is not man who plants the desire to come to a place like the Camino de Santiago in anyone's heart. The Holy Spirit brings people to the Camino and touches them throughout their journey. Jesus reveals himself in myriad ways through experiences, people, nature, and perhaps even thoughts and visions. What the Camino needs are people who will not only help pilgrims understand their experiences in the light of the Gospel, but live as Christ lived before their very eyes.

I spoke to several VBS children on Thursday about the Camino and explained it very simply: "A pilgrim is someone who goes on a journey to look for God." Since you readers aren't as focused on cookies and lemonade, I'm going to add a bit to that statement. A pilgrim is someone who goes on a journey to look for God or to see him reveal himself more. There are people from every continent, every race, and every religion looking to the Camino as a way to God, but what many of them don't know is that he is already walking alongside them.

What I hope and pray to see in my lifetime is a new class of hospitaleros and pilgrims. The current owners of most of the albergues are (with notable exceptions) just trying to make a living or a profit and may or may not be gifted in hospitality. The Camino needs people who will welcome pilgrims in and wash their feet and serve them to bring the Kingdom of God near to all who pass through. That can be a life-long or short-term mission. Language does not matter (at least not for Americans), for almost everyone speaks English. Almost all pilgrims set out, ultimately, to be blessed. The Camino needs people who will walk with their fellow pilgrims in order not only to be blessed but to be a blessing and a light to all they meet on the road to Santiago. Then, Lord willing, when the seeds are planted and watered and perhaps even harvested, the Gospel will bear fruit in every continent, race, and religion and all will worship the one true God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Thank you all for praying for me and keeping up with this blog. I hope you will continue to pray for the pilgrims and even consider what else you might do to bring the Kingdom of God to them. It may be only a word, but the Holy Spirit can use anything we say to plant a seed of the Gospel in someone's heart when we let him lead the conversation. If Spain doesn't tickle your fancy, perhaps you could try it today where you are.

It's been a pleasure writing this blog, and I hope it's been a pleasure and a blessing to read it. God bless!

Pictures

Okay, folks, I've written a lot, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go. I'll caption them as well as I can so you can put them into the timeline of the trip.

This is the albergue in Azofra, where I first met my German friend (I imagine that's why she sent me this picture) and soaked my feet for a while.

This was when I got to live the dream in Hospital de Orbigo during the festival.

This is the long stairway up into Portmarin after crossing a river.

This is me, my German friend, my Nebraskan friend, and my Quebecan friend in front of the cathedral.

German friend, New Jersey, and me.

Clockwise from bottom left: German friend, Italian daughter, New York, Quebec, Australia, Birmingham's boyfriend, Birmingham, Ireland, me, Italian mother (whose birthday we celebrated here at Finisterre).

Shots from Finisterre.

Home

Well, all of my Camino clothes are in the washer and I'm in fresh clothes from home typing on a computer that doesn't cost a Euro for every half hour. Let me bring you up to speed on the last couple of days and then I'll close with a few thoughts.

After my last entry I went to a place with falafel and then returned to the pension to wash my sandals one last time and try to reduce the stink for the sake of my fellow passengers the next day. Once I was pretty much finished packing I laid on the bed for a while channel surfing and then decided to go to sleep early. I slept well and took a shower and put deodorant on both my armpits and my feet (again, for the sake of the other passengers) and took the metro to the airport.

I checked my bag quite easily and got through security disturbingly fast and then set about spending the last of my Euros (about 7 by this time) on food. While I was on my way to the gate I got lucky enough to nab one of the random security checks which meant a second scan of my bag and shoes and also a very close pat-down. They were really polite, though, and the guy checking my passport joked with me about my beard versus the clean-shaven 16-year-old in my passport picture.

The plane ride was long but as comfortable as it could be. They fed us and watered us regularly and the movies were on-demand rather than on rotation so I didn't have to worry about timing anything. Once I got off the plane I joined two others who had connected from Barcelona in waiting for my bag and then being informed that our luggage was still in Madrid. D'oh! After I filled out the proper forms to get my bag sent to Orange Park my brother-in-law picked me up and we headed home for a good home-cooked dinner with my sister and nephew and then a birthday cake and good conversation.

The next morning I played with my nephew and his assortment of cars and animals before going on a long walk (or run for him because he sprints just about everywhere) and appreciating the finer things of nature like throwing rocks in the creek and pretending to be a frog. We had a special lunch at Chik-Fil-A and then they sent me on my way to Jacksonville. Fortunately I didn't have a bag to check so getting in was quite quick and smooth. I kept myself awake through sheer force of will for the entire flight and then had a joyful reunion with the parents and girlfriend.

We went home for a dinner of hamburgers (which I had vowed not to eat in Spain, which made me miss beef) and typical home food, followed by a wonderful cake with my pastor and his wife. I got a call at about 7:30 telling me they had my bag and were going to deliver my bag that night (big kudos to Aer Lingus!) so I was able to wash all my clothes today.

While I have returned home, God's work in Spain is far from finished. It is clear to me from all the players in motion that I met in Madrid that the Holy Spirit is hard at work in Spain and the Camino is a particularly important place because it can serve as a launching point for all of Europe and eventually the whole world. Pretty much every country in the European Union had a representative on the Way and every continent had a representative.

As my friend from New Jersey said, when you know people for such a short amount of time you can only plant seeds and pray. That was true in the six week period I had with my Camino family and it will certainly be true when I return to Spain and only have one day and night with those pilgrims who come to me. But I know without a doubt that if I and those with me dedicate the cafe, albergue, and our lives to God's glory and displaying his Kingdom that he will be faithful and bring fruit from those seeds from Spain to Europe to the ends of the earth. Praise the Lord!

While this is a bit of a wrap-up post, this blog is not quite finished. I have a few pictures to share and hope to show you all more as I request and receive them from my friends (at least those whose contact info I have). For now, though, God bless!

Fins

I´m going to go ahead and admit that this title will seem like a stretch, but trust me that you´ll get a kick out of the end result.
Dinner was delicious, as I expected, and we followed it up by sharing a quarter of a watermelon I saw at the grocery while I was buying orange juice. We had to use dental floss to cut it, but that worked better than expected and we then followed it up with some icecream cones. After a bit of lingering we parted ways and I made the long and very sweaty walk up to the bus station, where I stared off into space for a while and then went down to the bus.
Rather than tell you directly about my experience on the bus, I´m going to tell you a little story. Call it a parable if you want. Once upon a time there was a sardine in a can. This sardine had longer fins than all the others, so he was much less comfortable than they were. The average-height sardine right in front of him also ignored his barely muffled "oomph" as the average sardine leaned his chair aaaaaall the way back right into the long sardine´s knees that were already touching the back of the seat. Needless to say, the long sardine was not very comfortable, but he still got an adequate amount of sleep. The end.
And speaking of Fins, the girl sitting next to me, who was so petite that I found my legs coveted her size, was from Finland (see, I told you you could trust me with the title). She cycled the Camino, so we had plenty to talk about and it was very fun to compare hometowns, especially with the length of days in the seasons. Good seatmate, especially because I was able to use some of her legroom since she was so tiny.
Arrived to the bus station about an hour late, but since I was already getting to Madrid 5 hours early and figured out my metro route ahead of time that was no problem. Got to the right stop and wandered a bit before finding the Episcopal Cathedral and then set about finding a hostel and breakfast (by this time I was pretty disgusting, so a shower was out of the question). I found the latter first and after a lot more walking around I found a hostel that was open (€50 for the night! eek!) and not full and took a nice shower. I put on my best clothes, meaning I zipped on the pants attachments onto my less sweaty shorts and wore my long-sleeved tshirt and also my boots for the last time.
I was still really early, but I went ahead and waited outside the church anyway and was warmly greeted by the diocesan secretary and a pastor from Cuba who was attending some sort of Spanish Episcopal synod that concluded today with the ordination of three deacons and one priest. I understood very little of the Spanish of the service, but at least I had an order of service so I could read with everyone else rather than standing silent like I did in mass. We also sang four hymns, which was fun because a couple of them were familiar tunes. Bishop Carlos gave a (though brief) sermon (from what I understood of it) and after Communion we finished. At that point the couple sitting next to me who had gotten in after the start of the service introduced themselves as Presbyterian church planters and were very interested in the vision God has given me. They´ve been working alongside the Anglicans here (apparently the Anglican church has sent four Australian pastors to Spain as well) and are working to plant churches in Madrid.
After the service was a fellowship time with quite a bit of good food, though I saw little of it because of the number of people (apparently alot of laypeople from the diocese [so, Spain] came to the cathedral for today) and finally received an excited greeting from the bishop himself.
He said several times how happy he was that I came and that he´s really excited for the vision. He listened very attentively to the ideas I´ve had floating around in my head for the past 6 weeks and also inquired about whether the two churches supporting me in the States would be willing to cooperate with the Spanish church (take note, NAMS folk, I think we´ll want to keep in touch with him). He was most excited when I mentioned Léon because apparently he´s been praying about that city because he considers it a critical place and has also wanted for a long time to have a pastor serving pilgrims. He´s working right now in fact to send someone to Santiago itself, so that could be a place with which I could network once I get back here.
All in all, it was a very exciting meeting and I´m praising God for his receptiveness to the ideas. He offered any sort of help, particularly legal advice which was worrying me since my talk with the American missionary yesterday, he could give and I asked for him to pray. He said he´d add me to his list and then prayed for me right then and there and then hurried off to visit a parishioner in the hospital. (I know life as a hospitalero isn´t exactly a walk in the park, but seeing him definitely reminded me why I hope God never calls me to be a bishop. He is one busy guy!)
After I left the cathedral I walked around for quite some time trying to find my hostel again and then obtained a map from the hostess while trying to translate for some Korean businessmen who were checking in without a word of Spanish. They were all very interested that I had walked the Camino and appreciative of what little help I could give them. Now, after a bit of searching (during which I saw a place that looks like it would serve falafel... score!), I´m here.
Tomorrow I fly out of Madrid airport at 11:00 am Spain time and get to D.C. sometime in the early afternoon Eastern Time. I´m pretty pumped to get back home, but not so pumped about sitting on a plane for 8 or so hours. Please pray for safety and good movies (like Kung Fu Panda 2, for instance, though if that´s still in theaters in the States it´s not quite as urgent)! Until next time, God bless!

