Day 4

Another beautiful day in Granon. This morning Father Jesus took me into Belarado to do the shopping. It is quite an experience having the priest push your supermarket trolley. After that we went to the butchers to buy chickens where we met a pilgrim from the previous night who insisted on paying for them as an additional donation. Barbara is cook tonight and as she is vegetarian, we are having a lentil dish, a tuna salad and melon for desert. I cooked a chicken stew and will do it again. I simply emptied tins of beans, tomatoes and what ever was around into it and everyone raved about it. It was total improvisation. I am going to try to repeat it again when its my turn tomorrow. It is quite daunting preparing a meal in this open plan lichen with 25 pilgrims watching your every move. I am on meet and greet duty this afternoon and will be responsible for the Time of Reflection at 9.30 pm in the candlelight in the choir. I haven't done it yet so I am quite nervous. It seems to be a fairly quiet day as we only have 15 pilgrims so far and it is 4pm already. We have had pilgrims arriving as late as 8pm. Just about every pilgrim is walking for some reason and often they are very emotional about. Yesterday we had an emotional American lady who is trying to wrestle with some intense personal issues. Everyday we see that this is not only a difficult physical journey for pilgrims but also an intense inner journey of the soul. I love to see families walking together. Yesterday we had an Enlist lady and her 22 year old daughter as well a Swedish lady with her two young daughters. We had a Spanish guy 2 nights ago with his 13 year old son and an Australian lady with her 17 year old son. There are lots of sisters walking together and even fathers and daughters. Later - we are now busy. It is such a glorious day pilgrims are not calling it a day early but are walking late into the afternoon. It is hard to stay put and I long to join them!
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