Updates – Egeria House

Finally Updates – And yes, a Fundraiser

Well, it has been ‘a while’ since I wrote updates the last time, so instead of trying to make this a chronological blog post about what has happened in my life over the last 1,5 years or so, I decided to sort it by topics. That way you can scroll to what does interest you and skip easily over what doesn’t interest you 😉

Until Easter 2024

The Camino Compagnons left their flat on the 1^st floor in October 2023 and I looked after it, like I did the winter before, until their return shortly after Easter 2024. Not a big task, just checking and opening/closing the windows to air it on dry days and running the dehumidifier when needed.

Pilgrim House closed in December 2023 and re-opened in March 2024, during that time my contact info was displayed in their window in case of a pilgrim emergency. Thankfully there was no pilgrim emergency!

I continued with my neighbourhood pantry in the usual rhythm of restocking the shelves Monday-Wednesdays and the typical ‘pick-up’ days for groceries etc. being , well, pretty much any day of the week 😉 The re-stocking was made easy by an extremely generous donation I had received earlier in 2023.

The Never Ending Water Story

The installed waterfilter in my neighbours’ flat

End of 2023 I discovered that some of my neighbours don’t have access to safe drinking water in their homes and have to go with containers to a public fountain to get safe water. The reason is ‘some technical problem’ inside the structure of the house. Apparently that means that neither social services nor our water company is responsible for that, it’s the landlord’s responsibility – and he doesn’t seem able to do anything about it.

So I did a ‘mini fundraiser’, bought one water filter and installed it beginning of 2024 in one flat to see how it works out.

Sadly, the family returned the filter after one week, reasons given were ‘too complicated’ (which it wasn’t, it had just a switch to, ehm, switch, between filtered and unfiltered water) and ‘somebody told us these filters don’t work’ (I had selected a filter with a 99% filtration rate for germs, metals, chemicals and other nasties so I knew that it was highly effective). So, that filter is now sitting on my shelf until the next family needs it and the remaining donation money was converted in groceries for the pantry. There has been talk of a meeting with all the affected neighbours and I said that I would like to attend. This still needs a follow up by me as in May 2023 I was ‘hit’ by

Covid and Long Covid 2023/2024

Covid itself wasn’t too bad, I simply stayed in bed for a few days with the usual symptoms (fever, sore throat, cough, diminished smell/taste etc.) and one more unusually one – extremely swollen ankles. After being out of bed and finally testing negative I left my flat for a short walk and noticed one more symptom that would accompany me for many months to come – extreme fatigue.

I managed reasonably well during the summer and early autumn but I noticed that I was much more prone to infections, mainly stomach bugs, than before I had Covid. As autumn and winter came around I seemed also catch any respiratory bug available in my neighbourhood (cold, influenza, you name it, I had it). And so a cycle began: catch bug, into bed, up again, increased fatigue, feeling better, catch next bug … rinse and repeat for many, many months. And yes, I was fully vaccinated and boostered when I caught Covid, I don’t dare to imagine how bad things could have been for me otherwise … Still, this continuous up and down was annoying, frustrating, debilitating and absolutely exhausting. In short it wasn’t the best winter/spring of my life 😉 and I had to learn to manage my days very carefully, planning in frequent rest etc. to get through it.

At the time of writing this I seem to be finally better, catching less infections and having much more energy. Please send prayers/good thoughts/vibes that it continues like this!

Allotment and indoor gardening

In spring I was offered the opportunity to share an allotment with a group of my friends, but as it was nearly 2km away and my health continued to be ‘dodgy’ I didn’t feel that I could make that kind of commitment, so I grew once again, some vegetables, mainly cherry tomatoes and peppers, in my kitchen. I also continue to grow plants, vegetables in spring, now more houseplants and herbs, for the neighbourhood and put them out in a ‘freebie box’ before the house.

Neighbourhood Pantry

As mentioned before thanks to a very generous donation, the costs of re-stocking the pantry regularly were covered well into 2024. But Long Covid made it increasingly difficult for me to find the energy to crawl out of bed and attend to deliveries and pick-ups. Thankfully the lovely team of Apotheca not only donates since April this year the weekly fruit&vegetable box but also delivers it directly to one family who then shares it around with the others.

