Zabaldica

The camino is not just about walking although that is the part that is the best known.  It's also about eating and sleeping.  One of the oldest and most basic institutions along the camino are the albergues.  Albergue in Spanish means a shelter, refuge or lodging. We would recognize them as hostals.  On my first camino I met volunteers called hospitaleros that worked in albergues and I decided that I wanted to be a hospitalero some day.  Hospitalero as well as hospitality come from the word hospital which in the Middle Ages was a hotel for pilgrims, a place to sleep, eat and receive care on their pilgrimage.  Last winter I completed a three-day training session and then I was ready to volunteer.  Taking a deep breath, I sent the email asking for an assignment.  One of my choices was a small albergue near the beginning of the camino, east of Pamplona.  I had visited there but had not stayed overnight.  I knew that I would be the only hospitalero, there were 18 beds, I would have to make dinner and somehow do shopping in a nearby city because the village of Zabaldica had only about 20 inhabitants.  And I also knew that Zabaldica was a special place so I jumped for it.

That's the village where I was to live for the next two weeks.  The church steeple and bells are in the center.  The church is named for St. Esteban.  Both the church and the albergue are the responsibility of the Communidad de Sagrada Corazon de Jesus de Zabaldica.  It is a world-wide order of sisters known in English as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Here are my "bosses", the four Hermanas of the community plus a soon-to-be Sister from China.

From left to right: Sisters Marisol, Mariasun, soon-to-be Sister Wei Lei, Sisters Teresa and Carmenchu.  

The entrance to the church in the morning before any pilgrims are up and about. More tomorrow.