SEPTEMBER - SAN ANTON

 

A basic pilgrim shelter was first established in the ruins of San Antonin in 2002 but due to lack of volunteers was often closed.  In 2006 Julian Campo and Jose Santiago, hospitaleros and well known personalities in Castrojeriz, were killed in a train accident on their way home from walking the Camino Portuguese.  Julian's brother, Ovidio Campo who owns a hotel in Castrojeriz, restored and improved the old shelter in their honour.


The monastery hospital of San Anton was run by French Antoine monks who had similar monastery hospitals in France and Italy.  They were places of healing where people suffering from the medieval disease known as San Anthony's Fire, were sent to be cured.

San Anthony's Fire was a disease caused mainly by eating mouldy rye.  In times of famine, poor people would eat the mouldy cereals and develop ergotism which led to the sufferers going berserk and caused gangrene of the hands and feet due to constriction of blood supply to the extremities. Many were healed at San Anton and miracles were attributed to the Saint.  Good food, lots of sunshine and care might also have had something to do with their recovery!

In Spain San Anton is always seen with a piglet.  He was a lover of animals and once a year, San Anton's day celebrates animals, much like Saint Francis in Italy. 
At San Anton the donations are placed in a Piggy Bank. 

The medieval Gothic builders must have had a sense of humour because the added a piglet in stone to one of the high arches on the inside of the cathedral.  When we show people they are delighted when they manage to spot the little stone pig high up near the top of the ruin.

Hospital D'Orbigo - 9th June

Last night we invited Jurgen, a pilgrim from Hamburg who is also staying at the Hostal Central, to join our table at dinner. During the conversation he told us that he walked to La Virgin del Camino then later on got a bus back to Leon. He spent some time there and was going to wait for one of the afternoon buses but decided to take a taxi instead. (He was also overcharged but queried it and the taxi driver relented and charged him €20)
"But there are no buses during the day on a Sunday", I said, fresh and confident from my internet search of the ALSA website.  "There were many buses," he said, "many going both ways".
We had a lovely meal and found we'd met many of the same people on the way. We discussed them as though they were old mutual friends. There is also the "Camino grape-vine and word goes up and down about different pilgrims. I have met pilgrims who have said, "so, you are the lady who broke her arm. We heard about you last week. " Then someone says, "Pete has had to go ahead - he hurt his leg and had to rest a couple of days so now he is playing catch-up".
Back in the room I checked the ALSA website for the bus time table today and guess what? On Monday there are only evening buses from 20h30 onwards.  On Tuesday they start from 6am and run almost hourly.
I wanted to post another box to Santiago and found that the Correos was in a road parallel to the main road. I posted a copy of my book to Isa and a box of stuff to Santiago. Then I decided to wait at tbe bus stop across the road for Tuesday's 9h40 bus to Hospital.

Hallelujah - the bus was on time, not completo, I bought a ticket on the bus for €1.90 and 20 min later I was deposited on the main road outside Hospital D'Orbigo.  It took about 10 min to walk to the famous bridge and once on it, I saw the Albergue La Encina in a side road about halfway along the bridge. As I walked along the bridge I recognized Pete, striding along the cobblestone bridge. He wasn't staying here but just passing through.

It was too early to check in so I took a walk into the old part of the village, had a drink at the Hostal bar at the start of the bridge and met up with a few pilgrims I've seen regularly along the way.  Dan asked if he could take a photograph of me and I asked if I should smile or look sad? "We haven't seen you without a smile" said his wife, Esther. So I smiled and he took a photo of me and my broken arm.
I went back to La Encina and could check in.  This is the most spacious room I've had to date, large enough to fit 4 beds if needed.
Kathy arrived at 2pm. The lady who checked her in thought she was checking in with a man who had arrived with her at the same time. When I told Kathy she said, "Oh NO, gracias, no hombre!" I suggested to the woman that perhaps she had found Kathy a man and should offer them a matrimonial bed!
It had been a long walk for her, 30km according to her GPS watch.  Much too far for our amaWalkers pilgrims to walk. There are 2 routes to here,  one mostly alongside the road and the other (longer route) with less next-to-the-road walking. We might have to let them decide which they prefer to do.

After a rest we walked accross the long bridge to see if there was another way out for me in the moring. I'm going to have to roll the pink bag along the stony bridge and onto the main road (about 15min) to town to reach the bus stop. There are 4 storks nests on the church tower, all with large babies in them. We watched as a stork swooped over the river, probably looking for frogs.

We had drinks at the Hostal overlooking the bridge and we visited the two albergues in town (the parochial albergue still has the waterfall and forest mural on the wall in the courtyard that I first saw in 2002) and the San Miguel albergue where I met Marcelo the hospitalero from Brazil.
Cathy bought a few provisions at the tienda and we went back to Albergue Encina for a pilgrim menu.  I couldnt get the blind to come down in my room so had bright daylight until after 10pm. I should've kept the eye masks that Qatar airline gave us.

VOLUNTEERING ON THE CAMINO

SO YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER TO BE A HOSPITALERO ON THE CAMINO??

Many pilgrims who have walked the camino find volunteering as a hospitalero (caring for pilgrims in an albergue) a wonderful way to give back to the camino.
Some pilgrims volunteer regularly at the same albergue: others put their name down on a register and are asked to go where the need is the greatest: many like a particular albergue so much whilst walking that they offer to stay and help out for a while.
There are many privately owned, small albergues where you can do this as well and they will welcome your free labour!

You pay your own traveling costs to France or Spain. You are given a bed but you pay for your own meals (unless it is an albergue where youcook for the pilgrims).

Besides greeting and registering pilgrims, a hospitalero works an 18 hour day making beds, sweeping floors, scrubing toilets, showers, and kitchens: doing the shopping, might have to cook for up to 40 pilgrims every night, sorts outs disputes and locks up after lights out at about 11pm at night.

Most stints are for 15 days and working for longer than 30 days is discouraged. Longer than that and you might want to shoot somebody!!

The Spanish Federation of Associations of Friends of the Road to Santiago in Spain, the Confraternity of St James in the UK, the American Pilgrims and the Candadian Company of Pilgrims and similar organisations in France and Italy run special workshops and courses for volunteer hospitaleros. In South Africa we have trained over 60 pilgrims to serve in Spanish albergues.
http://southafricanhospitaleros.blogspot.com/

The Spanish Federation (HOSVOL - Hospitaleros Voluntarios) criteria is that you have walked the camino and have done a training workshop. However, they will make exceptions for people who have walked the camino but who live in countries far away and cannot attend a workshop and would like to volunteer by allowing them to reside at an albergue with a hospitalero for three days to observe how the albergue is run.
As yet, there are no courses availabe to people living in Australia, or New Zealand .


