Estela the Camino Kitten

All things bright and beautiful. All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful. The Lord God made them all. … And some of them even end up with me in Santiago 😉

Adorable, isn’t she?

Like a lot of stories, also this one began – on Facebook! At least for me, the kitten’s story started earlier, so let’s go back to the beginning. Once upon a time, there was a tiny kitten that lived alone in a big, dark forest. And there was a well traveled route passing through this forest, a route taken by thousands and thousands every year. The little kitten was too young to hunt and, even when it found some food scraps from time to time, always hungry, always thirsty, always scared, always just a tiny step away from death.

The kitten ‘asked’ many pilgrims for help and a few gave it a bit of their food or water, some even played with it for a short while. But then they moved on and left it behind. One day it met a pilgrim that was different. Somehow the little kitten felt that this pilgrim was her last chance for survival. So, it took all its courage in its little paws and ran up to the pilgrim, right up his leg until it had reached his chest – where the heart is. Also this pilgrim fed the little kitten, and gave it water, lots and lots of water, and also this pilgrim played with the little white kitten. But this pilgrim didn’t leave it, like so many others had done before him, he took the little kitten with him on his Camino.

I know there is ham somewhere! WHERE is the ham??? Eating with Esti being in the same room proved quickly impossible …

He tried to find an animal shelter that would take over, but no luck, no shelter had the capacity to deal safely with such a small kitten. It needed feeding every few hours and animal shelters are chronically overburdened with abandoned pets and understaffed with humans. So the pilgrim carried the kitten with him for ‘a few more days’. He also took the kitten to the vet. The vet shook his head and said there was little he could do. He could give the kitten some meds to get rid of parasites but for any vaccination, it was far too young, only around four to five weeks old and also far too underweight. There went the idea of boarding the kitten in a cattery, as those require their guests to be properly vaccinated, right out of the window.

And so the pilgrim and the kitten continued their pilgrimage. But things got difficult, sneaking the kitten each day into accommodation that doesn’t allow pets, caring for and carrying it, after two weeks pilgrim and kitten were exhausted. And so the pilgrim asked on Facebook for help.

 “Anybody here in Spain that wants to foster this adorable little creature until I have finished my pilgrimage and can take it home? Only for a short while, I promise!”

A friend of mine saw that post and tagged me in a comment. For good measure he also send me a message alerting me to it. I read the post and alarm bells went off. Sure, just for a short while and where does the pilgrim live? In the United States. It wouldn’t be easy to arrange that kind of travel at short notice … I politely replied and said that I was willing to help – if he couldn’t find anybody else. I had an idea that the Camino kitten, named Estela btw, would be more of a long term project than he thought…

And here goes a piece of spicy chicken …

All stayed quite for a couple of weeks, it was now mid-September, and I thought that the danger was over, when, out of the blue, I received a late phone call from the pilgrim. Yes, he had found a foster place for her, no it didn’t work out for various reasons and yes, could I take her like – tomorrow? I had the volunteers of the Anglican Camino Chaplaincy staying with me, so first course of action was asking everybody if they were OK with a kitten in the house. Everybody was happy, nobody was allergic, and so I gave the pilgrim the thumbs up and less then 24hours later, Estela arrived. God, was she still tiny! The pilgrim, by now accompanied by his wife, spent just an hour at the house and then they traveled back to finish their Camino. Saying that in a couple of weeks they would be back and taking Estela home to the States. I smiled …

Not the best picture of me, but a good one to show how tiny she was the day she arrived at the house.

If you have ever been at my house, you know it has quite a few stairs. Some of the stair steps are open at the back, I didn’t want the little one to take a really bad tumble, so it was carrying her up and downstairs as I moved around the house. She didn’t like to be left alone if there was action in the house, she wanted to be in the middle of it!