Birthday Cake

So walking over to the unexplored part of the old city was a great decision! I toured an 18th century Franciscan cathedral and monastery and ended up being there right during mass as well. After that I went down to a more residential area and found a lovely and quiet little park where I sat for some time before I decided to return to civilization. After some debate I decided to go ahead and buy my bus ticket so I wouldn´t have to worry about it today, so I made the long walk up to the bus station and got my passage to Madrid and then found an internet cafe that looked like it would have better Skype capabilities than the place I´ve been frequenting the past week. After I returned to the main plaza my Nebraskan friend and I went to get dinner and then icecream.
When I first got the idea to share a Santiago cake with the incoming pilgrims there were a few considerations I took but many more that I didn´t. For one, I at least knew enough to make a sign that said "Congratulations" in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Korean, Portugese, Czech, and Romanian. (In order to do that I used to Google translate and also plotted a Madrid Metro route from the bus station to the church for tomorrow.) What I didn´t think about was that in the heat of the late morning, one of the last things a pilgrims wants is an extremely thirst-inducing sweet. Those who rejected my offer, if it wasn´t because they were already thirsty or diabetic, seemed to regard me as a beggar even though I was offering a gift rather than requesting money, so I edited my sign to say "Free!" in English and Spanish. Eventually I got rid of it all, and I think the Koreans were most excited and touched to see their own characters instead of the Latin characters that all of the western languages use. One Mexican student from Madrid gave me a big (and shirtless) bear hug when he found out it´s my birthday and his Swedish friend followed suit. About time for another shower now, haha!
I also got to meet four women from Ohio, one of whom is actually a fellow aspiring albergue host(ess). She´s been in Spain for a few years now and is working through the legal hoops required to open a place in Santiago, so I got her contact information and hope it will be a fruitful meeting (it certainly wasn´t random).
We and Nebraska had lunch and then I headed over to the "quick" internet place to video chat with the parents and girlfriend but soon found that the connection was only good enough to maintain about 20 or 30 seconds of conversation before it had to reconnect. Sometimes that took less than a second, but other times it took longer than the last bit of conversation so after an hour we finally called it quits. I went ahead and paid and returned to the closer and cheaper and more reliable internet place in the old city to update this blog. Tonight I´ll have dinner one last time with Nebraska (at the falafel place, of course) and then head over to the bus station and (hopefully) sleep my way to Madrid.
I hope you will all pray for my meeting with the bishop, because I honestly have no idea what to expect. I know he loves the Lord and has a very big heart for his country, but I don´t know how long we´ll meet or even what exactly I should talk to him about that I haven´t already emailed him. But the Holy Spirit will lead us, so I´m not worried, and I´m excited to see how the Spanish Epicopal church worships.
I may not get a chance to update until Monday when I get to D.C., so until next time, God bless!

Fast

I´ve still got it, folks. And by "it" I of course mean my gift for clever (and puntacular) titles. Let me begin by remarking on how quickly it feels like my time in Santiago is passing. I suppose that´s partly due to a rather monotonous schedule (get up, go to mass, update the blog, eat falafel, walk around and run into familiar faces, get some icecream or a treat from the bakery, debate whether to take a nap, get dinner and/or go to mass, read in my room until I fall asleep), but it´s still surprising that tomorrow evening I´ll be taking a bus to Madrid. The other part of the title is, of course, a Catholic pun that I´ll leave you all to figure out for yourselves*.
So after yesterday´s update I walked down to the train station to look at times and prices and discovered that my decision was rather easy. The only train to Madrid on a Saturday is at 11:00 or so and takes 8 hours with all the stops, so a bus wouldn´t really be that much different and would probably be easier because I´ve already used the Spanish bus system.
With that important decision out of the way, I headed back to the old quarter and wandered around a little more. Eventually it was time to think about dinner, so I got a bell pepper, cheese, apple, banana, and bread to bring back old times and ate it in the Cathedral plaza. I waited for mass in the church and got to meet the cute Korean couple I saw a lot the first couple of weeks and congratulate them. After mass I returned to my room, did some laundry, and then waited to fall asleep.
I slept very poorly due to the catch-22 of sleeping in a room close to the municipal square. If I have my window closed, my tiny room gets hot very fast, but if I have it open the sound of protesters is a lot louder and for some reason they only make noise between 11:00 and 5:00 or so rather than at a time when someone would be in the government building or when anyone would pay attention. I´m sure they know what they´re doing, though, since it´s been about a month and a half that they´ve been doing it.
There must be some kind of spiritual warfare happening as well (perhaps due to my speaking out against change without God yesterday) because not only did I sleep poorly but the priests this morning were somewhat drowned out by the construction going on outside the Cathedral. Sheesh. Please pray for all of us in Santiago.
That´s really all I have for today. This afternoon I´ll probably walk over to a part of the old quarter I realized I haven´t seen yet and then I might take a nap to make up for last night. Until next time, God bless!

*Okay, if you really need a hint, here you go: think about what day of the week it is today.

Change

Time for another post-mass entry. After yesterday´s entry I went to the falafel place in hopes of seeing my New Jersey friend one last time, but I realized after the fact that we should have specified which falafel place because there are several in the old city. So she´s in Madrid getting ready to fly home, but at least I have her email.
That afternoon I did something more exhausting and discouraging than walking 50km with a pack twice as heavy as mine: I went shopping. All the pressure to buy, buy, buy nearly did me in and although I was pretty much successful in getting everything I wanted I still felt awful afterwards and had to eat an icecream and take a 90-minute nap to recover. After my nap I went to dinner with my Korean friend, who had a wonderful experience on the Camino (praise the Lord!) and was very excited and encouraging about God´s vision for Léon. I gave her my email, so hopefully we´ll be able to keep in touch, and we parted ways.
After that I listened to the tail end of a children´s violin recital in one of the plazas and then went up to the quiet of my room to read and write. Some of you may remember that last time I was here God gave me a good prayer for sojourners, and I felt called to write down some scattered thoughts I´ve been having since I got to Santiago, so think of this as a evening prayer and the other as a morning prayer.

Lord, you have brought me safe thus far;
please carry me forward again tomorrow.
Lord, you have fed me all I need today;
please provide for me to eat tomorrow.
Lord, you have given me abundant drink;
please open up new wells and springs tomorrow.
Lord, you have blessed me with breath;
breathe anew in me tomorrow.
And all I meet, Lord, let me greet
with the love of Jesus
on my lips, heart, and mind (and feet!)
so that the Kingdom of God
may come near to the pilgrims.
Now, Lord, with your blessing, I´ll sleep all I may,
and rest to gain strength to serve you all the day.
Amen.

