Rona’s Diary from Spain

It’s hard to believe it’s already been seven weeks since my arrival in Spain. When I first arrived on August 23, I was whisked from the airport in Bilbao to the home of the people I’m here to work in, who live in a 500-year-old stone house in the town of Artajona (about 2 hours southeast, pop. 2000). I stayed in their spare room for the first four nights, and then spent the next six nights at a Dutch-operated “albergue” (inn/hostel) on the Camino de Santiago.

The Albergue

This inn/hostel where I worked, in the small village of Villamayor de Monjardin, is operated by Dutch evangelicals who use this as a ministry outpost to try to witness to the pilgrims who walk this arduous 500 mile (800 kilometer) trek from southern France to the west coast of Spain. Camino means “way” and the intent is to point them to THE WAY, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pilgrims are offered a Gospel of John printed in their own language (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, English) and shared with briefly during our dinnertime together.

It was very tough manual labor that I wasn’t at all used to, and I’d go to bed each night with pain in my feet and up my legs. But still, I would do it all over again for the experience of serving the Lord and ministering to the pilgrims as we did. I had never heard of this Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) before but apparently Shirley MacLaine wrote about it in one of her books after doing the pilgrimage herself so it is somewhat known in the U.S., and certainly well known in many other countries as well. Most folks who do the Camino are Roman Catholic, although many others use the six to eight weeks it takes to complete the route as a time of personal and/or spiritual reflection. The pilgrims are given a credential book when they start at St. Jean Pied-de-Port in southern France, and it gets stamped by each albergue on their route. When they complete the Camino they get some sort of diploma or certificate if they produce the credential book with all the stamps. A kind of badge of honor. I was surprised by the number of people traveling by themselves (especially women), as well as by the number of people doing this who were obviously in their 50s, 60s and even 70s.

This albergue is run by Dutch evangelicals who volunteer their time. It’s open from March till October, has no heat (which was no problem for us what with the high temps and all), and has room for 24 people in rooms that hold 6 or 8 people each. On two of the nights we were there, we actually had more than 24 people and they slept on mattresses we put down for them in a small room that’s called the Pilgrim’s Room, which is meant for the pilgrims to rest in rather than being in their bunk bed. They pay 5 euros for a bed, and if they want dinner it’s another 6 euros, and breakfast the next morning is 4 euros. So for the equivalent of about $20 they get two very filling home-cooked meals plus have a bed to sleep in. It’s amazing to me that people can so casually share such a small space with total strangers. And even more amazing that they are willing to share just one bathroom with only two showers!

Each night with the pilgrims was a different experience. We had many folks from France and Italy and Holland, others from Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, South Africa, Quebec Canada (who didn’t speak English), other provinces in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Denmark, Hungary, and even someone from Chicago. I got to use my limited knowledge of French a lot. I had the opportunity to share some biblical truths with the person from Hungary and one of the Germans. Another German lady gave me her card and invited me to come visit her in Germany.

Our schedule varied each day as we tried to share chores. I was up early so helped or handled breakfast three of the six days. That meant being down in the kitchen a little before 6:30 a.m. to set up. The pilgrims were given OJ, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, cereal (muesli), breads, cheeses, ham, chorizo, magdalenas (which are small sweet muffins). Breakfast was from 7-8 a.m. but most pilgrims were anxious to get on their way and so came down right at 7 and were gone by or before 7:30.

Staff ate breakfast between 8-8:30 (same foods as the pilgrims ate). We then had to start cleaning the rooms. This included washing down the mattresses which were covered in plastic, sweeping and/or vacuuming the rooms, and mopping the rooms and bathroom, emptying trash, etc. We were also actually open for other pilgrims who might want a snack as they were on the road and passed by our inn. These might be folks who had left their previous night’s lodging very early and so arrived at our albergue around 8:30-11 a.m. We sold hot or cold drinks and bocadillos which are sandwiches on French bread that might include a fried egg, ham, cheese, tomatoes, etc.

