Saturday, December 21, 2013

Tom's report from Spain

Hello Canadian-trained Hospitalero,
I want to combine a Merry Christmas greeting with a timely reminder that if you have time for travel to Spain or France and a desire to volunteer there,
I was walking a month ago and travelled from Sevilla to Zafra with a Camino sister. I then worked in Salamanca as a hospitalero for the last half of November and then put on my backpack and walked with 3 other friends for two days only to Zamora where I have worked before.
Following three days in Zamora where I backed up a hospitalera I trained last year, I went to Madrid to attend the Hospitalero Encuentro with 240 other hospitaleros as a final act before leaving Spain after 5 weeks.
I was invited to bring greetings from the Canadian hospitaleros and responded as follows:
I really love the theme of this gathering: “Nothing is lost; everything transforms” because I arrived in Spain almost 9 years ago as a tourist and hiker. However, by good fortune, due to the experiences in the country-side, in churches, shared  with friends, and from the work and influences of the hospitaleros in albergues, I left Spain as a permanent pilgrim.
My goal for doing our work is to create the change from tourist, hiker, adventurer or bicyclist to pilgrim. To do this, flowers, fruit and drinks on the table, music to greet, food to share and the smile of the hospitalero start this process. Obviously I love to sing with the pilgrims (nearly all of them had been singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah with me on both Saturday in the Entertainment portion and Sunday as part of the mass). Also I always take opportunities to say a prayer with the pilgrims as follows:
In a world that is often cold and dark, we are grateful to follow yellow arrows to places of warmth and light. In a hungry world, we thank You for food for our bodies, our minds and our hearts. In a lonely world we appreciate the gift of family and friends.
Clearly the Camino, really the Caminos are also in a state of transformation right now.  There are more routes and more new albergues. More and more anglos are arriving due to the movie, “The Way”. I walked for only 10 days this trip but half of the albergues I stayed in are new this year. Most offered hospitality in our style of friendly welcome.
Therefore we have new opportunities and challenges. We must not be afraid of this change. Luckily we can smile in all languages. (I then demonstrated a Spanish style smile –with a kiss on both cheeks, an Italian smile with a hug and lots of hand gestures, an English smile with a stiff handshake, etc.)
I also brought a message on behalf of my America Pilgrim friends crafted by Martha Crites. I also noted that for the first time in history, more Americans had arrived in Santiago than Canadians and that their hospitalero participation had surpassed ours.
The Via de la Plata is poised to become one of the really popular Camino routes with many new and wonderful albergues opening which will only improve its popularity and viability for more pilgrims in the next few years. I also believe that more Anglos will start to show up so that an anglo hospitalero/a presence will be both helpful and necessary.  As always it never hurts to try to improve your Spanish and use what you have and the Via de la Plata is a much more pure Spanish experience.
It is worth passing on that HOS VOL now operates four albergues on the Via de la Plata, although sadly for me the two Castillo Blanco de los Arroyos and Alcuescar (not Salamanca and Zamora) were closed as I passed through in November. Hospis at the Encuentro who worked at these two really liked them. This tells me that our work is still needed in Spain and the late fall, winter and early spring are a great time to go and get other experiences in as well. I was able to take two weeks of language training in Salamanca for four hours a day and still fulfill my responsibilities in one of the world’s great cities in a really good albergue with the best location I have ever been in. Working in these quiet times is a totally different experience than the hustle and bustle of Holy Week through to the middle of October.
Please remember that your training does not have an expiry date. However, we have continued to add resources and information so if you are planning to serve, get in touch with Mary or I and we can update the information for you. We would also be delighted to post your first name and where you are serving as well as put you in touch with any anglos serving nearby. Remember too that we have anglo hospitalera contacts in Spain who can be called for advice, advocacy or to share a funny story.
If you are planning to serve next year, the best time to get in touch with Anai is after the second week of January as she takes a well deserved Christmas break. If you have already served, you will not need to fill out a carta tipo which is attached. Anai is able to understand English but generally prefers to communicate in Spanish.
We have also received an appeal from Alan Cutbush who manages the hospitalero/a postings at Miraz. Canadians served there with distinction last year and he wants to encourage our participation. With the recent physical improvements, some are calling Miraz the best albergue on the Camino del Norte. Of course the best albergue is also determined by having the best hospitaleros so that is why we want to put our Canadian hospitality on display for the world to appreciate. If you are interested and wish to apply please do so through Alan's e-mail.
Should you wish to serve in Rabanal, this posting is filling up a year in advance so asking for 2015 is more realistic than expecting a posting in the year to come. The application is found here:
http://www.csj.org.uk/docs/Hospitalero_application_form_tablex.pdf
If you wish to serve in France, we can also put you in touch with the individual who is filling those postings. Due to having only three albergues to staff, they will be filing their roster for 2014 now. Our last notice was that the following only are available: 
refuge d’Ainay-le-Château, du 16 mai au 1er Juin 2014; refuge de Bouzais, du 1er au 16 mai 2014.
 Sadly, I have heard that Madame Chassain who pioneered the renewal of the route with her husband has had to step back from assigning hospitaliers and this is now done at this link:
If you have any questions or receive a posting, please let us know and we will supply you with more information and list your first name posting and dates on this website.