I expect those last two lines would be labelled as "sentimental" by my poetry professor, but he can deal with it.
Another subject that´s been on my mind without my choice is the reason for today´s title. You see, every large city I´ve passed through has had a groups of tents set up by protesters in front of the government building. In Santiago, the government building shares the square with the Cathedral, so I´m constantly seeing the evidence of upheaval and discontent with the current establishment. One sign (in English, which I found rather weird, but I suppose it´s for pilgrims to read) that was posted on a safety rail surrounding road work said, "Here they are changing a stone, there they are changing the world."
Now I´ll preface the rest of this entry by saying that I don´t really know very much at all about politics, much less the particular situation in Spain. But that sign got me thinking about a certain presidential campaign that was immensely popular at the time that used the same word, "change," to great effect. Obviously there´s something in the thought of change that creates a spark in the human psyche. There´s an awareness that things are not right with the world and a massive human effort to change because if things aren´t right at the moment, change must be good. Yet so often after the "change" occurs people find life is still hard, that nobody is perfect, and that the world is still not right.
There´s no arguing that walking the Camino changes every pilgrim. They return home different physically (I mean, look at my "beard" when I started!), mentally, and spiritually. Yet I´ve noticed differences in people who have finished. Some find a purpose or direction, some simply find self-contentment, but their behavior is what I notice. My New Jersey friend was a mother to all young people I saw her meet during our time together, and my Korean friend apparently began giving foot massages. On the other side, although my Nebraskan and Quebecan friends had a great experience, they had short fuses to deal wit hthe language barrier at the restaurant and admitted that they got "b****ier" the closer to Santiago they got.
Change is not enough. Jesus says in Mark 10:18, "No one is good exept God alone." Everything else is, at best, neutral in itself. But when God is in something, he makes it good. Thus, the pilgrim who submits to God´s will to be changed however he wants will receive the gift of a change for good from God. The change in my friends may be good in time, but they (and I) must first give the change up to God as an offering of praise and thanksgiving.
All right, that´s all the deep stuff for now. If you want to know what I´m up to while you´re all driving to work or sleeping in or doing whatever you do until lunchtime, I´ll be checking train and bus ticket prices so I can decide how best to get to Madrid on Saturday. I know that puts you on the edge of your seat, so I´m going to leave you with that cliffhanger. God bless!

Many Meetings 2

Like I mentioned before, I´m rapidly losing my cleverness for titles. Such is life. Honestly, though, I wish I had saved this title for this entry because it´s far more appopriate. I thought when I said goodbye to my "Camino family" in Finisterra that I would meet few other friends from the pilgrimage, but oh how wrong I was! While I was in the square looking around, I got a hug from a French guy (who, nice as he is, sounds like a freight train when he´s asleep), that I´ve been seeing for the past few weeks but never spoke to due to the language barrier. I also saw the cute French couple that we shared a meal with in Terradillos de los Templarios as well as a younger French guy (who actually speaks English) with whom I had a conversation during a break on the way to O´Cebreiro.
While I was waiting to do the rooftop tour with my Jersey friend, I got to see an older Australian woman I met on the Meseta and after the fantastic tour (anyone who goes to Santiago as tourist or pilgrim should do it despite the steep €8 pricetag) we met the person I hoped to see most: my Korean friend! She´s leaving tomorrow, so we will have dinner tonight, but I am thanking God for the opportunity to see her again and hear about her experience on the Camino. She had to meet a group for dinner, so we went and met New Jersey´s Czech "Camino daughter" and another of her friends for dinner and afterwards we shared some cookies and beer (I did not partake in the latter due to my juvenile tastebuds) with some German folks.
I´m not only reuniting with old friends but meeting completely new people as well. This morning I went to get a toast and hot chocolate (no more caffeine, remember) breakfast and had a retired Danish pilgrim I´ve only seen once motion for me to sit with him. His English isn´t very strong, but it´s not surprisingly better than my German, so we had a very nice breakfast together and wished each other a good life when we went our seperate ways (he leaves today to go home). I should mention that this guy walked the entire way in hiking sandals and got no blisters, so now that my boots are just about as toasted as my breakfast I might look into that. The chance for tendonitis is higher, but I think most people only got it because they weren´t drinking enough water, which was never a problem for me. If popular demand forces me to it, perhaps I´ll write a special post about gear in the future.
After breakfast I went to mass (which, I just learned from New Jersey, you´re not supposed to take within an hour of eating... oops), which was very good because it´s much quieter than the touristy noon one. A note on mass: I know I said earlier that I miss the "complete" Communion, but I feel it´s only fair that I explain a bit of what I´ve learned about the Catholic Eucharist. Theologically and doctrinally, Christ is fully present in both elements, so it´s not like I´m missing anything by not getting the wine. Practically, it´s much quicker if only the priest takes the wine, and this is particularly true for the Cathedral because there were easily over 1,000 people at the noon mass I attended and wine would have taken at least another half hour to dispense. So there you go.
Not much else going on now, so I´ll say good morning, good afternoon, and good night. God bless!

Bocadillos

For those of you who don´t know Spanish, a bocadillo is basically a sandwich made with baguette bread rather than sliced bread. It´s one of the standard cheaper fares that you can get pretty much anywhere on the Camino, which means most pilgrims are sick of them within the first week. Last night I ran into my friend from New Jersey and after watching an hour-long film about the part of the Cathedral that´s being restored at the moment we went to a restaurant whose menu promised seafood paella. I have to hand it to Spanish restaurants because I imagine they waste a lot less food, but unfortunately this meant they were out of paella. So, despite my statement while looking at the menu that I didn´t think I could take another bocadillo, we both ordered them and had what turned into a 3-hour talk that was one of the best I´ve had on the Camino. She´s very much in love with Jesus (a refreshing person to be around on the Camino!) and we discussed various facets of God and his beauty and our experiences on the Camino. After we finished and I made a motion to get my wallet out, she said "Don´t even think about it" and treated me as well. Very good night.
When I returned to the pension where I´m staying, I had a few minutes of distress when I couldn´t open the front door with the key. There was a keypad next to the door, so I thought maybe there was a code I had missed because I wasn´t paying attention or something. I went over to the local bar to get a hot chocolate (I´m stopping my caffeine habit now that I´m finished walking, plus I don´t need help with digestion anymore since I´m eating falafel at least once every day) and watched for someone to enter so I could get them to let me in as well. Once I finished my drink I went back and quickly realized I had simply not put the key in all the way and I could get in just fine. I sure hope my brain starts working again.
This pension is great because I have a room and bathroom to myself, but I feel that this is an appropriate time to talk about the fact that I am at least a head taller than almost every Spaniard I´ve seen. There are literally some older women who come up to my belly button. I say this because I am on the top floor of the pension and have to deal with a sloped ceiling in the bathroom, which makes things a bit uncomfortable. Even in the shower, which has the highest ceiling, my hair just barely brushes it if I stand up straight. But any place where I can walk around in just a towel while I do my laundry is just fine with me! I even slept in the same clothes that the hobbits wore after Tom Bombadil freed them from the barrow-wight (note that I put that sentence in nerd code so most people can´t be shocked or offended).
This morning I walked around the modern city looking for the place where I used internet my first day here because it´s cheaper than the place next to the old city, but ended up walking around aimlessly for about an hour. After my search I returned to the old city and got a falafel and liter of orange juice (despite my utter lack of respect for Froiz due to their false advertising ["Siempre a su servicio," my blister! Why did I have to go to a bar for dinner on Pentecost, then?], I still got the juice from them) for lunch and a miniature tarta Santiago (it´s a really good, moist kind of almond cake). (That sentence will probably take a while for you all to read due its double-layed parenthetical statements [which seem to be getting more and more frequent the more tired I get], so I´ll forgive you if you have to come back tomorrow to finish reading this entry.)
After that I wandered toward to the cathedral with a vague thought that perhaps I might see my German friend before she flies home, and sure enough up walk her and my New Jersey friend! Apparently she had actually just told New Jersey that she wanted to see me one last time as well, so talk about Providence! The three of us had lunch and then said a quick good-bye to avoid too much visible emotion and now New Jersey and I are waiting for our 7:00 tour of the Cathedral rooftop, which ought to be really spectacular.
The weather has not been great during the day (evenings and nights, for whatever atmospheric reason, are usually clear), so I probably will spend the majority of my time in the Cathedral and perhaps in the other museums of the city that I didn´t get to see last time. I checked the price of Kung Fu Panda, and it´s about equivalent to the USA price or perhaps a dollar more, so I will probably not pay extra to see it in a foreign language and wait to enjoy it in English. I´m hoping to meet my Korean friend from Los Arcos "randomly" any day now, but we´ll see. I don´t have too much else to say, so God bless!