Apotheca’s weekly box of donations and one of their volunteers delivering it;-)

I myself rarely found the energy to sort the supermarket deliveries and put the whole load into the shelves as I had done previously, but I made sure that some extra groceries ‘jumped’ into my own shopping bag and ended up on the shelves. I didn’t keep receipts because of fatigue and brain fog so the accountability page on this blog doesn’t reflect the donations received and spend on pantry groceries accurately. Sorry, I found it more important to keep the pantry running at least at the bare minimum than to spend energy on number crunching … BUT as I finally feel better, I will keep the accountability page more up to date, I promise!

Depression and antidepressants

As there is now more daylight and I feel generally better, me and my doctor decided some months ago together that summer is a good time to see if I would do well with a lower dose of antidepressant and I am very happy to say that I do! I am now down from 15mg to 5mg of Lexopro and have much more energy. Before anybody gets worried, if it doesn’t work out and/or my depression gets worse as the daylight hours decrease again, I and my doctor are absolutely prepared to up the dose again.

Fundraiser

And last, but certainly not least!, a fundraiser: Like everywhere else in the world, prices for groceries continue to rise which obviously also affects my neighbourhood pantry, here a few price examples from July 2023 and July 2024:

1l Olive Oil 3,85 Euros (2023) to 4,71 Euros (2024)
500g Pasta 0,76 Euros (2023) to 0,79 Euros (2024)
5kg Potatos 5,49 Euros (2023) to 5,99 Euros (2024)
1kg Sugar 1,35 Euros (2023) to 1,45 Euros (2024)
250g Cafe 1,65 Euros (2023) to 1,99 Euros (2024)

That might not seem much, but it adds up over time! So if you want to help me to keep the shelves stocked you can donate either directly via Paypal by using this link https://www.paypal.me/EgeriaHouseSantiago or any of the donation buttons in the top right corner of this website (please put ‘food pantry’ in the Paypal comment field!) or by donating via GoFundMe using this link: https://gofund.me/38781f42

This is how I would love to see the pantry at the beginning of each week!

I have set the fundraising goal on GoFundme to 500 Euro which is the minimum amount needed to keep the shelves stocked for one month. Even the smallest donation helps to do this but it really would give me peace of mind if I could raise a substantial amount to keep the pantry shelves re-stocked without having to worry about next weeks’/months’ pantry groceries. My neighbours say Muchas Gracias in advance!

Thank you fo reading to the end and if you have any questions, please leave them in a comment.

Adios Allotment and Accountability

Just to mix up things a bit, first a few updates of what has going on lately in my life and then the numbers.

Adios Allotment

Sadly, I lost the allotment. I am still very furious about how I and two of my friends here (Tim and Maggie) have been taken for a ride, so I try to keep this story short and as neutral as possible. Basically the people who hold the paperwork for the allotment (I only had a verbal agreement with them) waited until most of the clearing work (lots of brambles!) was done and then gave it to somebody else, destroying at least 50% of what I had planted already in the process. I am still too furious to write a blog post about this but the good news is that I might have a new allotment soon, I will keep you posted.

May/June Accountability

Once again many days late, but here are the numbers for May (donations) and June (costs) of running my little neighbourhood pantry:

Donations leftover from the previous month: – 128,09 Euros

Donations received in May: 983,57 Euros

Costs of buying supplies (food, basic cleaning supplies plus a bottle of gas to cook the food for one of the families) for the neighbourhood pantry June 2022: 659,73 Euros

Carry over to July: 195,75 Euros

That is how the shelves typically look on a Monday (photo taken this week), by the weekend they are nearly empty. Sorry once again for the bad image quality!

Link to receipts: (This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉

Receipts Download

The biggest donation came in via a pilgrim that did a ‘fundraising pilgrimage’ for three good causes here in Santiago, my pantry being one of them.

Also, I had now quite a few pilgrims and/or friends visiting my little pantry and bringing in kind donations. I am always happy to show any- and everybody my little set-up, chat about my neighbours and perhaps you will even meet them. Just contact me a bit beforehand to make sure I am at home.

Too hot to type more, as we are experience a heatwave here in Spain, currently 34C in my flat, but a little advance warning: I will run another Facebook fundraiser this coming weekend to keep the shelves stocked and to provide a bit of extra cheer aka Tartas de Santiago etc for my neighbours. This is an ongoing need.

As always, if you have any questions/comments, please leave them here on the blog!