Thursday, October 24, 2013

Hospitalero weekend

As we prepare for the hospitalero training in London this weekend, I received a timely email from the University of Santiago. Both pilgrims and hospitaleros will be interested in these courses:

1-   ROAD SANTIAGO COURSE
This pioneering program is a multidisciplinary approach in the study of the Camino de Santiago and the improvement of your Spanish. It offers the opportunity to experience the magic of the Camino and walk the final stretch of this ancient route. A University professor accompanies the group and gives walking seminars about art and history of the Camino.

 The two-week course includes:
-         40 lecture hours at USC (1 week)
-         6 days walking along the Galician section of the French Way.
-         Seminars on the Camino de Santiago
-         Spanish language course and introduction to Galician culture
-         Professors from USC Faculty of Language, History, Arts, Culture & Geography
-         Intensive cultural programme: mobile classroom, guided tours, workshops, gourmet trail, official receptions
-         Accommodation, meals and health insurance in Santiago de Compostela and during the walk

Dates:   26 May- 6 June  & 29 September – 10 October, 2014.
Note:    English Version of this Course Program will be organized by request. 


2- SPANISH FOR HOSPITALEROS COURSE
This course is focused on the basic cultural and linguistic knowledge that not Spanish speakers need to perform the hospitalero service. It is a one week course and includes:
-         20 lecture hours
-         Cultural activities
-         Accommodation and half board in a pilgrim hostel.

Dates: 2 – 6 June &  6 – 10 October, 2014.

Details and more information can be found in the link: http://issuu.com/cursosinternacionales/docs/ingles

Registrations can be done at  https://cursosinternacionales.usc.es/

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Hospitalero training offered in October

I'm sure that we are all aware of the terrible train tragedy that occurred just before St. James Day, in Santiago de Compostela. Just as people were gearing up for a celebration, the entire city (and country) was thrown into grief. Now, more than ever, those of us who have enjoyed the hospitality on the camino are thinking of Spain and possibly returning once again.

If you would like to return and give back some of that magic to other pilgrims, we are offering another training session in London, Ontario. The training that we offer is a two day session, from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon and prepares you well for offering hospitality to pilgrims in both Spain and France.  The cost is $100, to offset the printing of handouts and all the food for the weekend. Just as the hospitalero is a volunteer position, the trainers volunteer their time to conduct this weekend.  And like many volunteer activities, we get so much out of it, and have the opportunity to relive the camino.
The training this year will be in London Ontario from October 25 - 27. Closest airport from the US is Detroit. Billeting will be found for those from out of town.  If there is a demand, we will  have another training in Victoria B.C. in the spring of 2014.