Scattered

So the bus ride to Finisterra was beautiful and I actually had a very good talk with a French man who kept talking about how whenever he´s around phone lines and technology he has "this fire" in his head, so he´s going to Finisterra after having walked the Camino in order to clear his head and then walk to Mecca to tell everyone there is only one God. Like a lot of people I´ve met, he seemed to be a panreligionist (if that´s even a word), but I laid out the Gospel as well as he could and he seemed very thoughtful afterward, so let´s pray it bears fruit in him because he seemed to be very close to the Kingdom of God.
Our Italian and Irish friends were waiting for us at the bus stop and we had a joyful reunion. I also got to see and spend the afternoon (and night, because we shared a room) with my Australian and Quebecan friends, which was good. We checked into the hotel and then went to the beach. The water was so cold I could not stay in for too long, but my Irish friend said it felt warm to her. A bit embarrassing, but I´m not a masochist for the sake of pride so I got out right away and stayed in the sun. My Alabamian friend and her newly-arrived boyfriend met us on the beach, which was fun, and afterward we had lunch and then scattered for the afternoon. Apparently my New York friend, who I met in Viana about 4 weeks ago, managed to change his ticket to leave later because he and the daughter of the Italian pair have formed what my Nebraskan friend calls a "Caminomance." So he´s going to Italy with them for a week before he flies home.
We ate dinner at a bar right next to the light house on the very western tip of the town and watched the sunset between eating and toasting to "La Mama." I had a plate full of little squid and shared some mussels with my Irish friend, and both of the dishes were very tasty. My Italian friends both encouraged me about the vision for Léon and told me they will certainly walk again to come see me once I´m settled. First, apparently, I have to come visit them in Italy, though, so they can cook me some real food. I need to learn the language when I get home! During the sunset we all spent time with our thoughts, so I sang a few hymns and shivered in the cold. On the walk back to town we walked for whatever reason two by two and I was with my Quebecan friend. We had a very good conversation about family and the importance of it when I referred to how close my family is. He told me his parents divorced when he was young and his sister never responds to his attempts to reach out. It was a very intimate time.
We were all reluctant to say goodbye that night, but eventually we all exchanged out information and then went to sleep. This morning I had breakfast with my roommates from last night (Australian and Quebecan) and then we took the bus back to Santiago, during which I experience carsickness for the first time due to the very bad driving and the winding road along the coast. Yikes. I survived the ride and said the rest of my goodbyes, and then found a really nice pension for (eek) €33 a night. I was just desperate to find a place, though, so I did´n´t try to shop around, but it´s a good place and I have my own room for the first time in weeks and it´s about a stone´s throw from the Cathedral so I´m right around everything.
After that I got a falafel and now I´m just going to take it easy in Santiago, explore the Cathedral, the parks, and the people-watching in the cathedral square. Hopefully I´ll meet my German friend somewhere soon because she leaves tomorrow, but that will most likely be my last tough goodbye. I know the locations of two cinemas, both of which are showing Kung Fu Panda, so if it´s not too expensive I might see that. But mostly I think I will jsut enjoy walking around without a backpack and reuniting (I already met up with my friend from New Jersey over the course of writing this post and we´re going to go take a tour of the Cathedral later) with acquaintances along the way.
I´m hungry as well to return home and be among my family, especially after saying goodbye to most of my "Camino family." Thank you all for praying for me, and God bless!

Many Meetings

Those of you math whizzes reading this will wonder why I´m up at this hour. Well, despite the peaceful and quiet sleep I had here last night, tonight (or this morning) I woke up twice, at 3:30 and at 5:30 to find people just coming in from what I can only assume was a night on the town. (The Spanish don´t start the party until around midnight and usually go until 6:00 or so Sunday morning. This is not a healthy country.) Now the couple in the top bunks next to me (who got back at 5:30) keeps whispering and giggling just loud enough to aid the two snorers in the room in keeping me awake. On to the events!
So pretty much none of the things that on the 17th I thought would happen on the 18th actually happened. I set my alarm for 7:00 (I know, late riser!) and woke up at 6:00 ready to go. I waited for a bit to have the pilgrim breakfast at the 5-star hotel and pretty much didn´t leave that 50-meter radius until dinner time. The reason was that I met an American from Louisiana who teaches at a Catholic high school and is almost completely like-minded to me, a German girl who walked all the way from her home town, and an older Belgian man who is a true nomad and has done this Camino and all the others and the one to Jerusalem more times than he can remember, all on his bike. The breakfast food itself turned out to be rather dull, just churros, rolls, and coffee, but the conversation was so good that the four of us just stayed in the little pilgrims´ eating room until it was time to go out and wait for lunch and then we stayed again until about 3:00 when we got kicked out by the cleaning crew, so we just sat in the cathedral square and continued to talk. The American and the Belgian (with small input from me) engaged in a respectful and personal discussion of faith, the former being a strong Catholic and the latter being a rather mystical Christian who seems more like a panreligionist. I got to talk to the German girl in the square about her experience and reason for walking. All in all, a good experience that was much better than walking around the city and shopping, which I can do tomorrow or the next day or anytime before I leave for Madrid on the night of the 25th.
It was about 5:30 and we were still talking when my friends from Quebec and Nebraska hailed me and we had a joyful reunion. Both of them apparently were about half a day behind my German friend and me and had just arrived to Santiago from Monte do Gozo that day (this is the 18th, I´m just trying to get my days straight because of the weird schedule my roommates have forced me to). We and my German friend went out to a very good (though lacking in hummus and falafel) dinner and then got icecream and sat in the park for a few hours. I got their contact info (which means infinite chances to plant seeds through our correspondence) and said "goodbye" to my Quebecan friend who flies out today and a tentative "see you later" to my Nebraskan friend who will take a bus back from Finisterre on Friday or Saturday.
It was about 10:00 when I returned to the albergue (it´s like a half-hour walk before I even see signs for the old town) and I quickly got ready for bed because I was tired from all the good but powerful interactions I´d had during the day. After I read Ephesians 6 and was praying through it, I felt a definite spiritual (note the lower-case S) presence in the room and fought my weariness to call on Jesus´name. I still fell asleep, but I had a nightmare between my 3:30 wakeup call and my 5:30 wakeup call (and subsequent "white noise" of whispering, giggling, and snoring) that was more just generally disturbing than truly frightening. But anyway, I´m up now and will be taking the first bus to Finisterre with my German friend to go see our Italian and hopefully Irish and Alabamian friends, not to mention the "End of the World." I might even get a chance to start undoing my farmer´s tan, but if not I plan to at least put my feet in the water to get some salt on my blisters.
Anyway, I don´t have much else to tell, so I´ll update you hopefully later today but definitely tomorrow. God bless!

Weight

I could go all kinds of directions with this title, but I´ll start with one of the less obvious. Well, actually, I´ll start with the events of last night and then get to the title. After I finished writing the last entry on the frustrating on-and-off internet connection in one of the many bars, I had what felt like a very large dinner of a bell pepper (red again), banana, cheese, and an entire loaf of bread. I then walked about the town a bit more before returning to find my two German friends from the night before eating dinner. They shared some rice with me and we had a good conversation about food and culture.

Today was not only my last day but (somewhat appropriately) my hardest as well, and the reason is related to the title of this entry. You see, after yesterday the blister on my heel had reached Godzilla-like proportions and had more than just "scratched the surface," so to speak. I thought the new moleskin sticker would work to reduce friction, but it immediately came off when I tried to put on my boot. Walking actually brought tears to my eyes, so I made the quick decision to hang my boots by their laces over my pack and walk the final 20 km to Santiago in socks and my already old and worn-out Adidas soccer sandals. Just to paint you a picture, these (I´m wearing them now after having washed them with hot water and soap) are the ones that have those little nubs to "massage" your feet (though half of the ones on this pair were already worn off). They weren´t too uncomfortable with socks, actually, but I don´t expect to keep them for long after my return to the States.

Anyway, the sandals wouldn´t ahve been so bad, but I had also just added about 5 pounds to the load on my back, which led to some extreme discomfort on my hips, where most of the weight of the pack rests. If you´re lucky, I´ll still have the bruises on my waist to show my close friends and family and those who pay the cover charge.

The approach to the city was actually quite joyful and there was a palpable excitement at Monte do Gozo (Mountain of Joy, named for the reaction to seeing the cathedral only 5 km away). I also got to meet and talk to a Spanish man who is walking with his wife from a town right before Sarría after having promised after two miscarriages to walk to Santiago if God blessed them with a third healthy child. As we talked, we were hailed by an American woman from LA who is walking with her sister and 78-year-old mother (it was her idea, apparently) from Sarría and is a widowed mother of two. I was struck to meet two such wounded people on the same day and to learn their reasons for walking, and I expect there are many more who walk because of other, perhaps less obvious wounds. Thankfully the Lord of the Camino is also the Prince of Peace and a God of healing. As they say in Return of the King (the book version and yes, I´m a nerd), "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer."