She soon learned to navigate the stairs carefully, giving me a few heart attacks in the process …

I must admit the first night I was afraid I would squash her to death, so tiny was she. But she survived and she ate and grew, and grew and ate. The pilgrims and I stayed in contact and quickly they realised that they had been ‘a bit’ too optimistic. No way they could start organising Estela’s immigration to the States whilst on the Camino, and, also, the rabies vaccination had to be done a certain amount of time before the travel and their flight was leaving earlier than that. So Plan A died a quick death and Plan B was developed. They would travel home and organise from there a transport with a professional company that picked Estela up at my place, did everything that needed to be done and transport her to her new home. I smiled again …

By now Estela had become quickly part of the life and on goings in the house and the chaplaincy. Many of the pilgrims that came in for a chat had either met her on the road, or had heard of her. And wanted to meet the ‘Camino Kitten’. So we got a fair bit of socialising done and when nobody else was in the house, the chaplains were always happy to play with her. And so it became October. And on Saint Francis Day she was the star, and only four-legged creature, at our pet blessing service.

Father Bob Bates blessing Estela the Camino Kitten on Saint Francis Day.

End of October saw the end, for this year, of the chaplaincy and the chaplains left and it was only me and Estela, and the odd visiting pilgrim friend in the house. Meanwhile Plan B had also died and we had arrived at Plan C. I would handle all the paperwork/vet appointments here in Santiago and the pilgrim would fly in from the States and take her back home with him. I smiled with a little bit more of optimism now.

And so it became November and, to make a rather long story short, here is what needed to be done to get her out of the country, on a plane, out of Europe and into the United States of America. And yes, over the weeks, Monika the vet and I became fast friends. Here is what the poor vet had to do to a rather reluctant kitten:

Apply another dose of anti-parasites liquid to her neck area. She really loved that! Nearly as much as having her temperature taken by the vet </sarcasm out>

Get a microchip into her, same neck area, with a horribly thick needle. She actually tolerated that quite well. The kitten, I mean 😉

Get her pet passport filled out and connected to microchip number and activate her registration. For this I needed a letter of authorisation of the pilgrim and all his contact info.

Get her her shots (rabies and another one I always forget the name of) and note and stamp them into pet passport.

Get her a health certificate that is not older then ten days at the time of traveling and check that microchip is still in place.

And we were done!

Oops, we were not done yet!

Monika the vet diligently checked everything and discovered that Esti, as I had nick-named her, also needed an export permission. Excuse me, a what? Correctly heard! Turns out that, in order to leave Europe and to travel to a non-EU country, little one needs an export permission. And so, the same day the pilgrim arrived from the States in the afternoon, I took an early morning train to A Coruña and to the agricultural department of the Galician government. The one that issue export permissions for little abandoned Camino kittens, and any other creature that wants to leave the country. Thank Bastet they didn’t wanted to see Esti, just her, by now substantial, paperwork. So me, a rather big stack of papers and a lots of prayers in my heart traveled up north by train whilst the pilgrim was traveling to Santiago. The civil servants examined all the papers, took various copies, asked a whole bunch of questions, stamped a lot of papers, asked more questions, and after half an hour I was issued that all important piece of paper that allowed Esti to leave the Kingdom of Spain …

And next day the pilgrim and the kitten, happily reunited, traveled to Madrid and flew home. Plan C had worked out and Estela the Camino Kitten is now ruling the pilgrims’ house over the big pond 😉 And as a little reward for being good pilgrim and good kitten, Iberia even upgraded them, for free, to business class! The little feral kitten was starting the next step of her new journey in style!

Do I miss her? Of course I do! She was great company and a really engaging little character. She has a zeal for life, and food !!!, very few cats I have met over the years, can match. Do I want a permanent pet? No, not at the moment! Would I foster a similar case again? Most likely, but I think I need to find another vet first. Monika warned me of that 😉

Look how Esti has grown in the two months she spent with me! This picture was taken shortly before she traveled to her furever home.

And here, congratulations that you made it so far btw! The checklist about what to do if you want to travel with a cat out of the EU/Schengen-Area, in this case from Spain to the US. For regulations importing pets into other countries, ask Auntie Google;-)

You need an export permission, issued by the agricultural department or, alternatively, at the airport IF that service is provided at the airport. Make sure to get that one right, if not … Oh, and you also need to make an appointment with them beforehand. And to get this Holy Grail of cat export, you need, in exactly that order!:

A cat 😉

A cat that is de-parasited.

A cat that is micro-chipped.

