Almost to Burgos

Buenas Noches!

Well the last couple of days have once again proved to be full of wonderful and inspiring experiences. We have travelled from Azofra to Toentos, and I must confess are staying in a small town of which I don´t remember the name at this time. We are almost to Burgos, which is a pretty significant mark as far as distance is concerned for our journey.

Since I last wrote we have been staying with nuns and monks, and it has been an interesting endeavor. All have been very hospitable and welcoming.

In regards to my time with the nuns and the monks there has been something that has been going trough my mind quite often the last couple of days as I have been walking. The night that we stayed with the nuns in Vianna (the same night I played soccer) we were staying there along with the French people we have befriended and some Spainards. As we sat after dinner, my friend said something to me, she said that half way through dinner she had realized that as the nuns were commenting on my not being able to speak spainish, that she was the only person in the room with whom I could communicate. This was very true as she speaks Spainish and the language I speak was not useful at all in context of the situation.

The next day while walking I was reflecting on this and I have had a few thoughts. As I sat there at the table, and as I encounter people on a day to day bases, I am placed in the position of the outsider, I am the other. It is a vey humbling position I have come to see, for two reasons. One because I am American and I think that as a result I tend to have even when I try not to, subconciously, a perspective of the world that centers me and my native language at the center, as the privillaged positition. It is humbling secondly, because I am a pretty independent person and having to rely on someone else for as simple a task as communicating is a big thing. The thing though is that as much as it is humbling and as much as I am placed on the outside, I have come to realize that the people I am meeting along this road, have a way of making my positon as other, my being an outsider not something that separates, it is this odd inclusive outsiderness. As though I at times am standing on the outside of the house looking in the window, and then suddenly the door swings wide open and I am welcomed in. We all do not speak the same language or have the same reasons for walking, or even have the same backgrounds. We are separated by generations, cultures and nationalities, yet, we find ways to communicate, by being open, and listening.

So I find myself wondering if there was a way to take this attitude if you can call it that and envoke it in a greater more significant way, could things in the world change. I mean wonder if we were to all sit down at the next nuns table and discuss some of the tough deeper issues aside from where we are from and why we are walking, but if we talked about politics,and religion, and the state of the world, and if we despite all our barriers, really listened and tried to communicate, taking no privlliged position, maybe we could have a meaningful conversation, debate if you want to call it that, that would lead to a meaningful outcome. I wonder and continue to wonder, my mind wanders back to this thought as I walk, a doubt there is any straigh forward answer. That is one big thing I have learned so far, is that the road that appears to lead straight to the destination, carries with it many more curves and turns then one would ever imagine.

With Peace,
Amanda