I was so tired of the extra weight that I found an albergue at the outskirts of the city where I got a bed for two nights and (more importantly at the time) a place to keep my pack while I walked on into the city. This place is very welcoming, but also extremely New Age with all sorts of religious symbols and Celtic runes. It seems like pretty much anything goes (even cherubs) except for crosses, which are nowhere to be found. But hey, it´s cheap, and I just about know Ephesians 6 by heart now, so I will be reading that before bed!

Once I reached the old quarter my German friend hailed me (she stayed at Monte do Gozo last night) and we went to mass together. I must say, I have never been so blessed and so angry in the same church service. The sermon that the priest gave was by far the best I´ve heard on the Camino and nearly brought tears to my eyes (next time I go I will take notes so I can share it with you all), but for some reason the several tour groups (and the restless German teens beside me) could not be silent for one hour and kept distracting. Also, I´m generally laid back about people nudging me in a crowd or line, but when I get knocked off balance by a bunch of old tourists pushing past me to take Communion it takes a large amount of God´s grace to keep me calm. It was sad to see that the part where people paid the most attention was when they used the botafumeiro, but I´m still glad that the Roman church has put such an evangelical priest in such a critical place for bringing people close to the kingdom of God.

After mass we met two of our American friends and had lunch and then I went back to my albergue to shower and change into my souvenir (and clean!) t-shirt. I met my German friend again at the falafel place (which did not disappoint in its pure chickpea goodness) and afterward we got icecream and wandered around the modern city to find this internet place. Tomorrow I´ll spend a good amount of time getting reacquianted with the city (I´m starting to get refamiliarized with the old quarter, but I have yet to be as comfortable as last time) and maybe do some shopping. But mainly I´ll focus on relaxing and begging for a free breakfast at the 5-star hotel with my Compostela in hand. I´m hoping for waffles or French toast, but I´ll be happy with whatever I can get.

And speaking of weight, I just want to go ahead and say now to all of you, I am perfectly healthy and am not starving. When you see me you might be inclined to think differently, but whatever it looks like, no matter how much weight I´ve lost (I won´t know that until I see a scale at home), I am in perfect health and there is no reason to fret when you see me. Until tomorrow, sports fans, God bless!

Cards

So the first thing I want to do is add a few thoughts to last night. First of all, despite my comments about the Catholic church I have enjoyed experiencing it to a greater degree than ever before. Also, I did not mean to imply there is anything wrong with old women, only that to an outsider a church body comprised of no one else looks like a place to avoid.
Second, I meant to add a lesson I´ve learned over the past couple of days which is this: one of the best ways to meet people on the Camino is to carry a package of cookies and offer to share with the other pilgrims waiting for the albergue to open. No other food is quite as easy or sanitary to share, and even if the person declines he or she will do it with a smile and be more likely to talk to you in the future. Now I always carry cookies with me for just such a purpose (and because they are a tasty source of carbohydrates and chocolate!).
Thirdly, I forgot yesterday to mention that the albergue continued the fine tradition of doorless showers which allowed a rather awkward conversation to take place between myself and a Spanish man. He was very friendly and seemed completely unperturbed by the fact that we were both wearing no clothing and I kept my back turned to him as often as I could. Hopefully he interprested my awkwardness as difficulty with the language (which wouldn´t be wrong, either).
Fourthly, I finally machine-washed all my socks and the clothes I wasn´t wearing yesterday, which was lovely but rather exorbitantly-priced (€4.40 just for the washer!) so I smell better and feel cleaner than I have in weeks. I only wish I´d remembered to do my sleeping bag as well because it´s been months since I washed it and it smells rather bad. Still, a clean towel and clothes are not to be undervalued!
After I wrote the entry yesterday I returned to the albergue for dinner and ate with two young German girls and a young Spanish couple in their final year of medschool. They all spoke English as their common language, so I was able to join in quite easily and soon enough we were all laughing about the various difficulties language presents with all the peoples gathered here. The Spaniards also taught the three of us how to play games using the strange deck of cards I´ve been seeing since the beginning of the trip. Rather than the normal spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts, the suits are swords, literal wooden clubs, gold coins, and cups. Also, the deck for some reason doesn´t have 8s or 9s. But the games they taught us were basically the same as two games the three of us already knew from the "normal" poker deck. All in all, it was a very fun night.
Starting this morning was pretty rough because of the heel blisters, but the pain actually gave me a jolt of adrenaline that woke me up before the cafe-con-leche I take during my break for the day. It also lessened once my sock stuck to it, so after a few miles I didn´t really feel it. While I was sitting outside the little cafe my German friend stopped by (she stayed in a private albergue in Arzúa because she oculdn´t take another night of loud talking and snoring, so I didn´t see her much yesterday) and we walked for a mile or so together before I had to stop and get a tuna empanada because I was feeling lightheaded as a result (I think) of dehydration, caffeination, and hunger. After my second break I felt very good and made good time through the eucalyptus (introduced to Spain for the paper industry) groves to Arca do Pino, which sits a mere 12 miles from Santiago.
Although I will certainly take some time to adjust to living in one place again, I can´t say that I will be too sorry to have my own (long-enough) bed and the ability to sleep whenever I want without the rustling of plastic bags waking me up (today, for instance, I was in the middle of a lovely nap when the young Spanish woman in the bunk beside me had not the energy to do what sounded like an entire unpacking and repacking at the foot of her bed rather than beside it right next to my head). Santiago itself, as well, will be fun to rediscover for the last few days as I search out good restaurants (today I daydreamed about the falafel place I frequented last time) and souvenir shops and other places of interest. I am also looking forward to celebrating my Italian friend´s birthday in Finisterre on Sunday!
Beyond all that, however, I am excited to worship with some Spanish Anglican brothers and sisters next Sunday and meet the bishop. And then, of course, I will be home to be with family and friends. Anyway, I´ll update you again from Santiago! God bless!

Boots Cats

Fun fact: if you repeat this title again and again rapidly (aloud) you will be beatboxing. Anyway, on to the main body of the entry.
Last night I made a step I haven´t made in my history of pilgrimage-making and bought a bell pepper to eat with my dinner. It was GREAT! What with my half baguette, liter of orange juice, and banana (and cookies) I had a very good meal including the pepper. After dinner I readied myself for bed and then went to the mass, where I finally got to learn the name of one of the many Koreans I´ve been pacing for a while. Since I´m on the subject of church, let me share with you something I´ve been thinking about for a while now and that I actually talked about with an Italian guy for about half an hour as we walked.
As an English major, I´ve read many poems and essays by English and American writers who have gotten fed up with "the church" (interestingly, none of them ever mention Jesus) and look at Christianity as a dead religion no different than the Greek and Roman mythologies. Having come from a vibrant (and American) church I always wondered how they could ever feel that way. Having been to several masses over the last four weeks, I think the reason is this: in an American church, there is little historical quality to the building itself and the priest and parishioners usually seem more at home and comfortable. In these old European churches, however, the services have all been presided over by tired-looking and solemn old men and attended by mostly old women. A troublingly large fraction of the priests seem to just be going through the motions. And it´s even worse with monks because they wear the medieval clothing. All of these factors, I believe, contribute to non-believers´ impression that Christianity is a dead religion. (My Italian friend and I agreed that, of course, it´s NOT because Jesus is alive.)
Anyway, I slept well after mass until about 3:30 when a combination of heat (due to some short-sighted individual closing both windows), bladder pressure, and one guy letting loose infrequent coughs that sounded like gunshots. I got up to take care of the first two problems and then tried desperately to get back to sleep with the (otherwise nice) guy continuing to emit these blasts of air to clear his throat. I cleared my throat loudly to try and and hint at a more polite and quieter method of cleaning the airways, but he only gestured grumpily in my direction as if to say "what do you want me to do?!" (3:30, I´ve decided, is nobody´s best hour.) The next morning I did my best to explain in Spanish a better path, so let´s hope he takes my advice because we´re in the same room again.
Today was a good day, but the last 4 or so kilometers were pretty rough. Considering I did about 18 miles, though, it´s not that surprising. Now I´m in Arzúa, which I only remembered is a bit dumpy after I arrived and passed by 2 miles the quiet little town with an award-winning albergue. Oh well. Still, since it´s bigger I found a grocer store and got another bell pepper to eat with dinner along with some apples and bread and cheese for tonight and tomorrow.
Now you´re probably all wondering what´s with the title other than being a lesson in how to be cool. The reason I put "boots" in there is because, well, I think it´s time I talked about mine. Let me begin by saying that no pair of boots is perfect (especially after almost 1000 miles!). When I first started last time I quickly found that if I was going to survive the Camino I needed to reduce the friction between my Achilles tendon and the upper part of the back of the boot. Fortunately I had a kit with teflon stickers to do just that, and those worked like a charm for about 900 miles. Today, however, I had to finally remove them because they have become so worn that they did more harm than good. Judging by the blisters now oozing on the backs of my feet, I´d say my boots haven´t changed for the better in this area. Two more days to Santiago and then I´ll be wearing flip-flops for the rest of the summer!
Confession time: I only put "cats" in the title for the beatboxing joke. I´m only human. Anyway, I´ll be about 20 km away from Santiago next time you hear from me! God bless!