If you are interested in the training, please fill out the form found here. And if you have queries about the training, please direct them to Tom.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Report from La Coquille and future training

Doug Steinburg, from Victoria, recently worked as hospitalero with his wife Carol and he has provided the following report. If you are interested in becoming a hosptialera/o, a training session will be offered in London Ontario, October 25-27, 2013. Please contact Tom Friesen and he will provide more details. In the meantime, read on:
 
REPORT FROM LA COQUILLE, France – by Doug Steinburg
For a first posting as an hospitalero, why not a place named La Coquille? That was my response when offered this posting by the Association des Amis et Pèlerins de Saint Jacques en Limousin-Périgord.  La Coquille is a village of some 1200 souls on the Route de Vézelay, midway between Limoges and Périgueux.  Although easily accessible by train, my wife Carol and I brought a car to enable us to visit nearby sites during our off-hours.  All necessary services (grocery, bakery, wine shop, market, etc.) were available in La Coquille, so arriving there and carrying out the work could be done using only public transport.
The refuge itself was the result of the bequest to the municipality of a small hall which the owner had used to stage amateur theatricals.  His only condition to the gift was that a refuge be established in part of it.  Opened two years ago, the refuge contains a room with six beds, a separate room with a bunkbed for the hospitaleros, wc, bathroom with two showers – which, as only one person at a time ever used it, we saved on work by marking one “hors service” – and a large room with table for eight and reasonably well-equipped kitchen, albeit without much work space.  The one lack was a suitable laundry space.
Aside from the usual duties of welcoming, registering, keeping accounts, cleaning, and waving “bonne route”, hospitaleros at La Coquille and its sister refuge at Sorges (some 40 km down the road) are expected to prepare the evening meal.  Fortunately, this is France, and even better, La Coquille is in the Périgord, which they claim is the foie-gras and truffle capital of not just France, but the WORLD!  Although one never knows from day to day how many pilgrims there will be, or how many of those will choose to cook for themselves instead, we managed to remain within the budget constraints of the amount collected for meals.  Pasta and meat sauce was NOT on our menu as we had chosen to make this stop a real culinary break for our pilgrims.  Needless to say, part of one day’s main course sometimes appeared the next day as a starter!  By the end of our fifteen days, we had become fairly adept meal planners.
La Coquille was not a difficult refuge to keep clean given its size, so we were able to explore the locale, an area steeped in the mystery and romance of the 100 Years War and the personages of Richard Coeur de Lion, Edward the Black Prince, and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  In fact, the town just 15 kilometers to our north held the ruins of the castle where Richard was killed and where (reputedly) his heart – or some other hidden part or his anatomy – is buried.  The many chateaux, abbeys and caves filled our off hours, even despite more rain and cold than the area had received in as long as anyone could remember.
In addition to all of the wonderful pilgrims we met, our stay in La Coquille was made more pleasurable by the friendship we made with Anne-Marie, the person caring for our sister refuge in Sorges.  Each morning after our pilgrims departed, we were able to call or receive her call to discuss the numbers to be expected and any idiosyncrasies which might help her make the arriving pilgrims’ stay more special.  In addition, Anne-Marie would tell us all the good things the pilgrims had to say about their stay with us – if there were some not-so-good things, she never told!  It transpired that Carol’s apple crumble was quite the hit.
Overall, our experience as hospitaleros was great and we may well do this again. But one last note: the Camino is a long road, but a very small world.  Right after our time was completed at La Coquille, I set off for Saint Jean Pied de Port and yet another go.  Between there and Burgos, where I stopped for this year, I encountered FOUR of our pilgrim guests! One was on a lonely stretch of country road, two in the Cathedral of Burgos, and one at the wine fountain in Monasterio de Irache.  The Way is full of surprises.

 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Canadians on the camino

As I visit the outdoor stores or walk on the trails around the area, I continually see people preparing to start their camino. If you are one of those people, please remember to say 'Hola' to those Canadians you meet who will be working in the albergues to make your camino better, physically, mentally, gastronomically.....in so many different ways.  So check the list of those Canadians serving this year and be sure to stop off. 
Buen Camino todos.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Training postponed until the fall

We are postponing the hospitalero training weekend to the autumn, when more people will be able to attend. It also gives everyone a bit more time to look at their calendars and manage a time period to go to Spain or France and serve.