You can also offer your help directly to the refuge - a list of refuges can be found at Jacobeo.net/refugios/

Here are some other sites which will assist you in becoming a volunteer:

Confraternity of St James - UK
Rabanal: Refugio Gaucelmo
Rabanal del Camino, León
Chairman: Paul Graham, Somer House, The Street, Chilcompton, Somerset BA3 4HB, p.
graham2712@btinternet.com
Coordinator: Graham Scholes 56 Chapel road,
Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham

Miraz – Camino Norte:
If you are interested in serving as a warden at Miraz (we still have a few vacancies for 2008, and will be glad to sign you up for 2009), please contact the Miraz Wardens' Coordinator.
Miraz, Galicia
CSJ Hospitalero coordinator:
Alan Cutbush, 35 Waltham Close, Ipswich IP2 9DJ
alan@cutbush35.fsnet.co.uk

Caminosantiago.org
Click on Federation and then Hospitaleros Voluntarios:
http://www.caminosantiago.org/cpperegrino/hospitaleros/hospitaleros.asp
E-Mail: hosvol@caminosantiago.org
Hospitaleros Voluntarios del Camino de Santiago. Aptdo. 315 26080 - Logroño (La Rioja)
This is the Federation of Associations on the Camino volunteer form.
Sevilla - Logroño – Vizcaya – Madrid etc


The association Hospitaleros Volunteers supported by the Spanish Federation of Associations of the Way, coordinates shelters in Arres (Camino Aragones), Navarrete, Najera,  Grañón, Belorado, Saints Day, Villalcazar of Sirga, Barna's Camino Real, el Burgo Ranero, Leon, Ponferrada, O Cebreiro, Triacastela, Samos and Ribadiso, among others. More information on the mail caminosantiago@caminosantiago.org


Logroño
Los Amigos del Camino de Santiago de La Rioja coordinates the care of pilgrims in the shelter of Logrono. You can contact through the mail - ruavieja@asantiago.org

American Pilgrims
Go to Join, scroll to volunteer.
American Pilgrims have their annual gatherings which include a training workshop for future volunteer hospitaleros.
http://www.americanpilgrims.com/events_national.html

Acacio da Paz
To volunteer for the Albergue at Villoria, write to Acacio da Paz at voluntarioscamino@ yahoo.es


Read an Article written by a first time volunteer:
http://www.csj.org.uk/bull-arts/c-jones-art.htm

Blog – with an honest report on volunteering:
http://innkeepersguide.blogspot.com/


…………………………………………………………………………………………
FRANCE

Information for those interested in becoming hospitaleros in the Grand Palais albergue or the pilgrims welcoming center in SJPP:

St Jean Pied de Port

Les Amis du Chemin de Saint-Jacques des Pyrenees-Atlantiques
39 rue de la citadelle
64220 Saint Jean Pied de PortFrance
http://www.aucoeurduchemin.org/
caminopa@hotmail.com

Vézelay route
Amis et Pèlerins de Saint-Jacques de la Voie de
Vézelay
www.amis-saint-jacques-de-compostelle.asso.fr
24 Rue Saint-Pierre - 89450 Vézelay
Tél. : 0033 (0)3 86 32 38 11

Le Puy route
Conques Hospitalité Saint-Jacques
www.amis-st-jacques.org/pages/hospitalite
Contact Pauline Dobon, Abbaye Sainte-Foy,
F12320
Conques tel 0033 5 65 69 85 12
email acceuil-conques@mondaye.com

From - http://www.jacobeo.net/hospitaleros/index.htm

To all who receive this information and want to participate in courses and assist in the hospitality during the ongoing campaign of 2008 we ask you to send us an e-mail, letter or call us by phone to send you the necessary information.

The Spanish Federation of Associations of Friends of the Road to Santiago explains here what is needed from our Hospitaleros Volunteers and its operation.

In recent years a large group of people of all ages and status, it has been proposed to renew one aspect of that hospitality thanks to the work of volunteers and cultural hospitaleros the Camino de Santiago. These are former hospitaleros pilgrims who spend part of their holiday to meet on a voluntary and unpaid, shelters for pilgrims, and to cooperate in the dissemination of the contents artistic, cultural and spiritual Path.

For us, the only requirement is necessary to be hospitalero is that you have done the pilgrimage to Santiago and want to devote your time and skills to the reception of pilgrims at the albergues. We believe that in order to perform this task well, it is very important that the new hospitaleros make preparation for a workshop to know in advance what they will find on the other side of the road, which is hospitality and that is often a tough job, nothing like a vacation alternative.
Normally, at the beginning of the year, between February and June, we organize a series of preparatory courses for people who have contacted us with the intention of working as a hospitalero during the year. These people have sent their personal data and any information that might be interesting for further work. These courses take place over the weekend, starting on Friday night and end on Sunday after dinner and is COMPULSORY. In very exceptional cases and for those people who find it physically impossible to attend a workshop for instance, because they reside outside of Spain, we also offer the opportunity to be three days in a shelter to become familiar with the work before joining the Hostel being assigned.

The normal time of stay in a shelter is 15 days, the first or the second half of each month. We would like to draw attention on this issue. It is very important to comply with this period fortnightly, you are advised to confirm in advance the time that you can have, making sure of the dates we say that you assign a destination. Similarly, if there are any changes, it is important for us that you communicate this as soon as possible, since it makes it very difficult for us which we can then not comply with what you have said and we believe gaps in shelters with so little time, we can not find a solution, because at the end, there are no shelters hospitaleros possibly could have had someone else to have known in advance. In some cases, and if they so desire, time spent as hospitalero may be wider, not being desirable stays of more than one month.

What is expected of the Hospitalero?