 A cat that has been vaccinated against rabies and whatever else is required.

A cat that has a health certificate that is no older then ten days at the time of travel.

And with all these papers, but sans cat, you need to go to the aforementioned office and, fingers crossed, you will get your export permission. Well done!

Any questions/remarks/jokes? Please leave them in a comment!

Greetings from Santiago, SY

Camino Chaplaincy 2019

If you don’t want to read all about the Anglican-Episcopalian Camino Chaplaincy 2019 in detail, but only want to have the quick summary, here it is:

Background story and what we offered in 2018 can be found here https://egeria.house/chaplaincy

In 2019 we want to run the Camino Chaplaincy longer, from April/May all through to October/November and not only in Santiago itself but also by sending “self-supporting” Camino Chaplains out to walk with the pilgrims on the different Caminos.

If you want to support us, you can:

Pray for us

Spread the word about us and

Donate to us   >>>here<<<.

If you now want to know more details, read on …

 

What we did in 2018

One of our very first congregations in 2018 with the Revd. Liska Stefko (Canada) our first volunteer priest.

The Camino Chaplaincy 2018 was based out of my place here in Santiago, with 11 volunteers from 5 different countries being involved in it. What we did:

  • 27 church services (Sunday mornings in a chapel-like room the Parador Hotel has given us for free, Wednesday afternoons at my home, followed by a shared meal).
  • Open House each weekday afternoon, for coffee/tea and chat.
  • Hospital and albergue visits to ill pilgrims.
  • Meeting up with pilgrims when requested.
  • Going out and about town and the last kilometres/miles of many Caminos to meet pilgrims, encourage them, welcome them and listen to them.
  • Working closely together with ecumenical partners here in Santiago.
  • Providing practical help (food, equipment etc) to pilgrims that either came directly to us or were referred to us by our ecumenical partners.
  • And for Saint Francis Day, we even had a service of pet blessing for Estela the Camino Kitten in the house 😉

Father Bob Bates blessing Estela the Camino Kitten on Saint Francis Day.

 

What our Plans for 2019 are

All of the above and some more!

Additionally to the things we have already done in 2018, we would like to extend our services from end of April to mid November all through the whole pilgrim season 2019.

We would like to offer at least 2 weekday Eucharists followed by a shared meal additionally to our Sunday Eucharist.

Apart of serving pilgrims here in Santiago, we also plan to send out self-supporting “walking chaplains” to minister to pilgrims on the way. These chaplains, like all other volunteers, will pay their own way, but it would be nice if we would have some funds to offer them hospitality on arrival here in Santiago and a welcome meal!

If you want to support our plans for 2019, there are three things that you can do and the good news is that two of them don’t cost you any money:

Pray for us – Especially for the selection and training of next year’s volunteers, for all of us as we live together in Santiago and a place for us to worship.

Tell others about us – Whilst the work of the Chaplaincy got widely advertised both online and offline, word of mouth is still the best advertisement! So, if you know of somebody that plans to do the Camino in 2019, give them this link https://egeria.house/chaplaincy/ where they can find out more about us, what we do and where to find us. And feel free to post said link on social media and elsewhere, where appropriate. Additionally you can point pilgrims to our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/CaminoChaplaincyCoE/

Donate to us – All chaplaincy volunteers pay their own travel cost and this year some of them even paid for their own accommodation, food etc. Next year we would like to offer all volunteers here in Santiago accommodation and at least some food. Other costs include printing of material and basic mass supplies, but accommodation rental is obviously the biggest expense. Additionally there are the costs of providing a shared meal after the weekday Eucharists and also for practical help (food, equipment) for pilgrims that ‘knock at the door’. If you want to help with the costs of next year’s Chaplaincy, you can use the following >>>LINK<<< or you can contact me directly for other options.

As an indication: It costs around 15 Euro/day to run the chaplaincy, that includes accommodation and food for pilgrims and volunteers plus the aforementioned costs like printing and mass supplies. If you could sponsor one or more days of this – that would be a big help!

