cows, blisters, tents, horreos, and simplicity

There are many things about which I have both contemplated during my time in Ligonde.

First, to paint a picture of our time, we were living in a town of I believe about 80 or 90. Most of the living beings we saw were animals and, in fact, our neighbors lived in the same house as the animals. The most common smell was that of cow manure and a several time a day occurrence was the moving of the cows. They went from one plot of land or barn to another. (I should have asked more questions, but I'm still not fully sure why this took place.) But without fail we'd have to move out of the way to not get stampeded or pooped on (literally). It was a town of simplicity. A place in which many of the houses recently got electricity and plumbing. A place in which it is a normal thing for laundry to be washed outside by hand and for women into their 70s and 80s to work HARD from sunrise to long after sunset. A place where common knowledge includes how to birth a calf or a lamb or a baby for that matter.

There is still an eclectic mix of people. One is Jose who lived in Switzerland for some time, speaks french, italian, english, german, spanish, and gallego, or at least decent amounts of each. He came home when his brother died to help out the family and hasn't left since. He said he's already seen the world and has no need to leave Ligonde for much. He enjoys his simple life and his family.

Maria and Jesús are the neighbors who live WITH their animals. You walk in their house and the room on the left is for the cows, the kitchen is on the right (with no door, just a door frame, between the two, then upstairs is where the people and cats sleep. Definitely a very modest and unupdated home.

We slept in tents outside the full two weeks, so as to not take the spaces of pilgrims in the house. I began the time sleeping with my friend Ruth and her daughter Elia and then, after they left, had a tent to myself. We ate outside, generally showered with cold water (occasionally it was warm, which was always a nice surprise), and definitely lived in community. We woke up at 6:30ish to prepare the coffee & milk for the pilgrims, to clean the house, and to eat ourselves. We had a time of prayer in pairs and then began our day. The morning was spent preparing the house for the day, greeting pilgrims who passed by or stopped momentarily to get their credential stamped, to chat, to get some coffee, to use the bathroom, etc., and we had some teaching times for the western european new staff training. After several hours of class we got ready for lunch and then spent the afternoon attending to pilgrims, relaxing a bit, and preparing for the evening (cooking, preparing stories, etc.,). In the evening we showed the Jesus Film, had a time of prayer (for our needs and those of the pilgrims - this was generally in about 4 different languages with some translation), ate dinner with the pilgrims inside, had a storytelling time (where we shared a couple prepared stories, heard stories from the camino, and then spent some time reflecting on the day and to take care of business (in terms of forgiving, asking for forgiveness, and receiving forgiveness so as to "not let the sun go down on our anger"). This was a very special time. Lights in the house went out at 11pm, which is about the time the stars came out outside. Often we'd walk to a local cafe to hang out a bit more and during which I enjoyed the quietness of this little town and the clearness of the sky (with its millions of stars) and would quietly thank God for bringing me here, for His creation, for His goodness, and for the happenings of the day.

While I haven't much shared about my ponderings, the simplicity and the magic of this place will remain with me. (And in just about 10 days I will be back in this part of Spain hiking the camino with teenagers from across Europe. You can definitely pray for this time.)

Note: The second picture is of an "horreo", is is where corn is kept so as not to be eaten by the squirrels. And it is pronounced "oreo" like the cookie. The first picture is of a ternera, a calf, Eva and I were shown some 4 day old calves by Maria Eugenia, one of the neighbors. Amazing!