The following is from the CSJ of UK Hospitalero Workshop for 2008:

Gaucelmo General Policies:

1. True Pilgrims are those who are travelling on foot, by bicycle, or on

horseback and moving on the next day

2. Groups – no groups of more than seven people admitted

3. Length of Stay – pilgrims are only allowed to stay for one night

4. Bookings – It is not the practice to accept bookings of any description

Rules:

1. No smoking anywhere on the premises

2. Keep mobile ‘phones on ‘silent’

3. The main entrance door locked at 22:30

4. Total silence applies after 23:00

5. All pilgrims leave before 08:00

6. There is no fixed charge for staying

The 11th Commandment

• Getting rucksack ready the night before

• Not using alarm clocks

• Not putting boots on in the dormitory

• Not putting any lights on

• Not talking until well clear of the building

 

A Typical Day at Gaucelmo

• Get up at 05:30 (If serving breakfast at 06:00)

• Prepare and serve breakfast for the pilgrims

• Ensure all Pilgrims have left by 08:00

• Enjoy your own breakfast in peace

• Count and record the donativo money

• Re-make all the bunks in the dormitories and barn

• Clean the sinks and toilets in the servicios

• Sweep out and mop each room floor

• Clean the kitchen work surfaces and oven

• Sweep outside in the square, if necessary

• Sweep the entrance, patio and garden paths

• Take rubbish and glass bottles to the bins

• Drop off any stale bread at Oblines

• Listen out for the Bread Van

• Grab a bite of lunch

• Open the Refugio to Pilgrims

• Sign each Pilgrim into the register

• Explain the rules of the refugio

• Show the Pilgrims to their bunk

• Be available at all times for the Pilgrims

• Make afternoon tea and biscuits for the Pilgrims

• Go for dinner at Antonios/Gaspars

• Record sales of CSJ publications

• Ensure all Pilgrims are in the Refugio by 22:30

• Ensure lights out by 23:00

• Add Pilgrim numbers to the statistics sheet

• Total the CSJ publication sales

• Note number of meals taken on the Diary Sheet

• Prepare the kitchen for breakfast

• Get to bed – you’ve earned it!

 

Qualities of a Hospitalero/a

• Greeting and welcoming

• Listening and accepting

• Tending to physical and emotional needs

• Cultivating one’s own responsiveness and flexibility

• Setting a good example of patience and care.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Last day

It is raining.

It was a beautiful day yesterday - and all week - but today the mist is so thick you can´t even see the other side of the park. The electricity has tripped again. I uncoil the extension cord and drape it around the back of the benches so that I can put on the coffee and switch the fridge on. I boil a kettle, put a kettle of milk onto the stove and cut two loaves of bread for breakfast. Isa comes down - still sleepy. At 7 am sharp I put on Gregorian Chants and turn up the sound. The voices of the monks chanting echoes up the stairwell and wakes the sleeping pilgrims who slowly make their way down to the livingroom.

"Cafe?" I ask, "Solo or con leche?" "Cola Cao?" "Te?"

They dump their packs in the entrance hall and sit at the table eating toast, Marie biscuits, bread and jam sipping their hot drinks. "Is it raining?" asks one of the young German pilgrims. He has on a vest and shorts. Last night he told us that he would only be able to sleep in the municiapl albergue at Finisterre but not at the private one that charges 10€ because he has run out of money. "I will sleep on the beach" he says. The rain has really dampened his spirits. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug - angeles, engels - and then they are all gone.
"Thank you for everything" says Brian. "I hope you feel blessed by what you are doing here because we were blessed to have you". What a lovely thing to say - I am moved. I do feel blessed. Blessed that I am healthy and able to help the Association keep the albergue going in the spirit of camino - love, welcome, caring.

"I don´t think I´ve done it for the pilgrims so much as for the people who provide these shelters" I try to tell Isa when she asks why I volunteered to be a hospitalera.

´To give back´is a stock response but to give back to whom? For me, it has been to give back to those who provide the shelters, especially the donativo shelters. I am fulfilling a promise I made to myself 2 years ago, to come back and add my bit to the tapestry that is the camino.

It is still raining so we'll stay in today. After the usual 3 hour round of sweeping, mopping, dusting, wiping down, we defrost the fridge. We´ll leave the next hospitalera with a nice clean fridge. We tidy the pantry. Potatoes, lettuce, onions etc have all shed a few leaves or sand and the floor and boxes need cleaning. We tidy the pot cupboard. Its so easy to push a fry pan on top of a cooking pot and then the lids fall all over the place. We rearrange the books and CDs and tapes. Yesterday I put fresh hydrangeas into empty marmelade bottles. Lola brought me two red roses yesterday. These are now in the little pot with the Camomile daisies we picked in the forest at Finisterre. The place looks really homely.

I go upstairs and throw everything I possess onto my bed and sift through the old tickets, papers, rubbish collected along the caminos. I decide to leave the South African flag in the albergue - I put it on the mantlepiece when I arrived and it has stood proudly there for two weeks. I flatten my backpack and put it at the bottom of the folding kit bag. I pack all my camino stuff into the bag and leave out only the little folding backpack. I am ready to leave in the morning. I have mixed emotions.

The first pilgrims, a Spanish couple, arrive in the mist at about 2pm. Then two German men who look like Laurel and Hardy. They are soaked through and once inside the taller of the two struggles to get his credential out of his waistbag under the poncho. I put up my hands. "Nein" I say in my best German. "Sit down, take off your boots, leave your ponchos here. Go upstairs, choose a bed and have a hot shower. Come down and have some coffee or hot chocolate and then bring the credentials to me. I´m not going anywhere so we can do this when you are warm and dry. " They look at each other and the smaller one starts to cry. Oh shit!

"Nein, nein" I say. "Arriva, arriva" I shoo them upstairs. I find out that the younger (who is 64 years old) is an emotional man who cries when telling me about the kindness of strangers, about finding his daughter´s date of birth and sign of the zodiac on a marker outside Santiago, and who gets tearful recounting just about every other experience he has had on the camino. El Camino does that to some people - it can be a very powerful experience.

When they come down about an hour late the taller one asks me where I am from. When I say South Africa he startles me by bellowing out the entire National Anthem in a deep barritone.

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika

Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo,

Yizwa imithandazo yethu,

Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.

(He encourages me to join in by conducting with his hands. I join in but don´t know all the words so for this post I googled them)

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,

O fedise dintwa la matshwenyeho,

O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,

Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika.

(I know the next bit which is Afrikaans because we all learned the words at school. I bellow out at the top of my voice.)

Uit die blou van onse hemel,

Uit die diepte van ons see,

Oor ons ewige gebergtes,

Waar die kranse antwoord gee,

(I am lost with English because I never did learn the words)

Sounds the call to come together,

And united we shall stand,

Let us live and strive for freedom,

In South Africa our land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXKur2FAN7g

He sings in a choir in Frankfurt and sang at Free Mandela rallies carrying posters ad placards he says. He talks faster and faster in hybrid German/Dutch/English and I don´t really understand but I catch a few words and names - Walter Sisulu, Helen Suzman - so I nod appreciatively and show that I am grateful and proud of him. "Danke" I say. He smiles and nods.

After dinner we will sing the old Xhosa hymn again but this time in a small group.