And if you have anymore questions or suggestions, please leave them in a comment or contact me directly via https://egeria.house/contact/

Buen Camino, SY

Forum Meet-Ups

… putting faces to names

Shortly after moving to Santiago, I re-started the ‘forum pilgrims meet-up’. For those of you that don’t know the >pilgrims forum<  here a bit of background info.

Some time back, a few bright pilgrims that pass a lot of time on this forum had the equally bright idea that it would be great to put ‘faces to names’ and started a regular forum meet-up in Santiago in a very nice café-bar called Tertulia. Sometimes people came, sometimes they didn’t. Problem was that many people that came found nobody around, so only stayed for a short while and went, half an hour later somebody else came, found nobody around and …

homemade lemonade

I thought that having at least one person committed to be there the whole time slot might actually help with this. Even if that person was me 😉 That way, the first forum pilgrim showing up would have immediately somebody to chat to. I run a short survey on the forum to find out what time of the day people favoured and if they would be willing to come to my place instead of meeting in a café-bar. The best time slot was quickly, and with a good majority, determined to be in the later afternoon/early evening. The vote for the best place to meet was less unanimous. A bit more than half of the contributing forum members actually voted for meeting in a café-bar. Stubborn woman that I am I politely ignored that vote 😉

First of all, if nobody comes, I can still do things around the house. Second, not everybody wants to/can spend money in a café-bar. Third, by moving to Santiago I committed myself to helping pilgrims, so my ‘intruded privacy’ wasn’t really an issue for me, more a concern by others for me 😉 But as I wrote on the forum:

“When I envisioned living in Santiago, I already had it very clear in my head that I would share part of the house with pilgrims/friends, so nobody is intruding on my privacy. The ground floor is ‘open space’, the first floor is ‘invited only’ space and the second floor is ‘only my space’.”

The experiment started off well, with a few pilgrims coming by each day and yes, there were also a few days when nobody came as well as a few pilgrims that came every day they were in Santiago. As time went by it became clear that weekends were the less ‘busy’ days, perhaps because most pilgrims integrate them in their ‘travel back home plans’. So I decided to take the weekends off and offer my ‘open door’ “only” from Monday to Friday. If you are curious now, here a short FAQ that should answer all questions:

(Forum) Pilgrims Meet-Up FAQ

Do I have to be a forum member to come?

No, not at all! Whilst the idea originated in this forum community, my door is open to all pilgrims.

Where do I find more information?

Head over to https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/new-monday-to-friday-forum-meet-up.48513/ In the first, regularly updated, post you find all the info you need, including the occasional ‘cry off’ on my part if I would be out of town for example.

What happens during the meet-up?

Pretty much the same as when pilgrims meet up in any other place. We share a tea/coffee, a biscuit/cookie and there is normally a jug of homemade lemonade on the table plus plenty of fresh fruit. And we chat, lots. About the Camino, our experiences, whatever comes up.

Are there any costs for this?

Absolutely not! Sometimes pilgrims bring something to share (cookies/biscuits/fruit), sometimes not. It all balances out and, over time, I even had to restrain pilgrims that brought too much 😉

Why do you do this?

Because I am a pilgrim and I love meeting other pilgrims! And also because I hang around a lot on the forum (and others) and love to put faces to names after, sometimes, years of online interaction.

Is this some ‘Christian’ thing???

Only in the sense that I myself am a Christian, apart of that not. No bible readings, no hymns, no evangelisation or the like. Just pilgrims chatting the time away about pretty much everything. If you are looking for a pilgrims meet-up in English with a more Christian focus, I can recommend >Pilgrim House< or the >Camino Companions<.

Any further questions? Just leave a comment and hoping to see you soon in person!

Buen Camino, SY

You only have one life …

… and it might be shorter than you think.

When arriving two weeks ago in Santiago my friends told me ‘… and next Sunday you will come with us to lunch, the Irish are coming!’ And so I went and so I met them. Today I received the message that one of them has died on the next leg of their epic journey.

I had heard of them several times over the years. They had built a traditional boat, a naomhóg (currach) and rowed from Ireland to the Galician coast in several stages. Last year, after arriving in Santiago, they left the boat with a friend here and now they would be back to pick up the boat, transport it to A Coruña and continue their voyage along the Spanish-Portuguese coastline towards Gibraltar.