As you know, we train past pilgrims to serve a network of albergues along the Camino Francés and the Via de la Plata that are overseen by the Federación Española de Asociaciones de Amingos del Camino de Santiago. There are other organizations and individuals to whom one can apply to volunteer as well:

The Confraternity of St. James in London operates the Refugio Gaucelmo in Rabanal and the Refugio de Peregrinos de Miraz on the Camino del Norte. They are currently looking for volunteers for this year for the refugio in Miraz. If you are interested, contact: Alan Cutbush alan at cutbush35.fsnet.co.uk.

The albergues in Foncebadón and El Acebo are assigned through Rafel Canseco : rkansas at terra.es

In Astorga there is the Albergue de Peregrinos Siervas de María, operated by the Asociación de Aminos del Camino de Santiago de Astorga. For ore information, contact: asociacion at caminodesantiagoastorga.com

Please remember to let us know whenever you receive a posting so that we can include it on this blog.

Monday, February 4, 2013

A hospitalero in Najera

Mike worked as a hospitalero in Najera from October 1-15, 2012. Following are his observations and reflections. Enjoy.

Our Better Days, Our Better Selves[1]

Life behind the registration counter as a hospitalero[2] in Najera[3] runs a regular course. Doors open at 1 pm. Depending on the season, the weather, the happenstance of incident, a gaggle of pilgrims can be found lingering by the front door.  In the summer, the fear of finding the ‘Completo” sign on the door drives some pilgrims to start around 4 am, hiking in the dead of night before their laggard brothers have even dipped back into REM sleep: all to get to the front of the line at their destination albergue.

In the shoulder seasons of spring and fall the gaggle of injured pilgrims predominates. Those who have overworked their legs, say by hiking 45km their first day out, arrived by bus at 9 am. They dropped off their Muchillas (back packs) and headed out rather aimlessly to wander through town for four hours and now are first to ‘check in’. For bus pilgrims it has become a very long isolated and lonely day. Our tiny Najera managed to top up their culture tank. The bus pilgrims did it all, taking in the church, the monastery, the museum, the grocery store, a café, the market on Thursdays, and the health centre to see a medico. These hapless souls have fallen into a nether land, no longer ‘true pilgrims’ in their own minds, they will tend to mingle less in the evening and restlessly wander from dormitory to kitchen to common room. The bus bestowed on them a mild curse; their new pilgrim friends will arrive later today, but sometimes not at this albergue and sometimes not at all.   The fear of abandonment clouds their eyes.

The other 1pm pilgrims just had a light day of hiking, perhaps 15km from Navarette, or 7km from Ventosa. These happy souls decided to take a virtual rest day. After stowing their packs they quickly bounce out of the albergue in search of a café con leche, groceries and vino tinto.  They will be back, singing songs, generally carousing and inviting us to party with them: we invariably demur at first then quickly recant, bring out some treats and share in the wine. Invariably we will be cautioning these same free spirited party pilgrims later in the evening when they decide to scramble over the grass and go skinny-dipping in the Rio Najerilla under the moon.

By two pm, the grimy happy faces appear, tired, hot, but filled with a sense of accomplishment for hiking 29km from Logrono. We encourage this good cheer by celebrating their arrival and congratulating them on a job well done. Mind you, we rolled out the red carpet for the 15km pilgrims an hour ago. We even gave a full cabaret revue for the bus pilgrims, bursting into songs of praise. They need it the most. But I make a note in our logbook and scribble bus for their mode of transportation.

From two to four, we listen to a soothing mix of Snatnam Kaur and Devi Premal[4] to while away the afternoon as the pilgrims drift in. The albergue, now in full siesta vibe, goes quiet, broken only by the padding of showered and refreshed early arrivers as they gravitate to their default positions.  The prevalent default position of course is a near comatose siesta sleep. But certain sub-groups buck the norm.

The Wi-fi pilgrims, faces aglow from the blue light of their iphones, huddle in the far corner of the common room where the reception is best. Wi-fi pilgrims need to connect, not so much to a higher power, as I don’t think St. James uses face-book, yet, but to something outside their selves. Some need to update their blog. An untold burgeoning audience has been holding its collective breath waiting to find out how many café con leches were consumed, what temperature record got beat or what magical mystic revelation the Camino provided today. Others need to tell their loved ones of their safe arrival after another day on the Camino. Some just need to surf and reconnect to cyberspace and all its allures. The Wi-Fi communion has begun.

