I have good boots
Today is repacking day…
Date: 26 August 2023
Place: Pistachio House
I am going to serve as an hospitalera for the first time since my pre-pandemic training by the delightful Daniel De Kay and marvelous Martha Crites (yes, the author).
Speaking of the quinceña (15 days of service)… I will be serving with the amazing Becky Rush-Peet who I met at the airport in Seattle as we were both on our way to the hospitalero training in 2020. She lives close enough to me that we have kept in touch and visit every so often. I even camped on her porch once (with my adventure bestie Callie).
There is a third hospitalero during our stint. He is a Spaniard and I am relieved to have a someone fluent as part of the team. He has no English, however, but that is going to be just fine. I can mostly understand easy spoken Spanish. I have upped my listening of the News in Slow Spanish podcast to keep my ear trained.
It’s a big albuergue. As a donativo parrochial we won’t be taking reservations which means that we could end up quite full or half empty. There are forty beds! Yikes! But as I have read… there are only two showers and two toilets or it could mean two bathrooms with two showers and two toilets. As it is an albuergue run by the local Roman Catholic parish, I am guessing the latter. And my new chapel veil came!
Bunk beds are my nemesis. But, if I recall correctly from my own pilgrimages and stays in Donativos, every pilgrim is to take the coverings off of their beds and pillows themselves and if they sleep on the mats they are supposed to spray and wipe them down when they leave.
The albuergue is supposed to stay open all day, not just open at 2as most do, so someone will have to be on the desk to greet at all times. Even up until lights out. But we will find out more when we get there.
I am at “oh crud I overpacked stage” and am about to start whittling it all down. Blah. I need clothes for being a hospitalero, shoes for town walking and touring post Camino, plus boots (“I have good boots” Quick, what Jean Reno movie is that from?), Thom’s 2nd pair of boots, backpack, Camino gear, send-ahead bag, and all the sundry. Yoiks!
And the to-do list is a kilometer long.