I am also awaiting the delivery of another shelf (for clothing, shoes and other small, useful items) to be put up on the ground floor. I solemnly promised my landlord it will be the last one 😉

Big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago and stay safe and cool wherever you are, SY

Moving, Easter Cheer and Updates

I have decided to refer from now on to my new flat as the ‘penthouse’ as that sounds more positive than third or top floor flat 😉 It’s obviously not a real penthouse, but I plan to make it ‘my space’. I still need to get some bits and pieces to achieve that but I am sure I will seen think of it as my home.

So here a random list of updates how things are going in my life and in Santiago/Spain/the Camino in general:

Pantry

One side effect of the move upstairs was that I had to move my little neighbourhood pantry to the ground floor. I will be forever grateful to my landlord for allowing me to do this! And another big Thank You to Lea and Dan from Canada that helped me get all downstairs and to re-construct the shelves.I am also very happy that the pantry is now a full ‘choice pantry’ from where people can simply take what they need. How it works now is like this:

Doorbell rings, I grab the things I have for them in the fridge and go down and open the door. We chat for a little bit whilst the neighbour fills her or his bag. I take the ‘fridge things’ that weren’t required back up.

Also sorting out my twice weekly deliveries has become much easier. The only things I need to carry upstairs now are those that go in fridge or freezer compartment. The rest gets directly, yes, with first in, first out, in mind, into the shelves.

And one more thing, I don’t know exactly why, but since this is in place, people are far more conscious what they need and when. Perhaps seeing what is available for the week and knowing that they are not the only ones that need the pantry helps with that.

Sorry about the bad image quality! This is how the ground floor looks like now (no worries, nobody lives in the ground floor flat, it’s used as storage area.

Easter Cheer

Easter is very much still a religious festival here in Spain, with solemn processions and services. I am very glad about that! But I also thought that in these difficult times everybody deserves a bit of ‘extra Easter Cheer’, especially the kids! So, thanks to some extra donations, I was able to get some chocolate goodies and, for the 3 month old baby girl, a nice plush toy, found some of my baskets, filled them and prepared this box for the families:

Soft Toy for the Baby, before it got gift wrapped.

Move

Moving is always stressful, but this move was even more stressful as I had to try two remember which tea towel belonged to which household 😉 Remember, I was only the subtenant in the ‘balcony flat’ and it was basically fully equipped with all that was needed. Add to that my own stuff like books, plants etc. you imagine that it was pretty crowded! But poco a poco, little by little, I made progress. My neighbours came every afternoon for three days to help me to carry stuff up and Sister Alicia from the Camino Compagnons https://www.facebook.com/CaminoCompanions/ helped me on Thursday to get the last of my things upstairs. And then the unpacking and finding the right place for everything started…

Flat

Whilst the flat has no outdoor space like a balcony or a terrace, it’s growing quickly on me! I have a large kitchen with plenty of windows (and window sills for the plants) that has gorgeous views over the city. From here I can even see the clock tower or Berenguela of the cathedral with its ‘pilgrim lantern’ that is lit at night in the Holy Years to guide pilgrims to the cathedral. As the kitchen has also enough space, and the best views, I decided to use it also as my workspace for writing etc.

Ok, not the best photo I have ever taken, but the Pilgrim Lantern is the light on the left tower of the Cathedral.

The hallway is long and spacious and has two storage areas, one I am using for more plants (there is a surprise 😉 ) and on the other end are some build in shelves that I plan to use as a storage area for in kind donations like clothes, shoes and the like for my neighbours.

The blue fairy lights from the balcony work indoors as well 😉

And there is also a small living room that I plan to use both as reading room for me and as ‘absolute emergency accommodation’ for pilgrims in need. Plus my own, big bedroom and a nicely spacious bathroom.

Pilgrims

Over 37.000 pilgrims have arrived so far this year here in Santiago and got registered by the Pilgrim’s Office. That are the record numbers we had expected, pre-pandemic, for a Holy Year. Like in other Holy Years, a lot of these record numbers were created by large, religious groups mainly from Spain itself, but also from Portugal and Italy. And pilgrims that walk/bike solo alone or in small Camino families, are mostly from continental Europe. Oversea pilgrims have returned to the Camino, but not, yet, in the numbers we had in previous years. A lot of things have changed on the Camino but another aspect to consider when planning your Camino are budget and:

Prices

Like pretty much everywhere else, prices have gone up considerably here in Spain, here a few examples from my own experience and at the end two links to more information. The first article is from before the war in Ukraine started, the second after it started. It’s easy to see how this war is already affecting all of us …

When I moved into the house the orange ‘bombona’ containing gas used for cooking and heating costed around 13,00 Euros, now it’s 19,70.