More pilgrims arrive and then a very wet, bedraggled, exhausted looking woman arrives.

"You look like a very tired pilgrim" I say. "I am - I´m exhausted, I have walked over 40km today. I didn´t know that I could walk 40km and I am very proud of myself.

"Where are you from?" I ask, she has a familiar accent.

"South Africa" she says. Screech, screech, kiss, kiss, hug, hug. She is Ann from Cape Town. "Is there another South African here" she asks. "No, just me" I say. Her cousin should be here, or might be coming behind her. We get her out of her wet shoes, stuff them with newspaper and she struggles upstairs to find a bed, a hot shower and lie down for a while before coming down later.

It is my turn to cook. "Cook curry beans" asks Isa. She has developed a taste for spicy food. I blend all sorts of spices´- pizza spice, red and black piemento, curry powder, garlic, some spices I don´t know but they smell good, into a paste and start the dinner. I am preapring for 8 pilgrimgs, then two more arrive so the curry becomes a mixed one - white beans, lentils, bottles of vegetables, diced potatoes. I make pancakes which Isa helps to sprinkles with sugar and cinnamon and lemon juice and rolls them up onto a large platter. Winifried (the younger of the two German pilgrims) is delighted with the pancakes. "My mother made the best pancakes" he says wistfully, "we called them pfannkuchen". We all remember our mother's cooking, no matter how old we are or how far we are from home.

There is a knock on the door. It is Stephen from Johannesburg, Ann´s cousin. It is 8 o´clock and he has walked a long, hard day. We wait while he has a shower but he misses out on the San Roque choir singing "Tengo, tengo Hambre" "I am, I am hungry" "Ich bin Honrig" "Ek is, ek is honger".

The sun has come out. It will be a nice day tomorrow - my last day in Spain. We move the wash rack into the sun in the park. After dinner Winfried (of the Frankfurt mens Choir) Ann, a relucuctant Stephen and I stand up and sing nKosi Sikhele iAfrica to much applause. Then Winfried and Tomas sing a rather sombre German folk song. We serve coffee, tea, hot chocolate. Ann and I chat away - it is 11pm. I am tired. We go to bed. I can see the lights of Finsiterre through the window. Tomorrow I leave.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 11

I´ve developed a thing about hair. I just can´t believe that humans lose so much hair and that it is everywhere. Wipe a tiled wall and there will be at least one offending snake left crawling across the wall. Shake the sheets when making a bed and they float up and settle back on the sheets - long blond hair, dark wavy hair, short and curly hair (you know what I mean!) It is starting to drive me nuts. Every morning the broom grows a beard Santa would be proud of - and I have to scratch it off. I´m sure they could manufacture duvet´s for the poor with all the hair that is shed on the camino.

I´ve had a few mishaps with the shopping. There is a stray cat that visits the albergue and we decided to buy some cat pellets when we went shopping the other day.

¨You get food for el gato¨says Isa. We have called the cat Sebastian (because Isa is from San Sebastian) but we don´t know if it should be Sebastiana. No one is prepared to catch the cat and look between its legs. Its happy to walk into the albergue and meow for food but it isn´t too happy with human contact. I've got scratches to prove it. So, off I go to the pet food section and see a very nice packet with a picture of a charming kitty on it. When Sebastian/a came in arching his/her back screeching for food, I opened the packet only to find that I bought Kitty-litter! Screech, screech went the indignant cat so we opened a tin of tuna.

With so many household brands with no pictures on the containers I have put laundry wash in the toilet bowls (no pictures of where the nice smelling´stuff should go. ) I´ve washed down the walls with disinfectant and the other day I cleaned the mirrors with stain remover. They need to have a colour picture manual of household items for those who don´t read Spanish. Isa and I have developed a very vocal ´hospitalera´language.

"Squish, squish" she says whilst demostrating the squeazing of an imaginary hand-held stain remover spray onto an imanginary item before I do the washing.

"Chaka, chaka, chak" accompanied by waist high Ninja-like chops of the right hand means "chop the onions and peppers".

"Floo, floo, floo" whilst rapidly waving the hands, palms up, up and down in the air means shake the sheets on the beds. There is a sound for every activity and duty.

We walked into Corcubion yeserday to do some shopping. The man in the Farmacia very kindly changed my glasses (yes, I managed to break another pair) for a new pair so I can see again. We had a photo of Isa and me printed for the new albergue book that pilgrims write messages in. I now wish that I had copied some of them. We are variously described as ángeles, engels, angel etc - all meaning ángels´. Well, pilgrims think you are an angel if you let them in early or give them a glass of cold water, or perhaps let them go upstairs and shower before having to sign them in. It doesn´t take much to be an ángeles´on the camino.

When we returned to the albergue there was a surprise waiting for me - Sebastien, the French pilgrim-cum-hospital-clown who we had met on our first day from Lourdes to Asson had finally made it to the Fistera Route. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug - long lost family member. Sebastien thought he had picked up bed bugs in Negreira so we found him a shirt (2 sizes too small) and a pair of mens boxers to change into whilst we put all his clothes and sleeping nag into hot water and then the washing machine. He walked around all afternoon with his clown´s hat and boxers. Newly arriving pilgrims were quite startled by the sight but once explanations were made they all nodded sagely and accepted this as the wise thing to do.

Our first Japanese pilgrim arrives. He speaks English and Spanish. "Thunk-ooo. Thunk-oooo!" he says when I tell him about dinner at 8pm and breakfast at 7h30am. "Thunk-ooo, thunk-ooo" he bobs up and down from the waist up with his praying hands together when I tell him that there is tea or coffee in the living room. He looks like one of those plastic birds one attaches to the side of a glass that bob up and down. He is painfully thin (only 50kg he tells me at dinner) like a stick figure. He has a large see through folder with a ton of paper, maps, guides, google maps, GPS positions. "Preparation is most important" he says nodding vigorously I wonder what Sant Iago, the fisherman from the east, would think about this wise man from the far east who has walked all the way from St Jean Pied de Port to visit his tomb?

Later in the afternoon a smiling pilgrim arrives and when I meet him at the door he grins and says, "I think I know you". I had never seen him before. Mistaken identity?

Then he showed me his Pilgrimage-to-Santiago forum badge - the first I've seen. Ah-ha! Who was he?

"I´m from Ireland" he said.

"Sagalout!" I shouted. Big mistake.

"No, he is from England" he said.

Whoops! He was Brian - Brian McKenna from the forum, a delightful pilgrim with a big grin and so happy to be at San Roque I think I would have kept the albergue open just for him.