The table pilgrims, snap their elastic bands from their journals, lick their pens in a Victorian flourish and begin. Which ones will turn out the next great book on the Camino? Our bets are all on the old white bearded professorial type that had a substantial bag of books, maps and imprints delivered in expectation of his arrival. Turns out he isn’t even a pilgrim, just an elderly Italian tourist interested in monasteries and travelling on the cheap. Others spill guidebooks, maps, notes and pamphlets across the tables to relive today and plan for tomorrow’s adventure.  This latter group soon coagulates into conversational groups. The journalers remain alone, adrift in their own thoughts.

The smoking pilgrims head for the benches outside the albergue rain or shine. The albergue has some fashionable brollies for the rainy days. We sport at least ten benches. But half seem filled from dawn til dead of night by the jubilados: the jubilant ones, Najera’s retirees. The jubilados enjoy the never ending flow of pilgrims to chat with or as is the case for us, to sing to the pilgrims each night one of the great traditional songs of Spain. But this is around 9 pm. I am getting ahead of myself.

The 3-5pm pilgrims continue to trickle in. They have had a hard time of it today.  Truly exhausted, they suffer acute pains from foot blisters, shin splints, sore backs, aching shoulders, scrapes from falls and heat exhaustion, or mild hypothermia, depending on the weather. A few mutter that this is all she wrote and ask for directions to the bus depot to go home. But this is all bluster so we tell them it gets easier from here and we know of a short cut to Santiago. They blink in disbelief and hope, hungry for details on the short cut. Things will look better in the morning. Only one in a thousand will actually pack it in so early into their walk.

At the stroke of five, siesta ceases. A faint rattle from the metal anti-crime screens drifts through the old town as shopkeepers re-open their storefronts for the evening.  Meanwhile, in the albergue, an unorganized exodus ensues. A jam of pilgrims hover over the town maps taped to the counter. Clipped questions for directions to the grocery stores and bank machines get their answers. Time for some soothing Miles Davis: Kind of Blue.


On Sundays and Holidays the grocery stores stay shuttered and the long wait till 7:30 pm for the restaurant openings begins. Cards come out, maps get perused. The friendly pilgrims come to the counter to tell us their stories, share an episode on the Camino, rail against the movie pilgrims. Movie pilgrims, it seems, have seen the movie The Way, and expect to replicate the dramatic arc and adventure of this fictional account.  Invariably disappointed, they sit in cafés and kvetch about not meeting Martin Sheen or how long and hot it really is out there.

The stories are great. A serial pilgrim, done it six times back and forth, thank you very much, from the great green Irish country regales us with the time a local Spanish woman caught him walking back from Santiago. Unable to help him to turn around and head to Compostela with a few Spanish words, she proceeded to prod him with her broom handle.
“I barely escaped. You should have seen my bruises,” he winks.

A very few of the friendlies are intrigued about being a hospitalero/a and we go into a soft sales pitch on the endless rewards we get from volunteering. We are careful to leave out our five-day battle with the cinchas (bed bugs), the significant amount of waste that pilgrims create each day and that we have to haul to commercial garbage bins each morning, and the time-agnostic pilgrims that bang on the albergue doors and windows at 11pm, an hour after curfew, drunkenly demanding to be let in and waking us and the light sleepers in the process.

The friendlies give us inspiration each day, especially the young couples. Camping couples that have been cajoled to stay with us, relate their joy of wild camping under the stars and away from even the most rudimentary services.  A few couples are in restart mode.  Perhaps only three years into their marriage, work had taken over their lives and they had become strangers and they foresaw potential doom. So, having sold everything, they have been travelling for a year around the world and threw in the pilgrimage for good measure.  What embers they salvaged have been fanned into a fantastic blaze.  They are ready to reboot.

Of course our favorite pair were the Dutch mother-child couple. The husband-child, benched to being a sporadic bus pilgrim: suffered from blistered, aching feet. The missus, after making him the mandatory spaghetti dinner, consoled and cajoled him through the evening to put his pack back on for the following morning for just 6km and then a bus. He was game. She was set and match for tomorrow. For her twenty six kilometers would be a mere bagatelle.


