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Text of the page (random words):
s to mark the movement of time the people who run the albergue and the hostel came back both are staffed now all sanitized and ready to greet pilgrims once the number of infections meets zero and border restrictions ease we still cannot sit down for a g t or a glass of wine on a bar terrace in our town it might be legal for them to open but it s not worth the extra expense and work they say not yet so we walk over to casa barrunta in san nicolas where they open up for people they know still only drinks no chipirones in their ink no paella not yet lots of people think the camino and spanish communities are suffering terribly from the corona virus outcomes i am not sure how to feel about that i see lots of communities all over the world suffering terribly are people opening their hearts and wallets to support them clear back at the start of this pandemic supporters of peaceable projects contacted me with concerns and donations hoping to uphold the camino they know and love i will admit to answering for the first few weeks with a charity begins at home argument keep your money i said you might need it yourself in your own neighborhood before this is all over i still feel kinda that way even though ppi has given grants or in kind donations to several camino non profits since the virus shut down the trails we sent a load of groceries and dog chow up to the locked down hospi at manjarin bought ten wool army blankets for the albergue at el acebo when theirs fell to pieces in the wash supported a gofundmes for the albergue emaus in burgos egeria house in santiago and albergue acacio y orietta made a couple of grocery buys for the marist fathers in sahagun whose income vanished when the albergue santa cruz shut down the fathers stepped in to run the local food bank and clothing closet for caritas catholic charities but they don t get paid for that work they still gotta eat we sent two donations to albergue paroquial de tosantos where the floors need to be replaced coordinated transfer of a scruffy old car from a palencia non profit to a hospitalero stranded in the mountains of leon sent a month s worth of support to albergue izarra on the camino del norte santi the hospi there sold his car to pay his april bills wow we did not send money to everyone who asked i am glad of that at least two of those appeals were questionable if you hear someone complaining about ppi it may be one of those guys who didn t check out we still have lots of money in reserve i expect to use it up soon as reality dawns on the albergues and the camino opens to spaniards first europe later and finally people from outside i do not recommend anyone walk the caminos anytime soon not until the wrinkles are ironed out not even if you ve waited for years not even if this might be your last chance not even you you will likely be inconvenienced disappointed hungry dirty and unhappy with the experience don t say you were not warned there are tons more things to say but i will get back to those people dislike long blog entries so i won t burden you with more until tomorrow maybe posted by rebrites yahoo com at 13 29 no comments tuesday 21 april 2020 a change is gonna come old school pilgrim hospitality the cries reach the heavens we ve had enough time to get back to life i wanna walk my camino the push is on to re open our economies to get the tourism ball rolling again even as the covid 19 virus death toll continues to add up all over spain all the noise about the camino de santiago being the heart and soul of the local economy is being put to the test it s been a mild winter and a good rainy spring and gas is cheap so the farmers are happy at least but the bakers the launderette the shoe repair shop the bars the hostels no one can say no one is allowed outside to talk about it all the bars and beauty shops the places where these things are hashed out and decided upon are closed up tight the trail is fast asleep quails walk down the median stripe of the n120 on the way to sahagun i go to town once a week for vegetables dog food the sight of other humans on tuesday i saw father dani from the padres maristas all work has ceased at their albergue santa cruz but it s not so stressful now that work has ceased everywhere else too in the little diocesan apartment house next to the supermercado daniel is an enclosed monastic now with three of his fellow marists and a couple of local priests they have a mass there every afternoon no one but monks and nuns have seen a mass since the edict came down a month ago the churches are shut down it makes us ache the rest of us we ache we wait grace is sufficient we tell ourselves it will not always be like this after all this time we are talking to one another we camino people mostly online on whatsapp on zoom and skype and messenger what will it be like in june should we close down everything call off all the volunteers just let this year go if the borders are closed through september this stubby camino season will be a spanish only affair fifty percent of the usual crowd and only if the virus is overcome enough to ensure safety albergues will need to spread people out keep them from breathing the same air that will cut down capacity spanish pilgrims are often an ornery bunch would they cooperate with the rules and how can we keep our volunteers safe how will we staff the albergue as 60 percent of our volunteers are from other nations our strength has become a weakness it s not looking so good for albergue villa de grado this year my friends nothing official has been decided but it s not looking good even as we look into the future we see the lights going out in flagship albergues that have been around for 30 years or more donativo places bunkhouses scruffy old schools their day is past some say pilgrims want more last week on the online camino forum a wannabe albergue owner asked everyone to pitch in what they want in a great albergue the answers were individual bunks out of the view of everyone else with their own electrical supply lights and linens they want spotless showers strong wifi signals and rock bottom prices oh and jolly shared meals served by smiling hosts who speak proper english the picture quickly came clear pilgrims don t want albergues any more they want pilgrim only hotels it looks like new health regulations want hotels too places where people occupy discrete spaces the old bunkhouses crowded dining rooms and kitchens shower stalls and shared dormitories may soon be legislated away prices will go up the poor will be shut out again alfredo at the siervas de maria albergue in astorga this week posted photos of the place sparkling clean mowed weeded polished and completely empty i have never seen it without dozens of people moving into and out of its many rooms it is spooky our beloved non profit business model may be doomed when the familiar infrastructure is deemed unworthy what will become of the volunteers the shared meals the hospitality that grew up with them that made the camino de santiago trail unique in the world change is inevitable we have to evolve or we will die when we are gone will the pilgrims miss us or will the camino die with us how do we continue to offer traditional hospitality on this new way of st james we ache we wait grace is sufficient we tell ourselves we will know in time posted by rebrites yahoo com at 18 04 8 comments tuesday 24 march 2020 saints on lockdown so much changed in such