Camino Update

We are on day 10 of the Camino de Santiago, and what an incredible
journey it has been so far.  Our feet are surviving, although Brent
has had some arch pain and a few blisters.  Today we found a roaming
foot specialist in our albuerge, who analysed his foot and taped it
up, working on donations.  Other than that, we are both healthy and
fine.


We have been walking since day one with Celina, a lovely woman Gabby´s
age from Buenos Aires.  She is funny, cute, and has a love of life
despite some very hard things that have happened to her recently.  She
speaks no English, so Gabby is getting a crash course in Spanish,
improving quite significantly each day.  We have also joined up with
another group- a mother and daughter from Kelowna, BC, a girl from
County Cork Ireland, and a guy from Seattle.  They are fun and
hilarious and we really enjoy cooking, laughing and walking with them.


From the outside, life in these little Spanish towns seems beautiful.
Not a trace of a corporation in sight; you buy your bread from the
baker down the street, then your meat from the butcher, then your
veggies from the grocer.  You go to mass each day and take a siesta in
the afternoon while the whole town shuts down.  However, we know that
the European economic crisis has hit Spain hard, and we can see
glimpses of poverty every once in awhile too.

The walking has been amazing.  The scenery is a feast for the eyes
most of the time... fields of alfalfa swaying in the wind like waves
in the ocean, hilly countrysides with row upon row of vines growing in
the bodegas in La Rioja, stunning views of the chiseled white
mountains in the distance, and tiny little towns centred around a main
cathedral, with cobblestone streets.  Before we left Tanzania, a
friend of ours said: "There´s something so tempting about the idea of
putting the world´s problems aside for a little while and just
walking."  That´s really what it feels like.  Life gets simplified to
its most basic elements on the Camino:  walking, eating, sleeping, and
finding connection and friendship with people along the way.  It´s
hard to describe how this long hard walk seems to change us on the
inside, but I can see it happening in us and in the people we walk
with.  There is time to think while walking, time to pray, time to
talk and get to know others´ life stories, but there´s also just time
to be quiet and do nothing at all but put one foot in front of the
other and marvel at the beauty around you.  This is something we North
Americans are sadly lacking in our lives, for the most part.  We are
grateful for the chance to take time out of our lives for this.