A Good Rest

I slept very well last night and feel much better today, so thank you all for your prayers. I drank a second liter of orange juice before bed and woke up early this morning to leave at about 6:00, which is on the early side for me. There has been constant cloud cover today but no rain, so starting out it was a bit hard to see, but I soon got into a rhythm of prayer, praise, and walking to arrive at a good break spot. After a cafe-con-leche and chocolate croissant I went on my way and arrived in Palas del Rei a good hour and a half before the 1:00 opening time of the municipal albergue which so far has turned out to be a lot nicer than my book (which I will certainly be discarding and replacing with a different one for next time) led me to believe. Still no doors on the showers, and this time the bathrooms aren´t even divided between sexes which made things pretty awkward for people. (I was quick enough to use the showers in a different dormitory before anyone was assigned to it, but my German friend was not so fortunate.)
Palas del Rei is a lot different than I remember. Last time I stayed at a €9 private albergue where I received some of the most disgruntled service I ever had for such a high price and such little rooms and small facilities. The municipal one is spacious and the hospitaleras were very welcoming and kind to me. Interesting.
The city is also a lot smaller than I remember, but to be fair I was walking a lot more and getting less sleep and recovering from a sickness last time, so my memory can´t always be trusted. I met an American guy while I was taking my shorter-than-expected walk around the city that I´ve met once or twice before. He told me that the Asian film crew I saw yesterday in Portomarin will be in Santiago for the noon mass on the 16th and that the cathedral will be performing the special service that includes the giant incense burner on their behalf. He recognized by my cross that I might actually care about such a thing and said he´s going to have to take a bus into Santiago anyway because he has a meeting in Madrid on the 17th and his feet are in bad shape. From the sound of it he´ll be staying in the 5-star hotel in Santiago, which made me a little jealous, but I can at least hope for one of the free meals they give out to pilgrims with their certificates.
As much as I´d like to see this special service, it would mean shaving an entire day off my schedule, and while I could do that I´m not convinced for the sake of my mood and ministry to my fellow pilgrims that I should do that. I expect I´ll get to see the giant censer in action some other day. In the meantime, I´m hoping to continue meeting and blessing those who are going at the same pace as I am.
Not much else to say, it´s been a fairly quiet day today. I´m going to get something green and some fruit from the supermarket for dinner, and after that I´ll go to mass and then to bed. God bless!

One More Thing...

Iḿ eating well and have been drinking a daily liter of orange juice for about a week, but my throat feels a bit scratchy this afternoon. Please pray for good health while I walk because I know once I stop my immune system will be in overdrive without having to compete with muscle and joint repair. God bless!

Highs and Lows

So Iḿ in Portomarín today, and Iḿ feeling the burn from a long ascent and steep descent. But it was a good day. Back to where I left off:
I forgot yesterday to describe the albergue where I stayed. Let me just say, it was the most expensive (€9) but worth every centivo. It had a fountain to provide a nice background noise, a reading room, free massages (except on Sundays, gosh darn it), a centrifugador (thatś a device that spins your clothes to get the water out of them) which meant my clothes dried very fast, and at night a fire to sit by and talk.
Since everything was closed for Sunday/Pentecost/something related to St. Anthony that involves loud fireworks in the middle of the day, my German friend and I had the cheapest pilgrim menu we could find (since theyŕe all pretty much the same, thereś no sense in spending extra money on them). We had a very good conversation and concluded that on the Camino, you see people as they really are because when people walk 20-30 km every day they can maintain the façade they have at home. As an example, I used the German guy who told me he hated me because of my walking sticks. Not very pleasant of him to say, but he was being open and honest. So it is with almost everybody. I've noticed it with myself as well, that I see some raw emotions rising up in me that I have to pray to squash. For instance, I get extremely angry at people who turn the light on when there are still people trying to sleep, even (usually) when Iḿ already up. The temptation to hate them and snorers (even though they can always help themselves - they are asleep after all) is very fierce at times. Yet there are others who are so extremely peaceful that they are a true testament to the grace of God. I have never seen another place where both the fallenness of humanity and the power of God grace are so apparent at one time.
Anyway, after dinner I went to the mass at the somewhat disturbingly Mary-centric church. But it was a good mass nonetheless. After that I spent some time with the group by the fire and then went to bed and slept very well.
Today was a good day, full of sights and smells. I walked for a while with a Hungarian girl and an older woman from Canada that I've seen for a few days now. I hope to speak to the Canadian (from Toronto) more about Christianity because at one point while we were talking about the sorry state of the media and the news she said something that pricked my ears. To be more specific, I referred jokingly to the threat from American liberals that they would move to Canada and she said that she loves Americans and that theyŕe welcome "as long as they don't bring any hard right Christianity." I didn't get a chance to pursue that vein any more, but hopefully I can get a sense of her thoughts about Christians in the days to come.
Now Iḿ staying in the municipal albergue here in Portomarin, and itś nice but the room Iḿ in already smells like feet which might be a problem if we can't open more windows. Something else a bit disconcerting about both municipal albergues in which I've stayed is that neither have curtains or doors for the showers, so privacy is basically down to zero unless you count the deviders between showers. The waterś hot, though, and I sang Amazing Grace both times (one older guy hummed along and thanked me in OĆebreiro as I left), so it could be worse.
Tomorrow I have my last big climb and after that it will be all gentle downhill to Santiago. So far the crowds are not nearly as bad as I feared, but that is subject to change the closer we get. Iḿ praying for you all, especially my Soulsters serving the Jacksonville community this week. God bless!

Just Like Old Times 2

As you can see, I´m losing my pencheant for clever titles. Before I press on into this entry, I think an apology is in order. I´ve been rather frank throughout this trip in discussing some rather personal matters such as undergarments and bathroom business that I might usually refrain from mentioning. However, in case you have not had the opportunity to meet one of these amazing people, pilgrims are not "usual" people. And to be honest the matters I´ve written about are a rather important element of my daily life (things are simple here), but I will try to rein it in and I´m sorry if I´ve embarrassed any of you readers with the "potty stories."
Now on to the events of the day. I found a chess set in yesterday´s albergue and set up a game to challenge and get to know any takers. An opponent came soon enough in the form of a young German guy who´s been walking with a young Dutch guy and a young (and extremely petite) Polish girl. We both made a lot of stupid mistakes, but I ended up winning. I was more excited to meet him, though. Unfortunately our conversation mainly consisted of him telling me we actually crossed paths in Burgos and he told me he hated me (yikes) because of the tapping of my walking poles. He seemed convinced that no one who is not very old should use them, because my reply that they make it easier and help with the hills was me with "Well then why don´t you send your pack ahead as well if you want it to be easier?" Not much use arguing against that. About that time I remembered passing him in Burgos, and I have to say I don´t think he was exaggerating based on the expression I remember him showing me at the time. He also asked me about my Tau cross, thinking I had bought it on the way and I think he may have intended to tease me about buying it "for protection" like some other pilgrims. A bit of an abrasive guy, but unfortunately I think he went past Sarria so I may not get to see him again.
My German friend and I made dinner together and I got a bit of a German lesson from her and the Dutch guy. I was hoping it would be easy and similar to English compared to Spanish, but that turned out to be woefully wrong. Still, I at least know the personal pronouns, so I´ve got a start.
Went to a lively and wonderful mass presided over by a priest who I think should be a model for all priests. He was enthusiastic, funny, and down-to-earth in explaining as well as performing the mass. As he said (and I think a lot of the priests I´ve seen need to learn this), it´s not a funeral, so at the peace we all hugged instead of just shaking hands. He and Jesús in Villafranca are two of my main inspirations for starting a ministry on the Camino, actually.
The walk to Sarria was rough, though I had a great night´s sleep. I know after about 400 miles it sounds like an understatement to say it, but I´m tired. After a pitstop at a bar about halfway, though, I read the daily office and the Pentecost prayer and sang the rest of the way and felt much better. The way is still beginning to take its toll. I think I may just take a bus to Finisterre this time for two reasons: a) as I said before, I´m tired and b) "La Mama" as we call her (the mother in the pair of Italians) will be celebrating her birthday there on the 19th, which is too soon for me to walk without straining myself overmuch, and I would like to have one last meal with them and my German friend. The Camino Finisterre can wait, but I may not have another chance to see them until Paradise.
On entry into Sarria I ran across an English man I´ve heard about but never spoken to until now. He´s very friendly and told me he´s walking because both of his parents died 8 months ago and he wanted to find some answers. He seems very open to God, so I hope I may be a blessing to him and perhaps share the Gospel with him. It´s also interesting that I met him here, because last time I was in Sarria I met another man (who even looks a bit similar) who told me he came to look but had not yet found. Unlike him, however, my English friend does not seem to have given up all hope just yet. Please pray that I can at least plant some seeds with him.
Today is not only Pentecost, but the start of Soul in the City, a local missions week at my church at home. I´m praying for everyone involvd in it (have been for a while) and look forwards to hearing how God moves this summer. Not much else to say now, so God bless!

