C.C. - good for you, giving back, as it were. Being a hospitelaro is satisfying but! it is such hard work ... being up before the pilgrims get up, not going to bed until after the pilgrims go to bed ... all that background work that no one ever sees ... mostly good, great, pilgrims arriving each day but having to deal with the opposite ... and so many pilgrims arrive with low blood sugar levels, so irritable, fractious .. like children coming home from school (the answer is a piece of cake and a soft drink!
) .. and then you have only a short break after getting everything ready and before you open .. so hard.
Why do people volunteer for this? It is the flip of that psychological coin I think. Moving from receiving to giving, from
I to
they, with love of the Camino experience being at the heart of it? Just guessing here. Once one realises that the destination is not as important as the
experience of Camino?
For me, well, I have never done a complete Camino since I returned to offer first aid and pastoral care, I just walk in areas where I think there will be the most need, such as the first six days from any major Camino joining point .. for me it is
being there and helping that replaced
getting there, to Santiago, and I think that those who volunteer at refugios, at the pilgrim office, and in other ways must feel like this too.
Gold stars to you C.C. - and to all those who return to give