Roslyn and Santa in Nájera

This first missive written on 13th October s from Santa and Roslyn, from Victoria BC, and is directed at Tom, who will be in Nájera, serving as hospitalero, on December 1. It is clear from what they write that the role of hospitalero is very much appreciated by the local people. And three days later, after they had completed their service, they wrote again. Read on!

13 October, 2014

Thank you for keeping in touch with us. Greatly appreciated. Santa says you will be coming here December 1. You will really like it. We have been having 70 pilgrims per night, which is a lot for one room but it has been a lot of fun every night. Julio, a local 87 yr old comes everyday at 1:30 when we open to help us greet (mostly checks that we are doing it all correctly ha ha) and then comes again at 8:30 to sing local Rioja songs for everyone. He is well received and usually the guitar then comes out and singing continues amongst all that can sing or play. There is a newspaper article on the wall taking about how Julio represented this area and sung for the Pope last year. You can read it when you get here. 

Los Orcas is where we eat every breakfast. The owner is lovely and pays for our coffee everyday. We love going there. One of my daily highlights. Today they surprised me for my birthday with cake and singing. So special. Santa and I usually clean till 11:00 after breakfast and then walk to Azofra (6km away) for another mid morning coffee and back to shower and reopen At 1:30. Lunch is paid for as you know at a local restaurant. We made the mistake of not going one day and she came that evening to ask us why. Needless to say we have returned daily every since. Very generous and we have become great friends. The whole town is very respectful of us and our work. Saturday and Sunday they send someone to clean so we ( and you) will get a bit if a break. Great fun and very special. You will love it here. The people are what really make it special. We leave in two days. It won't be hard to stop washing toilets but it will be hard to leave the people and the beauty of the cliffs, the river, the grapes, the walks etc etc 

And on the 17th October, they sent this:

We are presently on the bus back from Madrid to Burgos after spending a few days in Madrid. It is so interesting how the mind works post Camino isn't it? I have two more shells to give away so am returning to do so. (Not the only reason) When I went to Finisterre after my Camino I collected 15 shells from the beach there to bring to Najera for my 2 weeks if volunteering. I had planned to give one shell each day to a Pelegrino that was in need of motivation to keep walking or to keep heading towards their personal goal of what they wanted from the Camino or from life. I found this such a wonderful experience for me and I have so many different stories; one for each shell I gave away. Each story was completely different as I listened to many people open up their life stories to me. I felt touched that they would open up so deeply and share such important information to me. For me, it helped me grow as well and it helped me verbalized what I learned from the Camino. The receiver was in turn touched and all were so appreciative of my simple gesture of giving them a shell from the end if the Camino. They said it gave them faith or gave them light. Which was my goal but I had no idea how much power was really there. Tears came from a few and always a hug. 
I just wanted to share that story to you as I want you to know that your course and your motivation and your song is what encouraged me. Thank you.