Isa made spaghetti with mushroom sauce and we got three peregrinas to make fruit salad which we had with cheese and membrillo - a firm, quice jelly-jam that you can cut in thin slices to serve with the sliced cheese. Two young German pilgrims sang a lovely song about about walking with your back to the wind, the sun in your face and when you die, being in heaven for 40 days before the devil knew that you were dead. (At least I think that is what it was about.) The young German chicos didn´t go to bed until after 11pm so Isa went up and left Lola and me holding the fort. I am getting more and more tired and am in need of a loooooong sleep. This up at 6am and getting to bed after 11:30pm is for the younger birds.

Penultimate day and I have mixed feelings. I love it here but I miss home and my family and I want to see my little Emily who was 7 moths old when I left and is now over 8 months and is sitting, crawling about and doesn´t know her ´Silly´granny.

Hasta manana.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 10

Yahoo!! Today we escaped again and went to Finisterre. Lola drove us to the outskirts of the village and we walked half way up the hill to the Faro, taking an alternate path to see the ruins of San Guilleremo - a local saint who lived high up on the bluff and helped woman who couldn´t have children. I'm not sure how he accomplished that but there is a little stone font in the ruins of his home where young women put money. Isa put in two 5c pieces.

"Twins?" I asked. I had to make a sign of 2 fingers and roll my hands over my tummy, "Dos ninos?" "NO!" she laughs.

It is a lovely walk, about 3km through pine woods to the ridge of the bluff with stunning views over both sides - the Finisterre village way down below on one side and the beautiful Playas (beaches) on the other. On the way back we see a squirrel on the electricty line. He is chirping and twitching and flicking his tail about. We keep very still and watch him for a long time. When he scampers down the electricity pole we just grin at each other - what a privelege to see a little wild creature so close to humanity.
Then we walked down to the Playa do Mar Foro where we ate our picnic lunch. There are caves here where many pilgrims sleep when they can't afford to pay for alternative accommodation.

I paddled in the Atlantic ocean - cold - and walked along the beach looking for shells.

We visited the Fistera albergue when we got back and met the French pilgrim from the night before. We all had a drink at the cafe bar across the road and then Isa and I took the bus back to Corcubion. "How many pilgrims will be waiting?" asks Isa. "Mmmm... its a beautiful day so I don't think many" I say confidently, "maybe 2, or 3 at the most".

7 pilgrims waiting for us in the park. (Groan!) "Sil, por favor, lets shower first?" asked Isa. "OK, you shower while I let them in, its no problem."
So after changing out of our shorts and me my boots, I let them in. A group of 5 Spanish women walking together to Finisterre. A beautiful young man with a sad face from Hungary. Tomash (that´s how he pronounced his name) is sad because his camino is coming to an end. He has to go back to work but he doesn't want to.

"So much has changed" he says, "So many things, places, people." He doesn't want his camino to end. He was going to walk straight through to Finisterre but he is delaying the end by spending a night at San Roque. He has studied Dutch and is a translator so we chat in Afrikaans. I make Potato bake with no oven. Potatoes, butternut, onions, mushrooms all precooked and tossed together. Sprinkle over cream of mushroom soup powder and add a large cartoin of cream. Put into two plastic bowls and cook each in the microwave for 10 minutes. It goes down well and the Spanish ladies all want the recipe. I also make a salsa with onions, peppers, garlic, tomato from a tin and chopped up frankfurter sausages.
At about 6pm Sonke - a German pilgrim who stayed with us 3 days earlier - arrives. "I am back again!" he says. "I walked to Finsisterre and to Muxia and am now walking back to Santiago. Can I stay here? You have a bed?" He has dark brown eyes, curly dark hair and a face like a cherub. He could be mistaken for Greek, or Turkish or even Italian or Spanish. How can we refuse? "Of course you can" I say. "What is for dinner?" he asks. "I have missed your cooking and have been dreaming of a good dinner. It is my birthday today and I wanted to spend it with friends." A man comes to the albergue with two dogs, pulling a trolley with his camping and clothing. Can he have a shower he asks, and he´d like to camp in the park. He is not really allowed to but it is not our park. We tell him its up to him to take a chance. At 8pm as we are bring the food to the table two more pilgrims arrive. The young man is from the USA and the young woman from Ecquador. "Go straight upstairs and find your bed" I say. "We are starting dinner so you can bring your credentials down when you come." We wait a while for them before starting dinner. We sing our "I am hungry" song and tuck into the meal. Isa brings out a Caramel desert and a candle and we all sing Happy Birthday to Sonke who gets quite emotional. No one minds. Lola made Arroz con leche - Rice pudding - so we all have desert. As we are clearing the tables, two more pilgrims arrive. Phshew! We get them settled in, dish up salad into two plate and heat up the left over potato and salsa. Eventually, at about 11pm they finally start saying Buenos noches, gooda-night.
I shower - I still have beach sand between my toes. "Manana" says Isa. "Sleep tight" I say.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 9

When pilgrims leave in the morning they smell differently to when they arrive. If it is raining when they arrive they emit humid clouds of damp, sweaty and mouldy aromas. They have to leave their boots on a rack behind the front door so when all those wet boots come off in our little entrance hall the smells are sometimes overpowering. The boots are stuffed with newspapers and this adds to the smell of damp.

In the morning when they all come down to put on their boots, the smells are also overpowering - Vick rub, eucalyptus, Deep Heat, Arnica mingling with after shave, deodorant and shampoos. The entrance hall always needs and extra good sweep and mopping and we spray it with air freshener.

We only had 10 pilgrims last night, from Poland, Germany, Japan, Chezck republic, and France.

The French pilgrim walked in with a Basque beret. Isa immediately started talking to him in Spanish. "Non, non" he says, "He is French not Basque." "I am Basque" says Isa. "I like the Basques very much he says quickly." He has walked from the north-east of France and has been on the road for 4 months. He has to telephone his mother every second day to let her know that he is alright. From his bald head we guess that he is in his mid-forties.

A young woman from Poland played guitar and sang folk songs after dinner. We served Marie biscuits with hot chocolate. A Swedish pilgrim tells me that Marie biscuits originated in Sweden. I remember something about them being made in England to celebrate the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh to a duchess named Marie?? (I'll have to check that when I get home). You learn a lot from interacting with people from so many different countries and cultures. One of the German pilgrims tells me that he comes from the town with the famous piper - Aahh, it is Hamelin. He tells me the true story of the pied-piper of Hamelin. The Polish pilgrim tells me that everyone in Poland has to learn other languages becuase their language is so difficult nobody can learn it.

