jennysa
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- CF 2011,2012 2013,2014, 2015 Aragones 2012, 2017 2018 Via Francigena 2016,2017 Primitivo 2018,2019
I met a deaf Canadian, aged about 45, at the bus station at Santiago. He had completed his Camino and had his Compostella. Most of his journey had been on foot and some of it by bus, and he was heading for Muxia to chill out there for the weekend. He was trying to make himself understood to the Spanish counter assistant to find out information about bus times. His pronunciation of the Spanish names was a bit incoherent, as he communicated by lip-reading. For him to understand you, you had to look at him and speak slowly. When one considers how difficult pilgrims with no disabilities find it to communicate to other pilgrims, hospitaleros etc who dont speak English, it must have been a total nightmare for him. I was humbled by his amazing courage in venturing forth on his pilgrimage when he could only lip read English. His speech was typical of a deaf person so I cannot even begin to imagine how he communicated along the way. He said that he encountered many pilgrims who helped him along the way and looked after him - with simple tasks like ordering food for him in bars that we take for granted. My achievement of walking from SJPDP to Santiago in 28 days was insignificant in comparison to the journey that he had undertaken and completed.