I served with two folks from Holland. Jan (pronounced like Yahn) has been here for the entire season. He appeared to be about late 40s or early 50s. Marja (pronounced Mar-ya with the accent on the first syllable) used her 4-week vacation (she’s a psychologist working with troubled teenage boys) to volunteer her time here. She’s 39 and was a delight to get to know, a very hard worker and very dedicated.

We would close for siesta time from 1-3:30 p.m., then get together for devotions and prayer before the 4 p.m. check-in, which I handled most days (and enjoyed doing!). Dinner was at 7 and usually lasted about 1-1/2 hours. Grace was said, Jan shared from John 14:6 that while the pilgrims are on the Camino (way), that Jesus said that He is THE way… Then they are offered a Gospel of John in their own language. Most accept it, and then some even might ask one of us some questions after dinner is over.

After the kitchen is cleaned and the room partially set up for the next morning’s breakfast, we can go outside and interact with any of the pilgrims who have remained. Most do go to their rooms to shower or sleep, as they plan on an early start the next morning, but some do stay and talk, have some coffee or tea, etc.

Because of the latitude, at this time of year the sun doesn’t set until late, so it’s still light out by 9-9:30 p.m. Of course that also means it’s still dark until about 7:30 or so in the a.m. All in all a most memorable and unique experience.

The Piso

I’m sharing an apartment (“piso”) in the town of Olite, a few miles southeast of Tafalla, with John David (JD), a 24-year-old from southern California, and Eddy, a young man from Guatemala who is 21. Eddy and I can’t communicate very well yet but hopefully that will change over the next few months. I actually don’t see him very often as he works a fulltime job. This is an entirely acceptable living arrangement here in Spain, although it did take some getting used to on my part.

The apartment is a 4-bedroom, 1.5 bath on the 4th floor of a 4-floor walkup. I guess for Spain it’s considered a decent size and all. The place came fully furnished but the landlord doesn’t appear willing to do any fixing up, so anything that needs to be fixed we have to do. For instance, the mailbox doesn’t open, there’s a problem with the lock. For me it’s not an issue as I don’t expect to be getting mail and if I needed a local address I could use the address of the folks who live in Artajona. The dishwasher and oven don’t work, either. Nor do two of the four burners on the electric stove. The shower head should be replaced. We had to put in and pay for a phone line. Just things we’d consider normal for a landlord to take care of in the U.S. But the rent is only 480 euros a month plus utilities. A euro is equal to about $1.30.

The furniture is uncomfortable and so I find myself staying in my room most of the time. There’s a sofa and two chairs in the living room, and the TV reception is poor, so I’m pretty much out of touch with world events. There’s a dining room table and chairs, but the cushions are worn out like the living room furniture, and so you feel like you’re sitting way down deep into any piece of furniture without getting any support. There’s a small table and four chairs in the kitchen. The washing machine is quite small and a load takes about three hours to wash. Then I have to hang out the clothes from my bedroom window (four floors up!) to dry. I can get by with doing laundry about every week and a half. And when the weather gets bad and I can’t use the outside clothesline, I bought something to enable me to hang up the clothes indoors (although it will take longer for them to dry that way).

The ½ bath is where the washing machine is. And there’s a toilet and a sink there besides the washing machine. The main bathroom is directly across a small hallway from my bedroom, which makes it very convenient. There’s a tub/shower, a toilet, a sink with a cabinet (unusual as most that I’ve seen are simply pedestal sinks), and a bidet. It has cobalt blue tiles along the walls but a mixed yellow/beige tile on the floor. My room is small with white flocked wallpaper and white furniture with pink trim. There’s a small desk with a chair, a round table, and a 3-tiered shelf that I’m using for my makeup, jewelry and shoes. There’s decent closet space, especially between that room and the second room I’m renting. I use that room kind of as my living room, actually.

