everyone always told me that one of the greatest parts of the camino is the community.  whenever i heard that, i would have a nagging doubt, as if all the good people had been used up.  it reminded me of when news of new neices and nephews would be announced.  i would think, well, i already have the greatest nieces and nephews, this next one is sure to be a dud, or some devil child or something.  and yet, look at them!  they are each and every one of them magnificent!  each one unique, special and absolutely wonderful in a new and different way, a way that i could never have imagined!  well, so it is with my camino community.  i absolutely love the wonderful pilgrims that i share my walking and my afternoons and evenings with.  first and foremost has been genevieve (pronounce the e´s in her name the way you pronounce the e in ever).  she is french and had already been walking about 11 days when we shared a room in st. jean pied de port.  the next night, we shared a bunk bed, me on top, her below.  the next night in roncesvalles, where over 100 people slept in the same room, who was i next to?  genevieve!  and so it has gone, every night resting in the same albuerge, often in the same bunk.  then there are the ´2 jeunes filles´, jenny (candian) and kim (american) who are by far the youngest on the camino so far, in their early 20´s.  they each came to the camino alone, but met each other on the train to sjpdp and became fast friends, deciding to walk together, and are as easy and comfortable with each other now as sisters.  then there is christianne (i always find a wonderful christianne when i travel!) and pierre louis, a couple from bourgogne who have already invited me to visit them in france.  i walked almost the whole way today with jacques, another frenchman who has walked the camino 4 times already and is rich with its history and folklore.  glen is a very friendly australian whose only other language is, strangely enough, vietnamese, which of course has not come in handy yet.  he is very patient as he listens to the languages flow like water between french, spanish, english, french, italian, and french again.  most recently we have been joined by 2 military looking cockney guys trevor and peter, who always seem to have a large bottle of beer in front of them and whose language is sprinkled liberally with both curses and cockney rhyming slang.  it was from them that i learned that i am a ´septic tank´ie. a yank.  trevor has known of the camino for years, but it wasn´t til he met peter in november while deployed in iraq (they are both part of the british version of the national gaurd) that they became friends and that peter provided the real impetus to actually do it.  so many more, whose names i may not remember, but are also part of my sangha, my community.  i feel that i could ask almost anything, and it would appear miraculously and happily, from someone in my camino community.  and of course, the feeling goes from me, too.  i would happily help anyone that i could.  i love sharing food, stories, a massage, whatever is needed at the moment.  what a lovely life.

peace and blessings-
a
ps-as i sign off, people are starting to sing here in the common room of the albuerge.  today while walking with jacques, i sang rickie beyers´állelulia´so much he started singing it with me!