The Lord of the Rings village house

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

June 25, 2014

We walked until 10:30 am. We stopped in Ligonde at a donativo ( Fuentes del Peregrino) and we decided to stay there for the night all because the hosts gave us a hug. Yup…we needed a hug after having spent yet another night having a dispute about leaving the window open. If you don’t want to sleep by the window and plan on closing it at night for fear of getting sick, then do everyone the favor by selecting a different bed placement. Ahhh!
This one window thing in the bottom of a remodeled cellar that holds 35 people along with showers that have no outlet for the water condensation and thus the smell of mold permeates the room, is apparently the norm. I don’t understand. The owners of these private albergues spend lots of money remodeling and yet don’t include more windows and a good ventilation system that will accommodate mass amounts of people.

Anyway, we had a great time at the donativo. Even though we had to wait till 1:30 to check in, we knew that we had to stay here. If you ever wondered what it would be like to sleep one of those cute little hobbits’ homes, I can tell you that it was way cool. Everything you imagine it would be and have seen in The Lord of the Ring movies.

The donativo is owned by Campus Crusaders- or- Agape- I was slightly apprehensive for two reasons: the hosts who were volunteering for the week were all French (flashback of French Banshee woman went through my mind) and I also know from previous conversations from my mission days with this organization, they believe my religion to be a cult and that we are not Christian. They also actively and openly proselytize against us. Mmmm…will we be kicked out if this comes to light I wondered. But they hugged us and we felt impressed to stay here and so we did.

We had a blast with this group of young 20 yr olds as we all slept right next to each other in beds that were pushed so close together, it was like one big slumber party, complete with jumping on the beds and having a pillow fight (I was the casual bystander). My faith in Camino humanity was restored. We laughed, talked, joked and just clicked. They were from Canada- but they are from Quebec which is like a country in of itself as the first language is French and then English. The other members of this walking party came from France, Spain and Croatia. We spoke in English and had a grand time communicating thoughts and ideas. We talked about religion too. The one guy said, “You know, when they floated Jesus’s head on the water.” We all looked at him and through our communication skills, learned that he meant baptism, but didn’t know the English word for the action. We had a great laugh. Later that night, we all shared a meal (8:15 pm was when they feed us dinner after the organization had us first attend a devotional/ fellowship) with a group of 42 young adults who came from Ireland to walk the Sarria – Santiago portion of the Camino. They all belonged to the religious group and were camping along the way. Afterwards, the Irish entertained us with singing. It was a great time for Abby to hang around young adults her age from other cultures and hear and compare life stories. Abby also has decided that we need to bring home the cute Irish guitar player/ singer/ studying Bio- medical science, to serenade her to sleep each night.

And too soon, our relaxing, enjoyable evening came to a close. In the early morning hour, we all headed out. They to walk the 34km distance and Abby and I to walk our 11 km. And that is the way the Camino is. Bond quickly with an individual or a group by sharing time and a meal together and then moving on. It is never a ” Good-bye” parting of ways, but a “See ya later alligator” type. We will meet again…someday.