From five to seven the truly exhausted schlep in. Bedraggled, often in pain, they take some coaxing, often an impromptu song or welcome ditty to bring a smile to their eyes. Perhaps 29km is too far I suggest, cautioning the Charlie Brown ‘Dust Bin’ look-a-likes that the guide book’s sections can never reflect an individual’s appropriate length of walking. Sometimes the sections seem too short, sometimes too long. Some times it is raining and the pilgrims are exhausted, who knows. Listen to your body, I advise, in a kindly fatherly fashion, in setting out the distance for the next day’s hike .

They don’t pay attention, but I persist as I tarry over giving them their sello (stamp). I tell the story of the young man, fit as a fiddle, who did 45km the first day out of St. Jean. He has been riding buses for the past 5 days. He can barely walk. It matters not. Dust Bin has collapsed under the weight of his Muchilla, a good forty pounder.  They need to be told to take off their backpacks. Too exhausted to entertain any gay repartee the five to sevens invariably head for the showers. We had hot water till about four pm.

By 7 pm the kitchen crowd has crammed into the 2x3 metre space. The South Koreans, who had been shopping before the stores closed for siesta and seem to always carry supplies for Sundays and Holidays, are first in. For them, cooking up a nutritious storm hits full stride in a matter of minutes. We bless them. Who else can we count on to invariably clean the kitchen to hospital operating room sanitary standards?  One night a Hungarian peregrina stayed up after lights out to clean all the counter tops and put away the dishes.  But that is rare, most pilgrims, enthralled by their own reverie or pain keep a narrow focus on their particular plans, needs and new found friends.



After seven, twilight has set in: the hour of the wolf. Now the outliers trickle in. This is the hour we hospitaleros wait for: the lone pilgrims that truly need succor. A cyclist from after a 100+km ride, coasts in. Serge has a unique look, gaunt, but self-satisfied. He has come overland from the del Norte (the Northern coastal route). At first I think I must be misunderstanding. I don’t know the town he says he started from and I thought I knew them all, and then when I figure out his starting point I realize there is no marked route over the mountains from the north coast to Najera, no guides and he is map and GPS-free.

“Oh,” Serge, assures me, “I know all these roads in Spain, I have biked them all.”

I believe it. He exits to get his gear. He is packed like a permanent pilgrim, with full camping equipment. I slide out from behind the registration counter to take a gander at his bike.  It’s a solid beater, good gearing and customized by duct tape and foam on the seat and handle bar grips: impromptu padding where it counts. No need for a lock, really. Who would want it?  But underneath the patchwork repairs, dust and dirt breathes a reliable touring bike.

Next comes a Sherpa that just polished off 30km, half of it carrying a fellow pilgrim’s pack in addition his own because. Well because, the Sherpa just found this poor sod sitting on the side of the trail, crying, wailing, praying and now hobbling behind their good Samaritan.

Finally, a twenty-something daughter, whose father and his age-old friends had sauntered in at two, tearfully reunites with the clan. They in turn raise a cheer as their Melanie falters across the threshold to the dorm.

While this menagerie of off the bell curve pilgrims settle in and search for their long lost friends a growing ruckus erupts in the kitchen.

The kitchen, designed for an absolute maximum of four cooks at a time sets the Guinness record with nine gourmet chefs scrambling over eight burners and a microwave. As one culinary masterpiece of spaghetti and sauce exit another spaghetti chef crams into the cubicle.

On most nights the wine flows freely, on the rare magic evenings a musician (sometimes two) graces us with the songs of the angels. Though most afternoons and evenings a budding guitarist obsessively bends over the guitar to pluck away, challenging us to find a song or melody in their exploration.

By eight dinners are in full swing. Tonight we are all invited to share in some chicken curry, a rare treat. The chef, a young British lad, just past acne, and his two adopted pilgrim moms plus another young lad guide us to the wine and the best chicken curry this side of London.  The two Scottish moms, lifelong friends and in their fifties, exude an aura of great cheer and harmony, glad to have formed this impromptu family. The boys are just as happy to look after their elderly charges and keep them fed.