This morning I read some of the coments written in the Albergue book by pilgrims. One was by the guy from Belguim who, it turns out, is the President of the Belguim Society of St Jacques. You never know who your guests will be!

We had many professionals last night, doctors, teachers, nurse, linguist, paramedicas but no electricians - we need an electrician. One of the plugs (not sure which one or which circuit) is tripping the electricity. So, we have an extension cord draped behind the benches at the two dining tables, where we can plug in the fridge and the CD player.

It was my turn to do the bathrooms today. Albergue San Roque has, in my opinion, the best showers on the camino. They are roomy - enough I reckon for 3 people to shower at the same time - with a double hook for towel or face cloth, a plastic coated corner shelf for shampoos etc as well as a soap dish. Unheard of luxury in most showers on the camino. The water is always hot, the taps are easy to work - turn to the left and it is hot, to the right for cold, in the middle for just right.

The worst showers are those where you push a knob on the wall and the water spurts out for about 10 seconds leaving you with shampoo running down your face while you blindly try to find the knob and press it again. Some say that you should keep it pressed in with your elbow whilst washing with the other hand. Many shower heads don´t stay up on the hook fittings and often those that you can hook up slowly collaps downward like dying swans forcing you to hold it up with one hand whilst trying to wash with the other. (Elbow on the knob, shower head in the other hand means no hand to do the washing!) Our shower heads give a good hard spray of water but not enough to wet the goodies in your corner shelf, so unless you are going to do a pirouette in the shower, there is no chance of it getting wet. And, the water stays in the shower cubicle where in many others the water ends up flooding the floor of the bathrooms. I check the wall and floor tiles for the scourge of camino showers - algae. It might be the most ancient and enduring of life-forms but its not taking up residence in my showers - not on my shift, its not. Any little black spot is examined and vigorously scrubbed away.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 8

We cleaned the albergue to the sounds of Full Monty again - Isa´s favourite tape in the collection. Its like doing aerobics with a mop and a broom.

"We are family" sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep - wiggle the butt.

"I´ve got all my sisters with me." Twirl, twirl, twirl the mop - side to side sway.

"We are family". Mop, mop, mop, mop - bop, bop, bop.

"Get up everybody and dance".

We walked into Corcubion where we collected a few shells on the little beach along the esplanade. I bought new glasses and we bought a few salad ingredients for dinner. We walked back on the camino trail, a steep little track between high, moss covered stone walls and between barns and gardens rather than on the road. Along the way we pick orange wild flowers for the albergue.

There were 6 pilgrims lying around on the grass waiting for us. "Give us half an hour to unpack our shopping" I said, "we will open early for you." You could see their relief. All a pilgrim really wants is to get into the albergue, have a shower, wash their clothes and relax. Of course at San Roque they can also have water with lemon, tea or coffee with biscuits. Tonight I made veg curry and rice and salad. Before eating we sang the albergue theme tune, "Bang, bang, bang - bang, bang, bang. Tengo, tengo hambre. Bang. bang. bang. "We are, we are hungry". Bang, bang, bang. I put the lemon yellow arrows on top of the salad every night and most pilgrims take photographs of them. We had 15 pilgrims so the table was full but not overcrowded. Pilgrims from Korea, Poland, Spain, Belguim, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Canada.

The Korean peregrina, a doctor, had a swelling on her foot. She said that she usually has to use orthotics but decided not to use them on the walk. Go Figure?? So, I gave her a foot massage and wished her well for the next day´s walk.

There is a discussion about the Camino Frances. It is very crowded, especially from Sarria. "There are just too many pilgrims that start from Sarria" says a Dutch pilgrim. "Many Spanish pilgrims only do the last 100km, what is the use of that? And, when we reach Sarria after walking 700 kms we have to rush to get beds." A Spanish pilgrim objects. "The problem is too many foreigners" she says. "It is OK for a Spanish pilgrim to start at Cebrero or Sarria but then there are too many foreign pilgrims who take all the beds. We pay the taxes and they sleep cheap." The Dutch pilgrim backs down and walks over to the table to pur another cup of coffee. Nobody wants a confrontation.

At about 10:30pm we started tidying up and getting the table ready for tomorrow when there was a knock on the door. A Swiss pilgrim had arrived at Cee too late to get a bed at the hostal so he walked the 1km up the hill to the alberge. OK we said. You can sleep here. Are you hungry? Yes please. So out came the left overs, curry, rice, salad, bread, wine and fruit salad. Got to bed at 11:15pm.

View of Finisterre from our bedroom window

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 7

Last night we were 15. I made South African style Macaroni with cheese sauce, tomatoes and bacon. No oven, so all cooked on top of the stove. It went down very well. We started off with soup, then macaroni and salad and a desert of sliced oranges with sugar.

This morning we hurried through the albergue, sweeping and mopping. We changed all the sheets and pillowcases and put on a load in the washing the machine first thing. By the time all the pilgrims had left we were able to load the second lot of linen and hang up the first. We bought a long loaf from the ´panaderia´van and made bocadillos with lettuce, cheese, tomato and ham for Isa.

Then I put on my boots and off we went. We felt like school children escaping from boarding school!

It is a lovely walk to Finisterre and we walked the 8.5km in just under 2 hours.

"We go to the Faro first?" asked Isa. "Yes" I replied "we can eat bocadillos later".

So up we walked to the end of the world at a lighthouse on the bluff jutting out into the Atlantic. There we see two Spanish boys who had stayed at the albergue last night. Hug, hug, kiss, kiss, "Photos, photos". On the way down we realised that we would only have 1/2 hour for our lunch so I suggested she put out her thumb and hitch. A car stopped for us right away and we whizzed down the hill saving a good 20 minutes. On the way around the little port we walked through a market and met the English girls who had arrived at the albergue so wet and bedraggled on Sunday night. Screech, screech, hug, hug, kiss, kiss. Long lost family.

"That was the best night of our camino" they said. We smile, grateful for their praise. We must be doing something right!

We sat on a stone bench eating our bocadillos. "Pees" says Isa. "¿Qué?" I ask, confused. "I pees" she says. I shake my head and frown. "Aseos" she says looking at me as though I am dumb. She needs the loo.

"Niza niñas no decir 'piss'" I tell her, "dicen 'Wee'" "Oh-kay - I wee" she says smiling. She pops into the nearest cafe-bar to use the toilet. I hear a voice shouting at me in Afrikaans. They are pilgrims from Pretoria who have spotted my RSA flag shorts. We chat for a while and then Isa joins us and we head off to get the bus back to Corcubion, the driver kindly droping us off almost outside the albergue.

