Saturday I Met Group From Malaysia

 

Here is the sign out on the road by the albergue where I stayed Friday night. I think the 226 kilometers between here and Santiago is a little low. We’ll see.

On Saturday morning I started out late from my albergue because I only had 7 or 8 miles to walk to reach Luarca. My friend Elizabeth offered to split a hotel room with me if I wanted to stay in Luarca for Mass Saturday night. Which I did, and we had dinner and had a nice time.

I set out Saturday morning a few minutes ahead of two German friends, Andrea and Martina. I stayed at the same places they did the past two or three nights, so we knew each other pretty well. They, too, were looking forward to mass on Saturday night. We seem to be missing it, and if you’re on a religious pilgrimage it’s something you especially look forward to.

After walking a few minutes we came around a corner to this church where a small group of people were standing. It seemed to me to be people waiting to go inside. I asked if there was going to be a mass there. They said no, they were just looking at it, and it only opens at noon.

I realized they were pilgrims too.  They said, and anyway, we have our own priest, we have mass every day. Their English was native, and I assumed they were from the United States. No, they said, we are from Malaysia, and they gave us little Malaysian flags. I think their pastor has come on a half dozen pilgrimages now, he said. Thomas was their tour manager. He said “I am a human selfie stick,” and he took a picture of all of us. He flipped it, you can see the church is reversed.

This was such nice news I forwarded this photo to Elizabeth. I didn’t know she was ahead of me in the very next albergue, getting ready to go to the cafe for breakfast.

I walked past her cafe, a few minutes before she came downstairs and sat down. She read my message and looked up to see the Malaysian group walking towards her. They had a nice conversation and said they would be in touch. So maybe we will hear mass in English.

On Saturday night I finally got to mass in a beautiful church called Santa Eulalia. A pilgrim came in wearing a Parks Half Marathon shirt. It turns out he is a friend of Elizabeth’s.