Sat Night, our 3rd last night

The 3 of us are now acutely aware of how our time is running out. We are all tired and more than anything are needing some space and 'me' time. Yet we still want to savour every remaining moment, which is a bit of a contradiction in terms. We have come such a long way in such a short time. I remember the sheer terror of the first night of cooking for a large crowd of hungry pilgrims and yet tonight when a pilgrim cooked dinner for us, both Barbara and I missed cooking as it is such an integral part of what we do for pilgrims. We felt that we had somehow missed out on the 'magic' of the evening. Independently we decided to refuse any offers to cook tonight as we want to do it together. I find it hard to believe we have come so far down the track that we actually miss not cooking!. The 3 of us have defied all odds -ie 1 South African and 2 Californian friends thrown together and expected to operate as a team - yet we have learned to work as an efficient and cohesive team and I want to pay tribute to them. Our dear Rachel who is the most amazing 83 year old, is in charge of cleaning the kitchen, finding room in the frig for leftovers, and organising the pilgrims to chop onions, prepare our salads, peel potatoes, grate carrots etc. She is also much loved by the pilgrims and manages to find out all their stories, both sad and joyful. She is great fun to be with and has such a lovely sense of humour Barbara is fluent in Spanish so she carries a big load as she has to give instructions, translate,explain, talk to the Padre who can't speak English etc so we rely heavily on her. She is the most caring person I know and gives exceptionally generously of herself to all the pilgrims, no matter how tired she is. Her enormous reserves of generosity of spirit is awe-inspiring and every pilgrim gets a very warm welcome from her. She sets the example of unconditional love for us to follow. With regard to our chores, Barbara and I share the cleaning, alternating each day between the sweeping, mopping, cleaning mattresses and doing the disinfectant procedures for bedbugs and the cleaning of the bathrooms, showers and loos. We take turns to cook and share the welcoming and signing in of pilgrims. We plan our meals over breakfast and decide what we need to buy. We shop every second day in Santa Domingo but we buy fresh bread and eggs every day in the village from Susannah at the Panaderia. Other than that we have great fun at times and often shriek with laughter to the point of tears. It is not possible to work in a place like this without good team spirit and our team work is probably our strongest asset. I have learned so much from my co-hospitaleras and even if they don't think I speak English, we have communicated well. Of course it goes without saying that both Barbara and I have had a sound hospitalera training as well as on going support - Barbara in California and I have been trained by our very own South African trainer, Sylvia. By this stage we are all thoroughly disreputable with bleach on every item of clothing and have given up trying to look presentable. On Tuesday Barbara and Rachel fly back to California but I carry on walking.
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