non-Catholics and communion on the Camino

[Mandy Edvalson]

Michael and other Camino listserv readers,

I went on the Camino with a group of 16 students and 4 professors/faculty
from my school, Eastern Oregon University. We went during out finals week
and spring break. We began at Ponferrada because of the restrictions of
time. We ended up being cut short one more day because of our flight to
Madrid getting cancelled, which resulted in us flying out a day later. The
trip was organized by one of our Spanish professors. She took a group of
about 10 a few years back and offered it again this year. She organized
things such as our flight and train ride from Madrid to Ponferrada. She also
gave us general information about the Camino and gave us a list of
suggestions for things to bring with us. However, once we got there she
encouraged us to be independent and explore the Camino on our own, without
depending on her to always tell us where to go. We somewhat broke up into
smaller groups, depending on what pace we wanted to go. For the most part we
met up again at night time in refuges, but some people stayed at different
towns than the main group.

One of the main things that I learned on the trip was to be flexible and the
recent e-mails from Gabrielle and Isabel reminded me of this. Gabrielle
reminds me much of the way I was right before I left for Spain. I didn't
know what to expect and when it got close to the time I didn't feel like I
had prepared as much as I should have, but at the same time as Gabrielle
said, it was too late to ask questions, in some cases. Instead I just
thought back to my cross country coach and something he said to our team at
the start of my senior year. He told us that he knew some of us were worried
to start and didn't feel like we prepared enough throughout the summer, but
that it was time to put those worries behind us and begin! So that is what I
did...I just began walking and tried to not let my worries get in the way.

This leads me to Isabel's comment about having expectations and needing to
let some of them go on the way. One of my expectations was that I wanted to
walk the whole way no matter how hard it was. When we got there a day late
we also found ourselves walking through the rain almost all day, everyday
the first few days. The amount of rain we encountered was not something I
was prepared well for. On the third day the wind was blowing so hard that my
poncho shredded in the wind (a couple others in my group encountered the
same problems as their ponchos blew off them), leaving my bag unprotected
and having everything in my bag soaked by the end of the day. At times it
was hard to keep a positive attitude when I was wet and cold and knowing
that even when I got to the refuge I would no longer have warm clothes to
change into...but then I realized that was something I couldn't change so I
might as well make the best of it. Now that I am nice and dry and back in
the comfort of my home, I can laugh about the hard aspects of the trip and I
am glad that I kept a good attitude about it. We did end up taking a bus on
the last day in order to make it to Santiago in time and this reminded me
about your concern for time and not wanting to take a bus. This was harder
for some in our group than others, but realistically it would have been hard
even if we hadn't lost a day to cover the distance we needed to. In the five
days the group I was with walked about 70 miles. That was less than I
expected to walk but like Isabel I just had to let go of my expectation and
not let it ruin my trip. I am glad that did take the time to "smell the
spring flowers" instead of rushing through it just to get all of the walking
in. I do want to go back sometime, maybe when I graduate college and walk it
again, when I can start farther back and not feel rushed by time
constraints. Nonetheless, this experience was unforgettable and I learned a
lot from it. I'll stop now, because this is getting long, but let me know if
you have any more questions about how we organized the trip Michael and I
would be happy to say more.

Mandy