My fingers, when not on the keyboard are on my arms and legs scratching. On the keyboard because I’m reading work mails,
(I’m now down to 70 from 400). I’ve never been thankful of linked in and other social networking invites that I didn’t have to read.
I have rashes, I theorized from the clothes we had laundered in Rome. All of us have it.
I believed too much that I would never have jet lagged since I was energized, inspired and not feeling at all sad.
I was missing people of course, but I was happy. After I wrote the article last night,
I was thankful to doze off at midnight hoping to get up early and start again with my mails. You can’t imagine my shock that I slept straight and saw the phone clock at 11am. I panicked and called my boss,
instead of saying, “I’m working from home” I blurted, “I’ll come to work in the afternoon”. I welcomed the work to jerk me to normality.
I’m copper skinned but everyone would notice how tanned I am now. Blame it all on the European Sun. I like my tan, but where I’m from,
fair skin is more pleasing. This has been the only tan that I could remember, I didn’t get from my favorite hobby- going to the beach.
I went on a pilgrimage. In brief, I walked for 6 days with a 9 kilo back pack, on average, 25 Kilometers a day, under the heat of the sun, climbing hills, going from town
to town. We walked the Camino de Santiago, way of St. James from Roncesvalles (border of Spain and France) to Vianna, 130KM. It was
a fulfilling experience walking with Christ and really awesome people (I will talk about them soon, they’re my stirrers).
(Here I am again, couldn’t begin to describe how amazing the experience was)
I walked with 26 other pilgrims, from Singapore, Spain, UK, Austria, Germany and Sweden. Being the only Filipino, I was only scared that
I couldn’t carry my backpack but my co-pilgrims were fun, welcoming and despite of the difficulty in trying to express in English,
everyone tried hard to understand and be understood. From strangers we became a family, we cheered each other when it was too tiring,
painful and too hot to walk on, we enjoyed each other’s stories and company, we played games, ate a whole lot, laughed a lot, cried with
all our frustrations, celebrated a birthday, hug and kissed each other a lot, sang and danced way too much that it was annoying other people,
bullied and hurt each other a whole lot more, more importantly, we prayed together, heard mass everyday together- from sitting on the grass to going to a grand church,
read the gospel and shared/reflected about our day.
While walking, we got to meet other pilgrims from all over the world, saying “Ola” and “Buen Camino (Good Journey)” to all we meet.
Got to meet the locals and experienced the extravagance of the beauty of Spain, with their vineyards, fields of sunflower, windmills, castles and people.
It was picturesque.
Wherever we stopped walking, we just sat down and ate snacks of peanuts, sweets and bread.The water fountains were oasis from the heat and exhaustion.
Water was potable. When we reached our destinations, we just dropped with our back packs,
take off our socks and shoes and check out another blister and have lunch. Take a siesta, go around the town, play games, hear mass, tease each other,
share a sumptuous dinner over more stories and teasing, pray and dropped dead to sleep, to wake up early in the morning for prayer, breakfast
and start walking again.
Another favorite part were the soulful and heartfelt conversations I had with my co-pilgrims while walking. The authenticity took my breath away
that I wasn’t noticing the heat, the heavyness of my backpack, the tiredness and the blisters.
That was in brief of my pilgrimage.
I started to get in touch with the people I missed today. Everyone misses everyone, thats comforting to know that I’m not the only one.
It was a conscious effort to get into the groove of my normal life today- closing the window and locking the door before I left the house,
realizing where my toothbrush was, tapping in and out of the bus, digging for my access badge to get in the office. Something’s different…
There’s an early meeting I’m presiding tomorrow that I can’t miss. I’ll tell you more tomorrow. Hastaluego.
