Hospitalero Training in Calgary and Toronto!!

We have had so much demand for hospitalero training this year that we are offering the training in Calgary on the weekend of March 14-16, in Toronto, March 21-23 and in Victoria, April 11-13. Please click on the city for the link to the registration form and see the sidebar for more information on the training schedule reports from Canadian hosptialeros who have served in the past year(s).

Hospitalero training offered in Victoria

We have had many requests for more hospitalero training, so will offer this again in Victoria, BC on the weekend of April 11-13.  If you are interest in participating in the training, please fill out the registration form and contact Mary Virtue.  You can see what a typical weekend of training entails, see reports of other hospitaleros by clicking on links located at the bar on the right.

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:

http://www.vezelay-compostelle.eu/contact.php

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.

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/

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.

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.

 

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.