That magical Sunday lunch was filled with good food & wine, laughter, stories, poetry and songs – a real ceilidh. We even would have danced if there would have been enough space. You can read a bit more about it here: https://egeria.house/travel-and-first-week/

They all were so full of life, kindness and joy. They lived their dream and they enjoyed it, but even more importantly perhaps, they infected others with their love:

… for music

… for poetry

… for the Gaelic language

… for building your own boat

… for taking the route less traveled

… for rediscovering old pilgrimage routes

… for following your dream

Just under two weeks later they reached the river Minho that marks the border between Portugal and Spain. Their boat capsized. All four made it to the shore. But one of them, Danny Sheehy, also known as Danny an tSíthigh or Domhnall Mac Síthigh, died shortly after, despite the efforts of the emergency services. (Source: https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0610/881677-spain/) He died doing what he loved and now he has started his final pilgrimage. And even if I knew him only a very short while, I am sure that he preferred dying this way than dying with the regret never to have followed his dreams.

And there is a lesson in this sad event for all of us. We have only one life and it might be shorter than we think it would be. Let’s follow our dreams, let’s make the most out of the life we have, no matter if it is rowing a boat from Ireland to Spain or taking up painting. And let’s share our love of life and the things we do with others, like this pilgrim and his friends did with all that met them:

Travel and first week

Today one week ago, I arrived in Santiago – to stay. Time for a little update I think.

I boarded my plane the evening of the 24th May in Prague and got off a plane the morning of the 25th May in Santiago de Compostela. No, the flight didn’t take that long, I had to spend the night at the airport in Barcelona. If there is no other way, direct flights were too expensive, El Prat isn’t the worst airport in the world to spend a night, actually it is quite nice. A few cafés are open all night, there are two courtyards to take in the fresh air (and smoke a cigarette) and, who wants, can even find an (un)comfortable place to sleep.

I was far too nervous to sleep, or better said to miss my connection flight by not waking up in time, but other travelers didn’t have my problem. One woman made herself comfortable in the playhouse of the Kids Corner, others stretched out on the upholstered benches of the, now closed, restaurants, and others again tried to sleep on the hard benches before the windows. I drank copious amounts of coffee to keep me awake and spend the waiting hours with reading and writing. The night nearly flew by …

The last leg to Santiago then went super-fast, Vueling even arrived 20 minutes before their announced arrival time. And, joy over joy, all my three backpacks also. BTW I stayed well below my luggage allowance of 69kg (>>>see this blog post<<<) 😉 But nonetheless, I didn’t fancy dragging my three large and one small backpack from the bus stop to the house, so I treated myself to a taxi.

***
Practical Information 2017: Taxis from the airport to Santiago de Compostela itself charge a fixed price of 21 Euro and the journey takes around 20 minutes.
***

As I arrived before the house, which I only knew from photos and a video, my two friends were already waiting for me. Hugs and ‘welcome to Santiago’ abundant. Now would be a good moment to introduce my mysterious friends, but alas, they asked me to stay anonymous ;–( They truly believe that the help they give (not only to me!) carries its own reward and doesn’t need any ‘public’ recognition. But that doesn’t hinder me to, at least, praise them here anonymously and give them another heartfelt Thank You! for all they have done …

Not only did they help me to find a furnished house and negotiated on my behalf with the landlord, they also cleaned the place, put sheets on the beds and filled the fridge and kitchen cupboard with a ‘starter supply’ of food and drink. But why they also put 4 bottles of wine in the kitchen, I can’t imagine …

After showing me around and explaining the little things (how the heating works, where the hot water boiler is hidden and the like) we went to the bar-café A Caamaño around the corner to have a much-needed Café con Leche, tostadas and to meet some of the neighbours. Also needless to say that I was grinning like hardly ever before, the house and location, all was perfect and I had barely anything to do to make it welcoming for passing pilgrims. Guys – you know who you are – Again:

Muchas Gracias – Thank You – Dankeschön!!!