Up and Over

I´m in Triacastela now, but since it´s been two days instead of one let me begin where I left off. Villafranca was great, and the dinner was very similar to last time in its warmth and congeniality. While I was excited at the start to have my old bed, when I woke up at 1:00 to find my bunkmate making noises that would embarrass a pig my happiness diminished a bit. After I went to the bathroom, I gave him a gentle kick while I climbed back into bed in hopes that he would change position and breath easier. When he didn´t so much as pause in his slumber, I got up again and spent some time sitting down in the bathroom to take care of some business I hadn´t taken care of in a while. I kicked him hard enough the next time that he woke up but of course he got to sleep a lot faster than I did. I looked down to see if I dared ask him to sleep on his side but he was already sleeping on his side. He was one of those few who snore no matter what. He also had a bare arm that looked big enough to dissuade me from waking him up without making it look like an "accident," but I fell asleep pretty fast anyway.
The next day I loaded up at the €3 buffet breakfast and set out to climb not one but two mountains. The descent from Mt. Pradela was extremely steep and pretty much ruined me for the rest of the day even though the descent was left than halfway to O´Cebreiro. I stopped again at a cafe (where I know I stopped last time) to take care of business again and order a cafe-con-leche to be polite. After the caffeine kicked in I felt a little better and at last made it up to O´Cebreiro and into the province of Galicia, which has proved to be the most memorable province. Every street, building, and restaurant in that town reminded me of last time.
Today I made the gentle-and-then-steep descent from O´Cebreiro and found that every path, turn, and slope was familiar. I think part of it is that most paths in Galicia, especially the ones through towns, have had cows on them a some point so there is a near-constant sweet smell of manure (seriously, it is not nearly as gross as you´d think). Anyway, after I got within 5 km of Triacastela (which is only 20 km away from O´Cebreiro) I took a break at yet another place where I stopped last time. I broke the trend, though, by staying in a different albergue here, a private one that is very home-like and very nice (though it´s also among the most expensive places I´ve stayed at €8) with a cute older couple for hospitaleros. It has a kitchen, so I may cook pasta with my German friend for dinner, and I´m looking forward to the pilgrims´ celebration ("celebration" as in "celebration of the Eucharist") at the local church.
Tomorrow I´l be in Sarria, which is where a lot of people start, so it will be a lot more crowded tomorrow. But that is not any trouble, because it also means I´m within a week of Santiago! I´ve still been able to be alone for the most part during the mid-morning part of the day, so I can´t really complain of the crowds, though the people I do meet usually travel in noisy packs now which makes it more difficult to concentrate on prayer and soaking in the lovely Galician atmosphere. Oh well, that´s life on the Camino so I have to take it as it comes. Still, I´d advise anyone who travels here with a group to try to stay in mostly-silent groups of two or less during the walk and leave the socializing and talking for the stops. That´s just my opinion, but I expect God touches even the ones who follow a different method. Anyway, I don´t have much else to say, so God bless!

Don´t Be Hasty

Or do, whatever. Today I walked about 19 miles, making it one of my longer days, but somehow I did it in about 6 hours including a pretty long break halfway. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, I´m in Villafranca del Bierzo (which is a pretty little area that´s like a miniature La Rioja with lots of vineyards) in my favorite albergue from last time, the Ave Fenix. It´s pretty much exactly like I remember, except the shower was a bit warmer. I even scored the same bed as last time!
Also had a joyful reunion with my German friend, who did a short day from Cacabelos (about 8 km or 5 miles back) because of a foot injury. She shared some food with me which was really sweet and we talked for a bit. I also met a couple from Seattle that was very friendly and told me they met a group of 7 Floridian women! Haven´t run into them yet, but Í imagine it would feel like home.
Last night needs some explainging and a confession. I don´t think I have ever come so close to deliberately hurting another person as I did last night. I have also never before considered picking up a fully grown sleeping person in order to turn him on his side. Anyway, despite the spacious and wonderful room I was in, the French man sleeping two beds down made the walls vibrate with his snoring (I´m not exaggerating, I could feel it in my pillow). Since I don´t know how to whisper "try sleeping on your side, please" in any other languages beside English, when he woke me up at about midnight I was at a loss of what to do. Seriously, if I ever do open or have any sort of influence in an albergue, there will be a sign telling people to sleep on their sides because that would solve most of their problems. Anyway, after I went to the bathroom I stood at the foot of his bed considering whether I could turn him over without a) waking him up or b) accidentally (or purposely) rolling him out of bed. I never found an answer, but I finally remembered the couch in the lobby and took my sleeping bag and pillow down there for what ended up being a pretty nice sleep until the hospitalero turned the light on at 5:30. But of course I can´t exactly begrudge him like I could for the snorer, even though it´s not exactly his fault either. Ave Fenix has a room just for snorers, apparently, though I don´t know how many people actually admit that when they check in. Still, it´s a good idea.
By my calculation I should reach Santiago in 8 days, after which I plan to walk another 3 days to Finisterre. After that, who knows, but I will have about 5 days of downtime in Santiago to eat my fill of helado, falafel, and various other goodies. It should be fun to sit in the square every day and hopefully see familiar faces coming in, but I might also take the opportunity to minister to any pilgrims who look like they need the Gospel or at least some encouragement. There´s also a palace-turned-5-star-hotel that gives a free meal to the first 10 pilgrims who show up with their certificate, so I´ll definitely be pulling the birthday card for a breakfast if I can´t get in before that.
Tomorrow I get to climb up another mountain to O´Cebreiro, which is every bit as Celtic a place as it sounds. Tomorrow also marks my entry into Galicia, so I will hopefully be getting some good seafood soon, including some pulpo (octopus) that I was too scared to try last time and have regretted not getting ever since. I might even get some tomorrow because I think I remember seeing a pulperia of good repute in O´Cebreiro last time. We´ll see. Until then, God bless!

Animals

I thought I´d add a bit of levity by writing another entry to tell a story about something a bit funny that happened today. Let me preface this story by saying there are far more dogs and cats out on the street here than there are in the States (and, I suspect, in most Asian countries) and some of them seem to have learned what pilgrims and tourists are good for: food.
So I´m taking a break in Acebo, I go outside to eat my own food after a cafe con leche in the bar (which has an albergue as well where I stayed last time), and this cat comes up to me and just sits there staring at me eat my bread. I knew what she wanted, so I ripped off a bit of bread and tossed it in front of her. She sniffs it and continues staring. I balled up a piece without crust, thinking perhaps the piece had been too big. Sniff, then stare. I started on my orange and gave her the navel part. Same treatment. The seed fell on the path with that one, so to speak. Every crumb of bread that fell between my feet as I tore pieces off seemed to her to have potential, but (fortunately, so I didn´t have to scare her off) she didn´t try to get them. Finally, she seemed to realize that this pilgrim was one that doesn´t carry milk, meat, or cheese with him while he walks and wandered off. I was rather relieved she didn´t get too close, because the last cat I saw that close was definitely diseased and wild and this one didn´t have a collar either. After she left several birds who had anxiously been keeping their distance came, eyed me, and enjoyed the bread I´d tossed and dropped. I´m glad someone could appreciate it!
That´s all. A bit of fun before I go to bed. God bless!