Last year I could buy 1 litre of full fat UHT milk for 60 cents, now the same milk costs 75 cents.

And, compared to the same month last year, my own electricity bill has nearly doubled.

But perhaps the best example to show how the war in Ukraine affects us all is the price of sunflower oil.

Before the war 1 litre was around 1,20 Euros, now it’s 3,20 Euros. Sunflower oil is used by low income families that can’t afford the more expensive olive oil and also for frying by a number of restaurants and the like.

Here some more examples:

https://www.thelocal.es/20220114/the-food-and-drink-that-are-more-expensive-than-ever-in-spain/

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/spain-sees-historic-inflation-rate-as-energy-prices-increase/

All this now filters down, slowly and steadily, on the Camino. Accommodation and food prices have already risen as have prices for pilgrim’s menus and the like in some places. First the increased costs (masks, extra cleaning material, hand sanitizer) due to the pandemic and now increased costs of energy and produce leave most business owners no other choice than to increase their prices too.

So, in summary, if you want to walk/bike a Camino this year you need to budget for higher costs and accept that there will be a lot of pilgrims with you on the way.

Garden/Allotment

Because of the move and getting the flat ready for the sisters plus decluttering my own belongings I have to confess that the allotment got sadly neglected and some, but not all thankfully, of the weeds have grown back.

So from now on, the garden will be on the top of my to-do list, meaning gardening on rain-free days and writing on rainy days. And yes, I had already help to coming so far! If you are in Santiago and fancy some weeding or simply hanging out in the garden, just contact me!

I think that’s all from me for now. If you have any questions or remarks, please leave them in the comments.

Muchas gracias und hugs from Santiago,

Random Thoughts and Updates

It has been a while since I updated this blog, so here a list of developments here in Santiago, the Camino, Europe and my own life 😉

Read on to discover what this photo means 😉

Santiago (and basically also the rest of Spain)

We are now firmly on our way out of our sixth wave (Omicron) and all numbers are going steadily down: cases, hospitalizations and deaths. This wave has really shown us that, whilst vaccination doesn’t prevent illness and transmission 100%, it protects to a huge degree from serial illness and death, especially when combined with face mask wearing and being careful when socializing.

Speaking of which, our vaccination rate here in Spain is extremely good and Galicia is, together with Asturias, leading that list. We have already started to vaccinate the 5-11 years old here and many of us, me included, have already received their booster shot.

Speaking of face masks, they still have to be worn here at all times indoors (except when actually eating and/or drinking) and outdoors when you can’t make sure that you can keep a minimum distance of at least 1,5m from people that are not in your same household aka strangers and especially in large groups.

Camino

The Camino is more and more opening up after the ‘winter break’ and pilgrim numbers are increasing steadily, comparable to 2019 but lower than we would expect normally for a Holy Year. You can follow the daily numbers here: https://oficinadelperegrino.com/ and the monthly and yearly numbers here https://catedral.df-server.info/est/index.html

How numbers will be developing this year, only God and Santiago know! We might either have a crazily busy year or a quiet-ish one like last year. It all depends how the pandemic develops, the war between Russia and Ukraine and if the Pope really comes to Santiago in August, too many factors to be sure about anything.

Albergues

Three things to bear in mind: capacity in some albergues is still reduced, blankets are mostly a thing of the past (too expensive to wash after each pilgrim) and more and more albergues require proof of vaccination before welcoming you. Some, but not all, communal meals have returned and some kitchens have opened again, but Camino life is still very different from BC (Before Covid) times.

Travel Thoughts

As things are ever changing, here the link to the official Spanish travel website: https://travelsafe.spain.info/en/ If you plan a Camino, or travel to Spain in general, please check it out regularly. As I wrote earlier, our Covid stats are all moving in the right direction and things looking up on that front (if no new variant comes along!) but we have another problem here in Europe, the war between Ukraine and Russia.

This war is ‘only’ 8days old at the time of writing, but costed already thousands of lives. Nobody knows how the situation will develop and if the war will spread further or not, so PLEASE keep an eye on your own countries travel advisory website, register your travel with them (if possible) and plan enough money in your budget for unforeseen expenses like an earlier flight home. We all here hope and pray that this war will be soon over, please join us in this prayer for peace.

