i want to tell you about a particular 24 hour period. i think i wrote about roncesvalles-the accomodations are famous, or should i say infamous among we pellegrinos (us pellegrinos?  mom?  johno? anyone?  what is the proper english there?)  pellegrinos are pilgrims, which always sounded funny when i was home, but now feels just right.  which one of you asked me if i would have buckles on my shoes?!  ha ha!  no buckles, just my big beautiful boots.
anyway, back to the story.  that night in roncesvalles was in a huge room with bunk beds lined up.  the way they do it here, in order to get the most people in, is they put the head of the bunk against the wall, then another rigth next to it.  well that first night, i lucked out and got one of the only ´single´bunk beds since mine was the first one, and right up against a closet.  i remember looking out an seeing all those people-thre were more than 100 of us in that room and thinking, boy i am glad i don´t have one of those bunks right up against the next one. i wonder if they give those to people traveling together.  sure enough i saw a guy and a girl who i had seen walking together earlier, and they were top bunkers (like me that night).  we kind of caught each other´s eyes over the sea of pilgrims and gave a smile.  anyway, the next day, i walked the loooooong walk to the l-word, larrasoana.  when i got there, i got one of the last bunks-the top again.  however, when i got up there i realized I was now on one of those ´double´bunks.  i would be sleeping with someone right next to me.  i remember when i was on the ocean of gratitude cruise last year.  the first night when my roomate christiane and i got into our little beds, she reached over and turned out the light and started laughing.  ´´this is the closest io have ever slept to anyone i wasn´t in a relationship with!´´  we laughed and laughed at how close together the beds were. well, that was nothin´!  now i would be sleeping directly next to someone,and someone i didn´t know.  i wandered over to the other building where the internet was and 2 girls i had met coming down the pyrenees, jenny and kim were there.  2 geman girls i had met were both on the 2 computers, so i sat down with jenny and kim.  i told them about my bunk situation and they thought it was hysterical.  i told them i was praying that it was a woman.  ´´what´s the matter, annie,  you don´t want to sleep next to some other woman´s husband?´´  so when i went back to my bed, i found out who i would be sleeping next to that night.  some strange german man.   we said hello, i mean, that´s only polite, right?  you´re going to be sleeping with someone, you should at least make small talk, right?  well amazingly, or thanks to a melatonin pill lydia gave me, i fell right asleep.  i was up at 6 the nex morning, and was out before the strange german man woke up (6:30).  i walked all day, and got to pamplona around 11 am, and went by the albergue: casa paderborn (remember that name).  it is run by germans, and is highly respected.  it was the one i had decided to send my stuff to back in st. jean pied de port.  i spoke with the hospitalero, the woman who runs it, and i said i wasn´t sure i would stay there or go on.  the albergue wasn´t open yet,  so i figured i would go find internet and then decide if i would walk further or stay there.  i started looking for a locutorio, where i could get on the internet, but no luck.  meanwhile, my knees were starting to hurt more and more.  finally by almost 1 o´clock, i was pretty much lost , in a lot of pain, and feeling just exhausted.  i was starting to feel so bad that i began to wonder if could even make it the rest of the camino.  in other words, i was in a bad way mentally and physically.  suddenly, i heard someone say, oh-hey-american!  i looked, and there was the strange german man from the night before!  he was with his friend who was limping as badly as i was.  we chatted and they said they were staying at paderborn also.  i said i was trying to get back there but i didn´t know the way.  they said they did, and motiond me to follow.  then my bunkmate saw how bad off i was, and motioned for me to take off my backpack.  he would carry it, he said.  i slipped it off, and he put it on and carried it for me.  i am starting to cry right now as i remember this.  this was one of the most generous and stupendous acts of kindness i have ever known.  we got to the albergue and i collapsed on one of the benches.  it was just so hard, and everyone was so kind that i got completely choked up.   as i sat there yin soor, a lovely koean lady i sat nixt to at dinner the first night came in and saw me.  she came over and hugged me and said softly, ´we will make it, annie.  i will pray for you.´  that was it, i couldn´t keep the tears from flowing.  my own family could not have welcomed me more lovingly.  i got shown to my bunk right away so i could lie down, they brought  me ice packs for my knees, and hot tea to drink.  one of the german ladies got me some sort of cream for my knees, another some ´rescue remedy´.  i just lay in my bed thinking about how kind the german man had been.   in less than 24 hours he had gone from ´some strange german guy´ to my hero.  i didn´t even know his name.

i am humbled by this camino.