Holy Ground

So yesterday was a good day. I went for one of my daily walks around town and at about 2:30 I walked through a narrow path up a hill and found a medium-sized and very open field surrounded by a wall with one place over which I could walk. What drew me to enter at all was the fact that in the field and beyond there were yellow flowers galore, which I have associated with God´s presence ever since following them out of exile last time I was here. As I walked toward the middle of the field I also felt I should take my sandals off, so I left them behind and kept walking. It was a very peaceful spot, and I felt sure that the crickets chirping were singing praise to God. I looked around for anything that looked outo f the ordinary and saw a single-stalked flower by itself. I walked over to it and looked around to see other flowers like it sprouting up all over the field.
Here is the interpretation I took away of what I saw in the field. There was nothing built there, and nothing around it but yellow flowers. I took the field to represent both Spain and Léon, because there are so few churches but the Holy Spirit is most assuredly present here. The single flower I took to represent a café and church plant in Léon while the new shoots were the promise of following church plants throughout the Camino and all of Spain. With this great revelation in mind I sang a praise song and walked back into town.
Of course doubts have come, but I have tested this vision numerous times today and it passes every test I know to give it. And Léon is a dark place. I didn´t write this before, but the Sunday morning I left (it was about 6:00) there were all manner of young people just finishing a night of partying with, I suspect, no plans to even bother attending church later in the day. Also, as I passed by one man who was standing outside smoking and said hello to be polite, he shouted after me what I think translates to, "You just say ´Hola´!" Not sure if it was as menacing as it sounded at the time or if he was just teasing me for being obviously foreign, but it certainly didn´t make me feel at all welcome to the city. Also, the medieval quarter, where I think would be the best place to go, is continually crowded with tourists and vendors selling touristy souvenirs. There is a definite need for a place of peace.
Anyway, today I walked in what has to be the coldest weather so far as I finished the climb up and over Mount Irago through a fierce wind and cloud. Once on the other side things got better and I finally got to a warmer altitude before arriving at last to Molinaseca, which is a quaint and very Spanish little village. The albergue here is on the pricier side, but has very nice (non-bunk!) beds and takes the cake for the best shower on the Camino.
Tomorrow I will get to stay in what was probably my favorite albergues last time, the Ave Fenix, which is run by an older man named Jesús who has dedicated his entire life to serving pilgrims. It´s a long 30 km (18 miles) to get there, but at least I won´t have to climb over another mountain until the next day. Anyway, that´s about all for now, so God bless!

People 2

As the title suggests, this post will mainly be a discussion of the new folks I´ve met since falling behind my "old group." Before that, however, let me bring you up to speed on where I am and how I´m doing. Astorga was by far my best night´s sleep in over a week. The bed was long enough, comfortable, and nobody in my room was snoring! Absolutely wonderful, and I didn´t even get riled by the people who got up at 5:00 because I was so well-rested. Walked through rain for the first couple of hours, stopped at a cafe to warm up with some cafe con leche and a donut, and then walked through the warm sun that came after the shower. I´m staying at a small, very nice, but fairly cheap (€5) albergue in Rabanal del Camino run by a cute and friendly couple in their low 50s. My underwear is almost dry due mainly to the cold upper-altitude winds that are whipping through the village, and my other clothes will not be damp for long either. I´m definitely feeling the higher altitude, so I got some powdered soup and stuff for dinner and probably will stay inside most of the day today.
On to people. Yesterday afternoon I met a fellow American while cooking my lunch/dinner. She´s from Seattle and told me after some conversation that one of the best compliments she´s ever gotten was "You must be a Christian." We parted ways to explore the city, and I after an hour or so I returned to the albergue to finish what I´d started (meaning my pasta) and then went to a place for ice cream and explored the city some more.
I soon regretted leaving my rain jacket at the albergue because it started pouring rain at about 7:00 or so, and I took shelter with a young German girl in a candy shop. She was walking for the second time, but only to complete the stretch she skipped last time (Carríon to Astorga) due to an inflamed ankle. She was thrilled with the idea of a missionary albergue or hostel and seemed like a kindred spirit, so after the owner of the store got frustrated with us for staying without buying we continued our talk in the albergue about the experience of the Camino and the various lessons we´ve learned on it. Her time was almost at an end because tomorrow she´s going home and back to work, but she considers the Camino her kind of "secret escape" where she can go whenever she´s stressed or overwhelmed with the busyness of life. Very nice girl.
Today after the rain stopped I was just catching up with an American woman as we passed "Méson Cowboy," which I can only assume is a Western-themed restaurant (in rural Spain, mind you). I knew she was American, but suspected she thought I was European, so I commented somewhat sarcastically that it was nice to see a bit of the States. We walked to Rabanal with her and learned that she´s a pancreatic cancer survivor, Catholic, and used to be a prison warden. She also lives in WA (Spokane) and I marvelled at the miracle of her healing through the Whipple procedure (however that´s spelled). We talked about this and that, particularly how much speaking someone´s language can get someone to really open up and feel welcomed. She told me a particularly touching example about how her son would speak Spanish with the mostly-Mexican inmates at her prison, so all of them loved him and opened up with him in a vastly different way than any of the guards or even her. I posed for a picture so she could add me to her documentation of everyone she meets and she went on, but I feel certain we´ll see each other again.
I´m seeing more and more Koreans, so I think sometime soon I will try to "break into" one of their cliques so I can get to know some of them. I also met an older man from an island off Madagascar, which is definitely one of the more exotic places I´ve encountered. I think he speaks mainly French so I don´t know how much he and I will be able to talk in the future, but he´s very friendly.
There´s a vespers with Gregorian chant with the Benedictine monks here tonight, so I´m looking forward to a nice deep lullaby before bed. Until tomorrow, God bless!

Moving On

I´m in Astorga now, a quick 16 km from Hospital de Orbigo. After a very exciting tournament in which 2 "German" knights (who were the bad boys, especially the one dressed in yellow who happened to be my favorite) competed against "Don Suero" and two other Spanish knights in a competition that was as fixed as a WWF match. Don Suero, for those of you unfamiliar with Spanish folklore, was a knight who was shunned by a lady and in order to regain his honor blocked passage over the bridge in Orbigo until 300 spears had been broken. Apparently after he succeeded in defending the bridge from various challengers he went to Santiago to thank God for restoring his honor. Every first weekend in June they celebrate him with a festival and tournament with real jousting! Also, I got to try on a real suit of chainmail and my German friend got lots of pictures, so look for those as soon as she emails them to me. Let´s just say I would have made a good Templar.
After that we celebrated one last time together and I parted company with my German, Irish, Australian, Italian, and French (yes, she bussed to where we were and is going to go home today or tomorrow) friends. The first two were reluctant to say good-bye, and seem confident we´ll meet again, but I gave them both my name and email with Mark 1:11 written in their own languages, and my Irish friend may even join me at the service in Madrid on the 26th. (I should mention that right now there´s a famous Michael Bolton song playing somewhere in this albergue. Awesome.)
Got into bed a couple horus later than usual, about 10:45, and by then everyone else in the 10-person room was snoring. When I woke up at about 4:00, they were still going, but I dozed on and off until about 7:00. For some reason I found my usual easy-going nature towards even the rudest of awakenings was not there today, so I had to fight to keep from scowling at the last and loudest of my roommates to rise. For the first half of my walk I was agitated for no apparent reason (though I did have to wear damp socks because none of them dried all the way due to the fact that I had to bring them inside out of the rain) and after praying I finally concluded it was some kind of spiritual warfare because of the message I´d given my Irish and German friends last night. Whew!
Today´s albergue is quite nice, and though most of the pilgrims staying here are unfamiliar everyone is very friendly. After doing the usual chores (shower and laundry) I decided to try my first bit of unsupervised Camino cooking. Got some pasta, chorizo, and pre-made tomato sauce in addition to snacks for tomorrow and came back to the kitchen and whipped up a large and adequate meal for myself for a very reasonable price. I even have leftovers in the fridge for dinner unless someone else eats it. Might try making my own sauce next time, but other than that I think I did pretty well.
Last nigth I was pretty unenthusiastic about falling behind my "group," but now I am excited to meet new people and be a Christ light to them. Also, I think it is important that I stay and explore the most popular stopping places in order to scout out a good spot for a cafe, while the places I pass through will be good to observe in case there is a need for an albergue (of course, the closer I get to Santiago, the fewer places there will be without a place to stay).
Not much else to say, so I´m going to have a look around the city after I check to see if my underwear is dry (walking around without it somehow feels indecent) and then I´ll come back early for dinner and bed. God bless!