a short amount of time things were falling into place i had the abdominal surgery finally ollie left i booked a camino a ferry to england for a family wedding house and dog sitters for the holidays then st james and all the apostles came down with a virus and the world and the camino de santiago closed down until further notice spain is on its second week of lockdown but daily life in moratinos is not very far off its normal rhythm we are accustomed to living hermetically using what s in the cupboard making something new out of yesterday s leftovers not going any farther from home than our feet will take us it s not unusual for us to not see anyone else for several days we rather like it that way but knowing i cannot go home if my mother or my children need me having policemen ask where i am going asking to see the receipts for the groceries in the back to prove my trip to town is necessary having to take turns walking the dogs in the morning seeing the news channels full of horrors reading emails from fellow camino workers undergoing intensive care in hospitals the light is changed the birdsong has shifted pitch no church on sunday no vermouth after in the bar no bar no cars on the road no pilgrims only birds returning from africa snow geese honking overhead on their way to finland moving north not west last weekend i helped fics and a few other agencies clear all the pilgrims off the camino lots of phone calls tears drama trauma logistics wrangling many good people disappointed a few entitled jerks in complete denial languages embassies a nice break from the ordinary doing something useful they are all gone now at least all the foreigners are they re either holed up in a town along the way or gone back home to plan for another day no one s allowed to run around loose any more we haven t walked on the camino since then we go over to the promised land in the morning our dogs are now our passport to exercise we have not seen any law enforcement anywhere we haven t seen anyone at all there is no one out there to infect until yesterday evening when a moral dilemma came to the door and rang the bell i pulled my scarf up over my nose and opened it his name was jonay from gran canaria heading for france he had id but no pilgrim credential the camino is closed he said it s just a road now and it goes the way i am going i need to sleep can i sleep here you have a barn a shed i m perfectly healthy i have my own food i will stay well away paddy appeared behind me i looked at paddy he is 79 years old immunocompromised he shrugged turned around and headed back to the main house this man was illegal this man might be infected he might infect us his virus might survive on surfaces for up to six days this man has no home no money no place to sleep he was clearly exhausted the sun was going down a cold breeze passed through my sweater and into my bones you can stay in this little apartment here apart from the house i said just tonight my husband is at risk see and what you are doing walking out here it s against the law i am an immigrant i can t take chances with the law i know he said the guardia know i am here i meet new ones all the time so far so good he put his things inside i went back to the main house and put on the teakettle two guardia civil patrol cars came roaring up the driveway sending the dogs into a frenzy i opened the door again four masked men alighted a man is here one of them said yes i said the man came out come out here keep away from the lady the policeman said madam cover your nose i covered my nose again with my scarf and leaned against the doorway the policemen barked at the man but kept well away from him they checked his id they asked where he d been where he was headed why he was out there didn t he know he told them his camino geography was off the cops jumped on that they gave him a hard time told him he s subject to a 1 200 euro fine fine me all you like i have no job no money there s nothing you can take from me jonay said clearly frustrated i was a firefighter but now i m out of work i am not a criminal i ve done nothing but walk the police finally left him here but warned him to keep a distance and clear out in the morning jonay apparently slept deeply all night and in the morning he cleaned up after himself and swept the patio then he went on his way east i am glad he stayed it was the right thing to do i donned my gloves glasses and mask and disinfected the little apartment i contemplated the jonay dilemma maybe he is a bad man a fool a scofflaw vagrant maybe he put us at risk maybe i was foolish to let him stay maybe he brought us the germ maybe i will get sick now if paddy gets corona virus he will die but what the hell he says if doing the right thing is going to kill me maybe it s time to die it occured to me that maybe jonay was st james the original santiago patron saint of this pilgrim path legends say he pops up in times like these there may not be pilgrims out there but this is the camino after all posted by rebrites yahoo com at 15 56 11 comments tuesday 21 january 2020 hunkered in the sky keeps changing colors the wind roars all night and morning sometime overnight it pulled the chicken hut door off its hinges and smashed it to kindling we are down to one aged hen the orange cats sit with her on the woodpile keeping her company moratinos hunkers down the water in the furrows turns to ice the dogs delight the sudden slide underfoot i have to take them out each morning even when the wind is knocking me sideways tearing aluminum strips off the highway bridge and flinging them down the autopista there are almost no cars or trucks on the autopista it s dangerous to drive wind here snow to the north the passes over the mountains are closed a man was killed up there yesterday putting on his tire chains at pajares a car slid on the ice and into him hit his head knocked him dead the roaring goes on for hours and days it shoves smoke back down the chimney it takes down the rotten trees along the road to san martin our house is drafty the furnace goes and goes but the halls are chilly we keep the doors closed breezes blow under the sills and around the edges through the little holes in the electrical outlets the chimneys moan boris the canary sings on we play chopin nocturnes we spend our days apart paddy sleeps ollie is down at the hostal bar there is noplace else to go in moratinos in january the cats and i sit on the sofa near the pellet stove hidden behind two lines of drying laundry last night s pilgrim was shocked that we hang laundry in our living room my wife would never permit that the slovakian man said we are not bourgeois i told him we don t have a dryer the laundry dries in here where the stove is the laundry smells clean it s started to snow it won t last the sun shines bright but the sky is grey as gunmetal the chimney thunders another pilg is on his way a swede or maybe a finn or a dane posted by rebrites yahoo com at 13 00 6 comments thursday 26 december 2019 god s on calle ontanon the pilgrim s name was carly or some approximation thereof she was from china from hangzhou a city south of shanghai she is a corporate recruiter traveling the camino de santiago pilgrimage trail alone in december with no spanish language skills and little english she d dropped her mobile phone in a puddle every day she was cut off a little more from everything she knew carly stayed at our house christmas eve she walked from carrion de los condes arrived at dusk washed and napped and...