By 10 pm we, as hospitaleros, need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Lights out, doors locked, stragglers encouraged to leave the common room. I threaten to search for the broom.

We even have to share sleep on the Camino, is how one pilgrim put life in the albergue. The dormitory holds 90 pilgrims but tonight, given it is a week into October we average 60 to 70. Earplugs in let the snoring begin.  The Spanish pilgrims invariably close all the windows, don’t ask why, and by morning the dorm takes on the rankness of a gym locker room.

Our day is almost over. Six am I am up, Joni Mitchell sings Tune Me In I Am A Radio, then CSN&Y carry on with Woodstock. Our children of God grab a coffee. The Koreans are cooking breakfast and making rice balls for lunch and then bringing the kitchen back to operating room cleanliness. We make a point of shaking each pilgrim’s hand and wishing them a Buen Camino, pointing them to the short cut out of town or over to the restaurants that have been open since six am, waiting. This goes on till 8 am and then we have only a few stragglers left. One or two will stay another night due to injuries. Others just could not get started. We invite them for coffee.

But make no mistake; we want them all out. We have to clean the place, and pilgrims are a messy bunch. Many of the women seem to suffer from a rare and highly communicable form of spatial dyslexia, routinely missing the four wastebaskets we put in their washroom. Puss-soaked bandaids have a life of their own and seek shelter on the floor, under the bunk beds.

Stefan, our German hospitalero commands the kitchen and garbage detail. Only a true German could bring cleanliness and order to our kitchen. Louis, our retired Spanish banker, cleans the dorm, searches for cinchas, gets out the sprays, calls in the troops for the recurring battle and washes the sheets. I get the latrines, showers, common room and laundry room. What can one say about cleaning? We get it done, peel off our hazmat suits by ten, then make our breakfast.

From ten to eleven, it is fiesta-time, our simple meal of coffee, tea in my case, bread, jams, meats, fruits and cheeses never varies, though our conversations range far and wide. Stories of our lives get interspersed with reflections on the day before and anticipation of what our next crop of pilgrims will bring. We touch on philosophy, religion, the weather and what each of us will do in our time off till we start again at 1 pm.

Some mornings bring miracles. We never see the pilgrims after they leave. But today an iphone has brought back two magical singers, one Irish, one Swedish, and their entourage. One of the boys left his iphone at an albergue in Logrono and it had finally made its way to us, a few days after this band of gypsies had departed.  The iphone, batteries now dead, could go no further, so our intrepid travelers, rented a car and came back. While we brewed some more coffee the two lasses blessed us with a song: the voices of angels.

Other mornings bring the military. An American Colonel, he wasn’t even staying with us, dropped off his muchilla for transport to the next town.  Just before he arrived, over breakfast I had given a prayer of gratitude that he had not stayed with us the night before. We had already spent a good hour listening to Charlie Company, helping him book transport for his backpack. The American military is not what it used to be. This is normally a 1-minute phone call: too intense. But this morning, he showed up, and talked straight for an hour, at the end of which, with a soulful stare and straight face, declared, ”I don’t really talk much, normally. “

I laughed until my sides ached.

“You can take your foot off the gas once in a while,” I gasped.
“My eldest daughter says to me, dad, you know cars have a special gear, its called neutral, you should try it some time,” he laughed.  He gives me his email and heads out.

By 11 am we are ready to head out as well. I invariably go for a bike ride. Usually I go climbing to Camprovin[5] and beyond. Stephan and Louis head into town. We rendezvous back at the albergue by 12:30, change and shower. Some days I bring back wild flowers and put them in the vases on the common room tables the remind me of Barbara.[6]

Life behind the registration desk runs a regular course. Doors open at 1 pm.


