Languages

Sunday August 22

Wow, we slept in this morning until 7:30!  After breakfast we proceeded to Ponferrada, a fairly good sized town of about 62,000 where we visited the church and lit candles for our growing list of people.

                             

        

We saw the Knights Templar castle which is quite impressive.  It was originally a hill fortress built by the Romans and was taken over by the Knights Templar in the 12th century.  The Knights Templar were an exclusive order of knights during the Middle Ages who protected pilgrims on the road to Santiago.

                             

The terrain today was a little more varied with some forest area,  lots of grape vine fields, and a couple of charming towns.

                                        

                                            The birds here were so joyful!

As we were leaving Ponferrada, we walked by a number of single homes on properties that reminded me more of what we see in the US.  Most of them had large vegetable gardens.  This is unusual since most of what we've experienced up until now is open cultivated areas and people congregated in villages and towns - very few single homes.

CORRECTION:  I reported earlier that we walked past a lot of wild dill - it is wild anise and smells wonderful.  I was set straight by a few other pilgrims.

This is part of the country that we thought we'd encounter cold and misty weather and today was about 90 degrees.  It was our first day for soaking our scarves and cooling ourselves down by tying them around our necks.  It helped a little.  Clearly, we need to get up a little earlier so we aren't walking in the heat of the day!

                                   

We arrived in Villafranca del Bierzo and found the aubergue.  It turns out a number of our Camino buddies are staying here - it was fun to reconnect and see how everyone is doing.

Today my feet felt much better - my blisters are just about healed!  I have to include a picture of the 'zebra' Camino legs everyone has from the sun.

                                    

I've been wanting to write about languages and the Camino.  There are so many different nationalities here and as many languages.  The daily menus offered for pilgrims usually come in Spanish, French, German and English.  These are the most common languages we hear.  It is a challenge sometimes to connect with people I'd like to.  Buen Camino works for everyone.  Often people will say Ola!  Everyone is trying to connect, but we are all limited.

                                 

I frantically tried to learn Spanish before I came, listening to CDs in the car and talking with native Spanish speakers, but I have to admit, that although I try and can do the basics, I am lost pretty quickly.  I know that knowledge of Spanish would enhance this experience so much.  One American, a Spanish teacher, said that it has been fun for her to speak with more of the locals and learn more about them and the country and culture.  I am sorry we are limited in this respect.

One of my problems with speaking Spanish has been trying to suppress my rusty French so I can remember the Spanish words.  Then we meet so many French speaking people, many of whom don't speak any other language than French, so I try my best to connect with them.  There was one dinner where I was the translator for the 1 poor French speaking person - now that is bottom of the barrel!

                                  

       

The first night we were on the road, we were seated at a table with 2 Germans and a Belgian who all spoke English and 5 Hungarians who knew no other language than Hungarian.  It was a challenge and it felt like there were two sides of the table.  Another night Diana and I invited a woman to our table only to find that she only knew German, so she preferred not to join us.

Although language is sometimes a challenge, we have a universal way of communicating through smiles, waves, and nods  - particularly people we see over and over and who are traveling at the same pace as we.  They are a part of our Camino family even if we don't know their name or haven't really spoken with them.  

Today my angel card was 'flexibility'.  One thing you need on the Camino is flexibility!  We never know what is coming along next, where we will be sleeping, if we will need to climb up to a top bunk on poor tired feet, or if we will be in a room with 2, 5, 10, 18 (like to night) or more, if the bathroom will be through the courtyard, down a floor, at the end of the hall.  It's all different and we have to be flexible.  I was thinking about being flexible in my life at home as well.  There some ways in which I am not flexible and enjoy doing things my way and in my time.  I often get into routines and become inflexible although I don't necessarily see it.  I expect that I will have lots of opportunities to be more flexible in the weeks to come as Hildy heals.

Hildy continues to improve and today Kate and John both told me that she opened her eyes (even at the request of the doctor) but did not focus or was completely conscious.  Her shoulder surgery is tomorrow and everyone is sure that she will be more conscious in the days to come with less pain medication.  We continue to pray for her and I can't believe it's been a whole week!