[Gocamino] Santiago pilgrims

[Blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
The Pilgrims'  office reports that the number of pilgrims exceeds, by far, 
any non-Holy Year spring and summer pilgrims.  In fact, these days the average 
wait in line for a Compostela runs into the hours.
There used to be four full-time and four part-time modestly paid employees at 
the office; when the new Spanish government cut the subsidies  previously 
available to them, the staff was cut  in half. Fortunately, several foreign 
confraternities have come to help  by providing volunteers; the largest number of 
volunteers working at the office comes from Belgium (?), followed  by those 
from  France and Germany.  A few pilgrims from various American countries, 
including the United States,  have also volunteered to help out.
The gathering and inputting of pilgrims' data, however, has been somewhat 
delayed, and it is probable that the figures for June will have to wait to be  
put out 
together with those of July.
In a happier note, the issue of the Compostela magazine covering the 2004 
Holy Year will come out of the presses next week.  It will be a 150-page issue 
chock-full of facts and figures that, I'm sure, will be of great interest to us 
all.  As soon as I get a copy I will post the main topics therein so that you 
can tell me which ones would be of particular interest to you.
Meanwhile,
a hug!
Rosina