[1] Copyright, Mike Gurski, 2013
[2] Hospitalero/a in Spanish refers to the person, often a volunteer, that  ‘mans’ the albergue (a hostel for pilgrims). He/she is a pilgrim who has completed the Camino, received the official document of pilgrims from the church in Santiago, taken the requisite hospitalero training, which does not focus on cleaning toilets as much as one might expect, and ministers to pilgrims for a half-month stretch, or stretches at an albergue.
[3] Najera, named by the Muslims as Naxara (meaning town between the rocks) sported settlements along the Najerilla River even farther back in Roman times and, according to the local museum already, had that lived in look in bronze age and even Neolithic times.
[4] Snatnam Kaur and Devi Premal are two recording artists that specialize in recording Indian, Hindi chants cherished by yoga teachers, new age enthusiasts and students of meditation.
[5] Camprovin is a tiny hill town 10km south of Najera where the paved road ends and mountain trail beckons me further each day until I see the tracks of wild boar. Having a healthy phobia of a savage pig take out most of the spokes of my front wheel. I turn back to Camprovin.
[6] Barbara is the author’s wife of many years and cycling partner on the Camino Frances in 2009.


Saturday, January 19, 2013

Hospitalero training offered in Victoria in March

Tom and Mary are offering another hospitalero training in Victoria in March, the weekend of 8-10. If you are interested, please see the registration form. If you are wondering what the experience might be like, below is Loretta's report from her 15 days in El Burgo Ranero. 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Latest bedbug info

If you have been posted to serve as a hospitalero or going to walk the camino again this year, please see the latest info on bedbugs

El Burgo Ranero 2012

Hospitalera Report from Loretta
I served at the municipal albergue “Domenico Laffi” in El Burgo Ranero (between Sahagun and Leon) the last two weeks of Oct 2012. I arrived by train from Madrid Chamartin Station to Palencia and then a regional train to the village. It was a short walk from the station on a gravel bumpy road where I immediately fell on top of my suitcase when the wheels got stuck. We had many comical experiences here, like the electricity going out, the roof leaking, the water stopped running, a bedbug incident, nearly running out of fire wood when it was ever so cold .... lots of troubleshooting to do and looking for solutions to problems. El Burgo Ranero village has a population around 800 people. There is a church, a school, a town hall (very helpful municipal staff for problems and supplies), a tienda, farmacia, medico, 2 bars/restaurants/hostals and two other privado albergues (which were closed at this time of year). The local folk were very friendly and interested in the comings and goings at the albergue. Many stopped by to say hola. Our albergue was a donativo albergue and it had 28 beds and we were full nearly every night and the overflow had to go to the private hostals, often grudgingly.  It is unusual but at this albergue the hospitaleros sleep in a room at the back of the building next door in an add-on room.  So every night at 10 pm we would close and head to our room. Over there we had all the supplies for the albergue, like firewood, toilet paper, cleaning products etc. Our albergue had a wonderful well equipped kitchen with many dishes and pots and pans, a washer and dryer and free internet. There was also free wifi at one of the bars and the school.  Our wonderful fireplace kept our pilgrims happy and warm. Often we had communal meals in our lounge where people contributed what they had to the meal or pilgrims took a collection to buy food to cook for the group. The atmosphere was always welcoming and friendly. There was a lot of fun and fellowship. 

Sometimes we went to the restaurant and bar with the pilgrims to eat, watch soccer and socialize, extending our closing a wee bit. The church had Mass nearly daily at 11 am or 12:15 pm on Sundays. The village not only had a regional train station but an Alsa bus stop, so sometimes our pilgrims who had to move on with transit were able to get on their way when tired or injured. Many interesting things happen while serving. One day we had a Korean choir arrive for the night (we were told of this group in advance by the Amigos del Camino de Santiago) and they, with costumes and musical instruments, put on a concert at the albergue for the pilgrims and some of the villagers. 
 
Another time, some members of the Amigos del Camino de Santiago arrived to say hello. They were the group that cleans up the litter on the camino and were in our area to do their work. A Spanish hospitalero serving in Calzadilla de los Hermanillos came by and took us for outings on our time off, once to Sahagun on market day and another time to Bericanos to visit hospitaleras from Italy and Canada serving there.

Overall, with the daily routines of cleaning, registering and problem solving ... it was a very pleasant but tiring experience. This was my second hospitalero experience and I am thinking about number 3 in two years time again.... Loretta