Now to the personal stuff

Depression

I am in treatment, both with medication and seeing a psychiatrist (never thought I would need on of these one day!) and doing much better. Not good yet, but better. The panic attacks are very rare now, the anxiety is manageable, but I am still depressed and have low energy levels. On a positive note, I recently managed to pull myself together and spend a long weekend in the south of Spain. It really helped to re-charge my batteries!

Neighbourhood Pantry & Neighbours

Before I went on my short break, I gave the necessary supplies for my absence to M. of whom I think as the patriarch of the families for distribution as they are all related. And it seems to have worked well. I might need to do something similar from mid-April onwards (more about that below). If you want to read up on what the Neighbourhood Pantry is and how it works, here a link to an old-ish blog post that contains a link to an even older one – reverse history so to speak https://egeria.house/santiago-day-neighborhood-pantry-fundraiser/

And some good news! We have a little newborn in one of the family, her name translates to ‘traveler or wanderer’ btw 😉 And there was a little ‘coincidence’ for this family. Just days before I had received a donation of a gas heater which they could make good use of now with a newborn in the home. Sadly, they didn’t tell me earlier that they needed a heater, I would have found them one! But now all good and cozy for this little family.

Roundabout Room

The gas heater is a good example how my roundabout room works: A few days previous I got offered a sizeable material donation of clothes, shoes, glasses and yes, the gas heater. As I don’t drive I asked a friend, that does drive, if she could pick it up for me. And in one hour the goodies were in the house. As the heater was missing the tube and gas regulator, she brought me these, that she didn’t need anymore, the next day when she also brought me my fruit and vegetable box from: https://www.facebook.com/aHortadaAvoa Muchas Gracias, Cristina!

Allotment

And more good news, I found an allotment less then 5 minutes walk from my place where I will plant fruit and vegetables for and hopefully with my neighbours. All going well it will stop raining tomorrow and I get started weeding (see photo above ;-). I am already pre-growing plants like tomatoes and peppers in the house.

Moving

Yes, I have to move again, but thank God only in the same house, to the third floor. The reason being that I am only a subtenant in this flat. It was originally meant to be my ‘winter flat’ for 6 months in 2019/2020, but we all know what happened, so 2,5 years later I am still here. But the original tenants come back mid-April and need their flat back. Thankfully there is an empty flat (without a balcony, sigh) on the third floor that I can rent. And apparently the rent is even a bit cheaper, always welcome! That is why I wrote earlier that I might need to restructure the neighbourhood pantry system a bit, three flights of stairs are a lot with full food boxes every day!

Plans for this Year

All of the above, and helping pilgrims wherever and however I can 😉

So, I think that’s all thank you for reading until the end!

BC SY

Egeria House and Starfishes

When people hear for the first time of Egeria House, they often think of it as a big, established center with a huge sign at the door and paid staff, or something similar.

Truth is that Egeria House is more a way of life for me, not bound to a particular place and, no, there is no ‘staff’, only me at the moment.

Egeria herself was a Galician woman and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the 4th century. Not only that, she also wrote about her journey and the things she saw. Her account of the Easter celebration in Jerusalem is the oldest one that exists and has kept liturgists happy ever since.

When I lived in England, I was intrigued by the fact that many houses there, in addition to numbers, also had names. When I moved to Santiago, I wanted the place where I lived to have a name that was meaningful to me, so it became Egeria House.

As for starfishes, if you have ever met me in person, I will, most likely, have told you this tale already, if that is the case, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.

A man was walking at the beach early one morning, after a bad storm. He was saddened as he noticed the hundreds and hundreds of stranded starfishes that would certainly die when the sun came up and dried them out. As he walked further and further, he noticed another man coming towards him, but he was bending down, picking something up and throwing it in the sea. As he came closer, he realized that the other man was picking up starfishes and throwing them back. “You fool”, he said, “there are hundreds of them on this beach alone. You are not making any difference.” The other man bend down, picked up a starfish and said calmly: “But I can make a difference for this one.” And throw it back into the sea.

And that is what we all can do:

Helping one ‘starfish’ at a time, because a multitude of small acts of kindness WILL change the world – for the better, keeping the Camino spirit alive in our own communities.

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