We live in the town of Olite (pop. 5000) which is about 4-5 miles southeast of Tafalla where I work. The area is quite noisy, especially at night. People stay up much later here, their voices are louder, plus there’s always a motorcycle or two (or three) driving past the apartment building quite late at night. Things don’t start happening in Spain until after 10 p.m., although there’s supposedly a noise ordinance and we could potentially contact the Civil Guard about our neighbors. It’s still pretty noisy after midnight, actually.

Olite and Tafalla are kind of industrial and commercial. The drive between the two towns has a lot of businesses and some orchards, and a lot of not-very-nice smells. Hardly picturesque… Tafalla is on the main highway between Paris France and Madrid Spain, so a major thoroughfare. We’re about 25 miles directly south of Pamplona. We do see a lot of modern windmills on the hillsides, like they have as one drives into Palm Springs. Some of the orchards are walled, and the family that owns it builds a house within the walls where they might have a picnic and such; these are called “huerta”.  All street signs and names of towns and such are in both Basque and Castiliano (they don’t call it “Spanish” here; it’s Castiliano). But interestingly, the stop signs have the word “STOP” written on them, neither in Spanish nor in Basque.

Food

I’ve not been impressed with the food I’ve had so far. They eat a lot of filets: chicken breast (pechuga de pollo), thinly sliced pork (lomo), fish (cod, hake, bonito), and a lot of carbs. There are bread bakeries (panaderia) and pastry shops (pasteleria) all over and people buy what we call French bread on a daily basis, it seems. They have a lot of sweets available. They have a spread like the consistency of peanut butter but it’s chocolate. They eat rice or pasta or potatoes as a mainstay with their main meal. Even in the restaurants I’ve eaten in, I can’t say I’m impressed with the food. And the prices are not inexpensive. Actually nothing here seems inexpensive, and since we lose 30 cents on the dollar, it makes it seem even more extravagant. You have to pay for water, and they don’t seem to give refills on coffee – and the size of the coffee cups is quite small compared to what we’re used to. When they say “café con leche” it’s actually more milk than coffee. They also heat the milk before putting it into the coffee, which makes a lot of sense, actually.

I have seen some products in grocery stores that have English words, or some brands we might recognize like Pantene, Dove, Nestles, Oreos, but overall most of the items are Spanish brands. They’re very big on yogurt also. They do have a nice assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the water is safe to drink (unlike Mexico). I’ve even had Chinese food and pizza here. It’s funny to hear the Chinese people speaking Spanish, but I guess no more so than when they come to the U.S. and have to learn English. The Spaniards don’t frequent the restaurant very much, but do go to the two Chinese-run “dollar stores” in Tafalla for bargains.

Fiestas

September seems to be the month for fiestas throughout Spain. The first weekend I arrived, there was a medieval fair in Artajona, and we all dressed in period costumes. There were a lot of booths selling food or jewelry or health products. Very picturesque.

The week of September 13-19 was the fiesta in Olite. And the previous week was the fiesta in Artajona (this is in addition to the medieval fair). They have in these parts the “running of the cows” in contrast to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. All the kids and adults wear the traditional white shirts and white pants with the red bandanas and waistbands. It’s very festive and quite a big deal. We attended a pre-fiesta concert by the Olite orchestra which was very nice.

My Classes

I started taking care of two brothers (Javier, age 9 and Alvaro, age 6) in early September. Their mother works as a radiologist at a hospital in Tafalla and she needs someone to be with the boys during their two-hour lunch break, from 1-3 p.m., each school day. I give them lunch and then English lessons, both reading and writing. The boys are a handful and each day brings new challenges.

Another task I’ve been involved with is teaching English. So far the classes are mostly either one-on-one or have two participants. I teach teenagers as well as adults. The students here are required to learn both English and Basque (this is one of the four Spanish Basque provinces) and the teenagers are using these classes as a way to improve their English skills from a native speaker.

Finally, I’m cataloging the books in the library of the ministry center so that there’s a computerized database. There’s a lot to do, but there’s also been enough down time to enjoy visiting some of the other towns in the area, and even driving to southern France. It’s been a wonderful experience so far, and I believe it will continue to enrich my life.