Frómista from the Latin frumentum=cereal
Arriving to Frómista was all an alchemist journey of water, air, earth and fire. Passing the town of Boadilla started the Castille Water Channel. It was a piece of human art next to the dusty Camino. The winds were strong today, and the Sun rays were warm enough to have a pleasant walk. It is at the top of my list scenes on El Camino. I took several pictures that you can see on my Instagram account.
The Castille Water Channel provides water to the valley under it. A channel system that was built in the XVIII Century that helped the agricultural region, and still today in use.
Last night at the Itero De la Vega, we were only three peregrinos there. Two Korean young students and me. They started to walk before me this morning, but I reached them at the Water Channel in Boadilla. There were few people walking today. It looked that everyone started late, because the cold temperatures in the morning. The Frómista municipal shelter was full in the afternoon.
Passing the water channel, I entered a bakery. Faces again looked familiar. Two young women were running it. They were from Cuba. They knew the name of every single person in the village that entered the bakery of all ages. I sat at the counter, and ate a delicious crab meat sandwich with two glasses of fresh orange juice. It was around 10am, when Pilar arrived. OMG! It was comedy time. One Cuban lady greeted Pilar with the question? Pilar are you going to read in Church today? The other asked: Pilar have you seen Father today? Pilar answered cannot be posted here. I almost felt of my sit. It was so bad and so funny that I kept myself as an incognito priest. I was sure that I would see her in church later today . Pilar is in war with the local priest. She made, created and invented so many funny stories of the local priest that I had to jump into the conversation. I just follow the lines. I could not stop laughing. It was hilarious. She will talk about his vacations in the Canary Islands. What he will wear at the beach, and so many funny things. I did not want to be the town priest in her mouth. She was so beautiful dressed with a Sunday Church dress. She had the look of my Tia Minga. I was enchanted by her sarcastic humor. There was something in her that caused me to embraced her with love.
The village shelter would open at 2pm and mass was at 1:00. What to do???
I toured the Romanesque church of St. Martin in the center of town, and sit in a manor plaza across the street. An Italian man that was walking the past 10 days around me came to me and said good bye. A taxi was waiting for me across the plaza. The first day we met. He will not talk to any one. He would not have his backpack on el Camino. He was always well dressed, and wore a Panamanian hat. Two days ago, he needed to open himself. It was not a confession, but he trusted me all his life. I think he saw me at one of the churches and he knew then that I was a priest. Life surprises me…
Then, Maina showed up with two lambs. Maina has been walking El Camino for almost 2 years, back and forward. She was a teacher in Marsella, France. She was a woman of deep faith. We had an amazing conversation about God, life, and the lambs of course. We talked for almost two hours. She was so full of love for the world. When she left she kissed me on the forehead, and thanked me for all my answers to all her questions. She works in a village 3 hours on El Camino that I will pass tomorrow.
I went to church, and waited for the priest to arrive. He was running late. He has 10 parishes to care for, 10! There was another priest from France waiting. We both concelebrated with him.
After mass I went to the municipal shelter. After doing my daily rituals, I went out for lunch. I returned to the shelter And took a nap. It is around 6pm when I heard people talking in the shelter patio. They were having a good time. I heard a women say something about her son coming to visit her this week. He is living in a special home and they were going to bring him to visit her. Then, I heard someone say something about the priest that was in church today… Oh no, it was me. From my bed I said: hey I am here, no one talk about me with out my permission. They started laughing. I went to look from the second floor balcony. It was Pilar and her two friends. We talked about why she did not read in Church today. The other two friends laugh. They invited me to go down. We talked, we laugh, we cry. Pilar had three boys. Two of them with physical problem. The third died at a local fair. She needed a life. She needed love. It is how I can put her life. I knew from my visit with her at the bakery that she is just holding there. And she holds strong. Just thinking about all her pain, made me cry.
After chatting with them I went for dinner at El Chiringuito. It has the best ribs. It is run by a young man from Burgos, and a young women from Bolivia, SA. She knows how to season the meat, he knows how to treat the guests. It is interesting that the locals don’t go there to eat, because they are outsiders. Their place was full, because peregrines have heard about how good is their food.
A young man from the albergue joined me at the table. He was an architect from Paris. Interesting enough to discover that he wants to be a priest. Now you know what our conversation was about.
It was close to 9:30pm and we needed to make it back to the albergue. I took my cloth from the patio, and put it on my backpack. It was time to go to bed.