And at 11:00 my new landlord came by, looking relieved as he realized that I do speak decent Spanish, to collect the deposit and meet me. Just as the three of us where standing around making small talk, a friend from the >English language Camino forum<, who just had finished the Camino Primitivo, came by. She previously had offered her help to ‘set-up the house’, but there wasn’t much to do. The men said good bye and I could proudly show off my new home for the first time. The only thing that we did was to hide the ironing board and irons in my room, creating so much more space in the staircase and believe me – ironing is not my favourite household task anyway and I am seriously doubting that many pilgrims miss ironing on the Camino! As she left, I realized for the first time how exhausted I was, being awake now for more than 24 hours …

Siesta wasn’t an option, I planned to sleep that night, and so I went for a stroll through the city. First and most importantly, for me, I went to visit Santiago in his cathedral, to tell him that I am back to stay. Then I walked leisurely through both old and new town, trying to look at it from the perspective of one now ‘living here’ rather than from the perspective of a pilgrim/visitor. I don’t want to bore you to death with my itinerary, let’s just say that in the evening my FitBit showed that I had walked 14 kilometres that day, nearly as much as I walk on the Camino …

As I don’t have internet at home, for the moment, I dropped into >Pilgrim House< at the end of my walk, and after a fortifying menu at Casa Manolo, to download my emails and to say hello. Just as I was about to leave, two French pilgrims arrived, a couple from Bordeaux. They were drenched by the downpour we had earlier (welcome to Galicia, one moment blazing hot and sunshine, the next moment a deluge), tired and in desperate search for a bed. So I kidnapped them and took them home and gave them a bed 😉 They stayed for two nights and surprised me with the gift of a beautiful umbrella/pilgrim staff stand – something very useful in rainy Galicia.

Ok, before this blog post gets too long, here the summary of the next days:

Friday another friend from the English pilgrim forum knocked at the door, looking urgently for a bed. She had booked three nights in a hotel beforehand, but was told on arrival that she had only one night booked and that there were no free rooms left. So she stayed two nights at my place before starting her time as a volunteer in an albergue on the Camino Portuguese. And to try out ‘hospitalera life’ she helped me the next morning to clean the house …

Saturday, the French pilgrims had left with many ‘mercies’ on both sides, I didn’t do much other than cleaning a bit, getting the room ready for the next ’emergency pilgrims’ (so far none have come) and reading and writing.

Sunday was fiesta day. First mass at the Jesuit church of Saint Augustin (yes, that is correct!) then Spanish lunch at Restaurante San Clemente. If you have ever been to a French Sunday Lunch, you might have an inkling what a Spanish one is like. Let’s just say we started at 14:30 and finished at 18:15 😉 Our group was a wild mix, lets see if I can remember everybody (there was plenty of wine and Orujo on offer …):

3 Irish pilgrims that had finished their pilgrimage, with a self-built rowing boat from Ireland, and that came now to pick it up, bring it to A Coruña and row from their to Morocco.. They converted the lunch quickly into a ceilidh with their Gaelic songs and music.

An Irish sister from the Camino Companions who offer a listening ear and a cup of tea/coffee to pilgrims as well as hosting pilgrims prayer/meditation in the chapel of the pilgrims office.

Two pilgrims from Alaska that just had finished the Camino Primitivo and found it far too hot 😉

Two Spanish hospitaleros on the way to their albergue.

A pilgrim-priest who just had concelebrated at the cathedral.

Four Scots that lost last year a friend on the camino and came this year to Santiago to honour his memory.

Another hospitalero here from Santiago and three others, 17 in total.

As you can imagine, I didn’t do much else than digesting the rest of the day …

Monday: Let the paperwork fun begin! First thing in the morning I trotted to the Foreign Police to apply for the almighty NIE without you can’t do anything when you live here. I came back with a pile of papers to fill out and a list of more papers to bring. Next to the town hall (picking up more papers to fill out) and to the internet shop (getting a confirmation letter to show that I need a NIE to get internet into the house).
Once I have finished the whole process, I will write a blog post about it, in case somebody wants to follow my foot steps.

Tuesday was mainly dedicated to writing (including this blog post). So, now I am off to the café around the corner to use their internet to post it.

See you soon in Santiago, Buen Camino de la Vida and feel free to leave a comment with any question/remark you might have …