There was only one pilgrim waiting for us. Pilgrims always look so relieved to see us when we arrive. There is a look of hope in their eyes, "Will she let us in early or will we have to wait?

"You can come in" I said, "Its cold out here". (The wind had come up and it was cold in the shade).
"Oh no, its Ok" he said "You only open at 4pm".
"No, you come in and get settled inside."
Pilgrims are pathetically grateful for little things. When they see a bed with sheets, a blanket and a pillow, they are overwhelmed! When we say that they can have tea or coffee they look incredulous and when we tell them that we will cook their dinner and give them breakfast they almost burst into tears!!

So in came our German pilgrim who later helps us fix the washline that is falling over. Albergue washlines are usually makeshift affairs. They seem to grow as the needs arise and this one has stretched from tree to tree but it needed a stable take in the middle. The existing branch has rotted and our pilgrim finds another and hammers it into the ground with a stone. Soon a Spanish couple arrives, then a young German man who looks more Spanish than German and then a French couple. A Polish priest was the last to arrive.

I make baked potatoes in the microwave, carrots Julienne with sugar and butter, two salads and a minestrone soup. Isa cut up apples and oranges for fruit salad. We sang the house song, "Tengo, tengo hambre" bang, bang, "Ich bin, ich bin Hungrig" bang, bang (and whatever it was in Polish).
The priest did the blessing before dinner. Afterwards he played the guitar and sang songs in Polish. He has a deep, booming voice and the songs sound more like pub songs than parish songs! The only song he knew in German was¨"Silent Night" and the only song in English was "Auld Lang Syne". We all sang along as best we could. I massaged the Spanish woman´s feet and by 9:30 they all started drifting off. Yay!! Early night.
Isa and I set the table to the morning, and went upstairs to bed. Looking through the window we could see the lights of Finsterre just coming on.
"It will be a good sunset over the Atlantic tonight" I said.
"Si" said Isa.

I felt pleased for our pilgrims from the night before, they would have the experience of watching the sun dragons swallow up the earth.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 2

Isa and I share a small room. There are two beds, a bedside table and a desk. No cupboard to hang clothes so they hang on hook on the walls.
I am an early riser so I got up quietly at 6h00 and crept downstairs to put on the kettle, the coffee, boil the milk and cut the bread for breakfast. Isa came down soon after and we put out jams, biscuits and melba toast for breakfast. One by one the pilgrims came down heading for the coffee machine or the hot milk to make chocolate - ColaCao. One of the pilgrims who had looked really tired the night before and who didin´t participate in the singing or conversations was decidedly perky! He put on Dire Straits CD(Masters of Swing?) and was bobbing and boogeying to the music. I joined him and we did a synchronized hand jive at the head of the table to much applause from the pilgrims! We managed to get them all out and on their way by 9am and then started cleaning. I told Isa that I would do upstairs so I started by straightening all the beds, folding blankets, dragging a big plastic bag around picking up bits of plaster papers, old leaflets, a couple of empty water bottles and clearing out the bins in the rooms and the bathrooms. Then I swept the floors in the bedrooms and mopped the floors and then I started in the bathrooms. I wiped down the walls and scrubbed the floors in the showers, scrubbed the toilets - yes, I really did! - and the washed hand basins. I swept the stairs down to the lower level and passed Isa on the way down. Once I´d put all the trash in the large tip-bin outside the albergue I went back upstairs to find Isa now mopping the floors and washing the walls in the showers!
!No! No!" Isa, "I said, "I have done the rooms upstairs. Completo".
She just laughed. We decided that we needed to communicate better. I asked if I could use the washing machine to wash my pilgrim clothes and we added the albergue towels, dishcloths and a few pillow slips to the machine. At 9h15 there was a ´toot! toot!¨outside from the "panaderia' (bakery van) and we grab the bread bag and go together to buy bread for the day. We prefer the fat round cottage loaves to the long bacquets and bought 4 just in case we had another full house. When we had done all the chores we sat and wrote a shopping list. Isa´s friend, Lola, came to take us shopping.

Our first mishap - Isa slammed the door with the keys still in the lock and one of the keys got stuck in the frame. We jiggled it and wriggled it but it wouldn´t budge. We couldn´t open the door and we couldn´t take the other keys off the ring. Eventually I managed to shovel it up and down far enough to get the circlular part out and use a nail file as leverage. Finally we got the key out. But we couldn´t open the door so Isa telephoned Begona who gave us the number for a locksmith. He was very quick and soon the door was open and we were on our way to town. We sat at a terraced restaurant where I had a coke and Isa had a Martini! We then did the shopping. You have to put a Euro coin into a slot in the shopping trolley before you can push it around the store which you get back whn you return it. Carrefour is a huge shopping chain and they had most of the things we needed at reasonable prices.
By 3pm we only had one pilgrim. By 4pm there were 3 and in the end we only had 7 pilgrims. "There will be another late pilgrim" said Isa. "I don´t think so," I replied. "OK. We take a bet" she said. "If there are no more pilgrims I will buy you coffee tomorrow". "Alright" I said "and I will buy you a Martini!" By the time we sat down to dinner Isa´s hopes of a free martini had faded.
It was a beautiful day and from the upstairs windows you could actually see the village of Finisterre as well as the lighthouse at the top at Carbo Finisterre. At night the sweeping lights of the lighthouse shine into the rooms and one can hear the fog horn sending off its mournful "whoooo...whooooooo..." Finisterre is about 9km away and the lighthouse 12kms away. We returned to the albergue and unpacked the shopping. During the day an occasional pilgrim will knock asking for a sello (stamp in the pilgrim passport) or to use the toilet and children come to play in the park. There was a large cabbage in the fridge and I offered to make a salad. "With this?" she asked, incredulous. "Si - es delicioso!" I said. She pulled up her nose - Isa doesn´t like cabbage. I made a cole-slaw salad with finely shredded cabbage, grated carrots, chopped oranges, a few red pimentos and chopped olives. Then I made a dressing with mayonaise, garlic salt and olive oil. It was delicious and there wasn´t a scrap left at the end of the meal. I also made another green salad and placed the little yellow lemon peel arrows on top again much to the delight of our pilgrims. This time Isa cooked a risotto and added chopped sausages. We had miniature ice-creams for desert and these went down very well. After dinner the two Swiss-German girls - Sarah-Jayne and Leah - played guitar and sang folk songs. Pietro, an Italian pilgrim, had a sore foot so I gave him a foot massage and he got tears in his eyes. He said it was the sweet singing of the young girls and the caring of the hospitalera. Dear, dear pilgrims. They all went to bed at around 11pm and once again Isa and I set the table for breakfast and went to bed. The lights from the lighthouse sweeping across the bay from Finsiterre to Corcubion was hypnotic and I don´t remember falling asleep.

