Day 10 Feast Day of Santiago July 25

Day 10 Feast Day of Santiago July 25

It was a different kind of Santiago Feast Day. All festivities for the week have been cancelled. There are black ribbons everywhere. All the flags are at half mast. The street musicians are silent. And the mood is subdued. Below is a picture of the signs hung in the Pilgrim's office today.

I am still processing. Of course prayers and thoughts for the dead and their families. But, what I keeps coming back to my mind are the survivors. I cannot imagine experiencing all of what must have been scary moments before the crash when the train was moving at an excessive speed, the terrifying noise of wrenching metal scraping on the wall and against the tracks and itself as it twisted, being thrown about the inside of a metal tube, witnessing the corpses and bleeding injured, then realizing the train was on fire and trying to claw your way out. Damn!

Then I realize I am experiencing the guilt, relief and the why's and what if's that are usually never revealed, because I was on that same train just nine days before. I cannot fathom how you deal with those thoughts and emotions when you were there and experienced it and survived, when about one third of the passengers did not. I'm attempting to let all that just be with me and not try to deny or ignore it.

There was no vigil or anything different in the plaza in front of the Cathedral this afternoon. It just looked like it did every other time I walked to or from work. I think there was some sort of place inside the Cathedral for paying respects or saying prayers because there was a line out one of the side doors and down the steps into the Plaza (Praza Das Platerías) when I went to work and when I came home.

I only worked six hours today. It was not as busy as yesterday. But I've pretty much worked out a rhythm of getting people in and out efficiently. I learned new little tricks every day. They have a sign at the top of the stairs that says, in several languages, please wait here for your turn. But the Pilgrims are excited, tired, spaced out, looking all around and don't see the sign right beside the roped of place for the line. So several times an hour I am showing people where to go for the person who will write their Compostelas, as soon as I am around the corner the whole line starts to follow me. Then I have to try to ask them to move back using sign and body language, Spanish and English. Moving the line back after it has momentum is difficult to say the least. First of all the line is coming up the stairs so it is necessary first to get the people coming up the stairs to stop so I don't need to move them down the stairs backwards which might cause injuries. Meanwhile the people backing up on the landing are occasionally stepping on one another moving backwards. And even though I saying "atras" which means back and would be very hard to mispronounce, people look at me like they don't understand, so I say "Habla inglés" and the say "no, Español" and I think my Spanish must be horrific if they can't even understand me when I'm saying something simple and hard to mispronounce. But usually after this little exchange, I say atras again and they say something like "oh, perdon." What I tried today was to move the sign a few inches so it cut off the area to pass through to one person. It worked. People noticed the sign more, we only had one or two "atras" moments and it all went much more smoothly. 

Then, in order not to seem rude or demanding, after I get the line back and the next person in to get their Compostelas I go back and explain in Spanish and English to all the affected people that we only have a small space inside so they can't all go in at once and people after to enter and leave through the same door so we need a small area clear for all that to happen. Almost everyone is as nice as can be and say I don't need to apologize, they understand. But one woman today, who wasn't even in the line, she was just resting waiting for some kids, told me off in Spanish. I tried my best to explain the problem, but she wouldn't hear any of it or let me finish a sentence. It's the first time I've been told off in Spanish, at least the first time I've realized I've been told off. Sometimes there is an advantage to not understanding a language. But in this instance by the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes there was no way to mistake the message. So I used my short form of the compassion exercise in my mind, did an Asian bow with my hands clasped and backed away. She glared at me for the next fifteen minutes and at the end of the fifteen minutes and by the end of that time I had eased toward compassion.

So, I've been told off in yet another language. From my experience the sound and the look are the same no matter the idiom. :) I can't even imagine how that all would have gone even ten years ago. Well, come to think of it, I can, and it would not have been pretty, though she might have understood the expletives, she certainly would have understood the tone and decibel level.

I think my tattoo may become famous. I have about ten people a day asking to take pictures of it. Yesterday a French film crew was in the office and the film guy took about ten minutes of it and me. So I'm having my fifteen minutes of fame. Maybe it could be a novel, "The Girl With The Camino Tattoo" or maybe "The Old Woman With The Camino Tattoo" hehe

I am learning to say so many things in Spanish and it is like an interlocking puzzle. Once I figure out one things I can just change a word here and there and say something else. And I've lost most of my fear of trying to say things for fear of embarrassment.

Well that's all for now. Beam me up Scottie.