Hospitalera in Corcubion

In 2007 I walked the camino Frances (3rd time) and wrote this on my blog after staying at Granon and Tosantos:
These ´donativo´refuges are run solely for pilgrims to Santiago and we find it amazing that people are prepared to volunteer to cook and clean up after us, out of the goodness of their hearts.
I decided that if I ever got back to Spain to walk a camino, I would volunteer in one of the donativo albergues. I was able to do a pilot online hospitalero course and was fortunate to be assigned to the albergue San Roque outside Corcubion on the Santiago to Fistera route. I should have started there on 27th June but whilst in Santiago I got a call to say that the albergue was closed for 4 days as there was a fiesta in the park and the stands were right up against the albergue building. I decided to walk to Finisterre and once there I was able to help out at the municipal albergue there for a day before being taken to the albergue San Roque.
..........................................................................................................
From 4pm to 10:30pm I was assistant Hospitalera at Finisterre. Well, Begoña said that I was the hospitalera and she was the Police!

Walking around Finisterre, I met up again with the two Cape Town pilgrims I'd come across at Oliveiroa. We sat on the sea front for a while talking about home, the camino and other nostalgic things. We had our photographs taken so that we could submit them to the CSJ of SA for the newsletter.

Back at the albergue municipal I was put to work! I learned how to register the pilgrims as they arrived - queues of them waiting at the door at 4pm - handed out the Finsterra document, the disposable bedding, explained about the doors closing at 10:30pm but a side gate being left open until mid-night for late comers and that they had to be out by 8h30 which is when the municipal cleaners move in. No scrubbing toilets at Finisterre - that was still to come! One of the pilgrims in the queue was Conny (the Dutch girl I´d left at a cafe bar on the way to Finisterre).

I didn´t get to bed until after 11pm and was up and ready by 7am. At 8h30 it was time to chase up the many young peregrinos who had partied at the lighthouse until late.

"I´m looking forward to seeing how you handle this" said Conny.
I walked through the dormitory tickling feet and telling everyone in a loud voice to get up and get out because it was after 8h30.

"Why do we have to get up so early?" asked one sleepy pilgrim. "This is the end, we don't have to walk today".

"So that the cleaners can come in and scrub the showers and toilets and make your bed for the next pilgrim" I said.

"Arghhhh...!!!" he moaned, and put his pillow over his head. Conny looked at me and laughed. "Tell him vee hav vays of making them move!"
By 9am most of the peregrinos were downstairs in various stages of dressing. But when I went to check for a last time, there were clothes on the folding dryer, boots under a bed, a good collapsible walking pole in a corner and other paraphenalia in the room.

"Don´t worry" said Begona, just put it in the laundry room with all the other lost stuff. I was amazed to find clothing, shoes, sandals, boots, backpacks, hats etc in a large pile in the laundry. Perhaps being at the end of the walk many pilgrims can´t be bothered to carry all their stuff home so they just leave it behind!

Perhaps there could be a 2nd hand depot for pilgrims who can't afford to purchase all this stuff?When the cleaners came I went across the road to the cafe-bar and joined Conny for breakfast. We said our 2nd goodbyes and promised to email. Then I went back to the albergue and met Isabel who will be my companion hospitalera for 2 weeks. Isa is a tiny little thing from the Basque country and doesn´t speak any English - besides ´thank you´and ´good bye´ so I´m expecting my Spanish to improve in two weeks! It is also her first stint as hospitalera so we both felt a bit nervous when Francelino fetched us to take us to Corcubion.
The Albergue has such a good reputation that we feel like custodians and promise each other to do our best to maintain the high standard of cleanliness, warm welcome and love established by our predecessors. Judith met us at the albergue and after showing us the rooms up and downstairs, where we would share a room, the showers, First Aid box, how the stove and washing machine worked, how to stack the pantry, what the general daily routine was, she helped us make a grocery list, then she took us into Cee which is the village right next to Corcubion, to do shopping. We went to Carrefour, a large supermarket where we bought provisions. They have an excellent delivery service and the goods arrived at the albergue almost at the same time as we did.
On the way back to the albergue she took me to the Correos to collect the parcel I had sent from Santiago with my working clothes, rubber gloves and On-Line hospitalero notes prepared by Rebekah Scot. These were to prove really useful in the days to come.
Isa offered to cook lentils for dinner and I said that I would make the salad. By 2:30pm pilgrims were queuing outside. San Roque officially opens at 4pm but Judith suggested we use our discretion and if it is raining or someone looks really desperate, we could open earlier.

"We prefer not to have more than 14" she said, "But if more arrive, open the other room where there are beds for 6 more pilgrims."

It was a mizzy-drizzly day so we opened about 30 minutes early. I registered the pilgrims as they arrived, 19 of them in the end - almost completo. Isa helped question the Spanish pilgrims - age, profession, where did you start? I managed with those from Belguim, Holland, Germany using my Afrikaans skills. Under no circumstances are we allowed to accept even one extra pilgrim (even though there is stacks of room on the floor) because of the insurance rules.

We soon had all our pilgrims upstairs, showered, some resting, others reading or writing. Isa and I chopped and cut up vegetables for the lentil pot and I made a salad. A couple of pilgrims helped us set the table and cut up the bread. I stole an idea from Eunate and made little yellow arrows out of lemon peels to place on top of the three salad bowls. We turned them so that they pointed towards Finisterre. The pilgrims were delighted and most took photos. I asked the French pilgrims if they would sing Chanson du Pelerin St Jacques as the oracion and we soon had all 21 of us joining in the chorus. We had made three large bowls of salads, cut up 2.5 loaves of bread and had a huge pot of lentils and nearly every scrap of it was wolfed down by the hungry pilgrims. We served wine and water with the meal and desert was yoghurt, and then tea/coffee or hot chocolate. All of this including the overnight stay is donativo and we lit a candle next to the donation box which is kept on the fridge.

There is a guitar in the albergue and a Chilean pilgrim played and sang for those pilgrims who had stayed up. Eventually we were able to sweep the floor, set the tables for breakfast and get to bed ourselves by 11:30pm. Isa and I were pleased with our first day and felt a sense of satisfaction when we switched off the lights and closed the front door before tip-toeing upstairs to get to bed.