Volunteering at the Pilgrim Welcome Centre

[JDAcadie]

FRANCE:
le 29 septembre 2024
Travel Blog
Musings on Midlife’s Misadventures
Part Two:

Bon! Où commencer? Thousands of people from all over the world walk through these doors where Diane and I are volunteering. They are coming to start a possibly 820 km pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain… called El Camino Francés. There are many Caminos to hike, but this is by far the most popular. Only one day is hiked in France… through the Pyrenees. Then you are in Spain the rest of this Camino.

SJPP is a Unesco World Heritage Site… a delightful, medieval type little village. We hope to explore its many nooks and crannies, little side streets, bistros and shops, but we are going to be working very hard and well, hopefully, at this volunteering job!

We received a very quick training from José, François, Herman, and Yvette from Pao, Lourdes, the Netherlands and Biarritz respectively, and twenty minutes later we were on our own, and it was freaking crazy! Talk about TOTAL Immersion.

We will be working long hours, 7:30 am to 12:00 noon, a two hour lunch break, then we return from 2:00 to 8:30 pm! On the weekend, we have an hour break and return AGAIN at 9:30 until 10:30 PM!

This is almost slave labour, for heaven’s sake! OMG! Be careful what you wish for? Kidding aside, this is a once in a lifetime experience. I can’t even begin to describe the high I am on!

 

[Anhalter]

Do you get free accomodation while volunteering in Saint Jean?
What about food? From @David Tallan thread about Salamanca there seems to be a deal where hospitaleros get some discount at one restaurant but i guess that is not the case everywhere.
Is it possible to volunteer if you do not speak French?

 

[J Willhaus]

Looks like great fun! Will you be there a fortnight?

 

[JDAcadie]

Do you get free accomodation while volunteering in Saint Jean?
What about food? From @David Tallan thread about Salamanca there seems to be a deal where hospitaleros get some discount at one restaurant but i guess that is not the case everywhere.
Is it possible to volunteer if you do not speak French?

This was not being a “hospitalero/a.” This is completely different. One of our team spoke minimal French. The rest of us were bilingual and trilingual.

 

[JDAcadie]

Looks like great fun! Will you be there a fortnight?

It was a seven day assignment. I will be posting each day over the next week or two. I am done and back in Canada.

 

[JDAcadie]

This was not being a “hospitalero/a.” This is completely different. One of our team spoke minimal French. The rest of us were bilingual and trilingual.

VOLUNTEERING: Day One

September 30th, 20 Travel Blog
Musings on Midlife’s Misadventures

Day One:
Our first OFFICIAL day of volunteering. What a day! We were was SO, SO busy. We had 234 pilgrims come through our doors. A few were finishing a Camino they started in France, like El Norte, or Puy en Velay. However, the majority were starting El Camino Francés.

I registered pilgrims from SIXTEEN different countries: France, Spain, Germany, Italy, US, Canada, The Netherlands, Brésil, Ireland, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, India and Taiwan. In all, we four volunteers registered pilgrims from THIRTY-TWO different countries.

Here at the centre, we provide our own breakfast but a caterer provides a huge lunch with enough leftovers for supper, every day. Our accommodations, while very basic, are free.

Pilgrims arrive here excited, nervous, worried: they run the gamut of emotions. We are here first and foremost, to reassure them, inform them, register them and send them on their way happier and reassured.

These pilgrims are happy and so grateful… they can’t thank you enough. They want you in their photos getting their credential. They donate items, or a few extra Euros…

I spent the entire day skipping between English, French and Spanish. It was hard on my brain and for a lot of people, you are speaking to them in your third language and they’re speaking to you in their second or third. We manage to communicate though. Everyone smiles. No one gets upset. Not yet anyway. In other words, I have yet to meet a PITA= Pain in the Ass!

Just that alone, makes these long, crazy busy days, worth our while. C’est beaucoup valorisant, ce bénévolat.

Emily from Mississippi comes to mind. She is a 75 year old who had a new knee put in two years ago. Her orthopaedic surgeon said “You go for it, and send me pics!” when she told him she was planning on hiking a camino. She is alone and frankly not in good physical shape, but if anyone can do this Camino her way, it is THIS powder keg of a woman. She is one determined lady: she is full of piss and vinegar. I SO admire her. As we say in Spanish “ Ella tiene cojones!”

Then there is a young Taiwanese man who has walked from Lisbon to Santiago and from Santiago onto to SJPP. He has done TWO Caminos! He must have come in here three or four times looking for information. He was so excited and so happy to be here. It was contagious, his exuberance and “joie de vivre”. I think he was just beside himself!

At almost 8:30 pm, when we were about to close our doors for the day, Kevin came back in with his supper in a big bag, his HUMONGOUS backpack on his back, and countless objets hanging off carabiners.

Come to find out, he has NO place to stay for the night. The operator of the “Municipal Albergue” just up the street from us, had come in earlier to let us know she had one bed left. Does the Camino not provide? As Kevin tells us this, in waltzes the same lady. I immediately advise her of this young fellow’s situation and without skipping a beat, she taps him on the shoulder and says, “Let’s go!” Away they went!

It was a great way to end our day!!! Actually though, it wasn’t the end. We closed our doors to the public and then… we had to tally all the money that we took in for the credenciales, plus we had to tally the number of pilgrims who came from every single country.

We have to give those numbers and that money, to our patronne Monique, done for every single day, at the end of our week of volunteering.

It was after 9:00 pm before we sat down to supper.

Lights out and in bed by 10:30.

To be repeated tomorrow! Lucky me… and I mean it! Bisous de SJPP!

 

[efdoucette]

I love this and so wish it was me. Being unilingual english, not sure I would be a good candidate.

 

[trecile]

There was a thread a while ago about volunteering at the Pilgrims Office in SJPP. @Monasp responded and included a PDF about how to volunteer there. You do need to be able to speak French.

Attached is a document explaining how to become an SJPDP volunteer.

Here's a screenshot of the PDF.

 

[JDAcadie]

There was a thread a while ago about volunteering at the Pilgrims Office in SJPP. @Monasp responded and included a PDF about how to volunteer there. You do need to be able to speak French.



Here's a screenshot of the PDF.
View attachment 179803

One of our team member’s French was minimal. Not even conversational, just basic high school French vocabulary.

 

[HJPZ]

Loved reading about your experience at the Pilgrims Office!! I had asked how to volunteer there and received the information posted above. I submitted the required info in September but have heard nothing yet. I sent another email tonight. I don’t want to be a pest but if I can’t volunteer in SJPP, I’d like to look for another opportunity.

 

[truenorthpilgrm]

There was a thread a while ago about volunteering at the Pilgrims Office in SJPP. @Monasp responded and included a PDF about how to volunteer there. You do need to be able to speak French.



Here's a screenshot of the PDF.
View attachment 179803

I'm going to make this a personal goal of mine: learn enough French to volunteer at the Pilgrim's Office. I would love nothing more than to welcome pilgrims as I've been welcomed.

 

[JDAcadie]

Loved reading about your experience at the Pilgrims Office!! I had asked how to volunteer there and received the information posted above. I submitted the required info in September but have heard nothing yet. I sent another email tonight. I don’t want to be a pest but if I can’t volunteer in SJPP, I’d like to look for another opportunity.

Loved reading about your experience at the Pilgrims Office!! I had asked how to volunteer there and received the information posted above. I submitted the required info in September but have heard nothing yet. I sent another email tonight. I don’t want to be a pest but if I can’t volunteer in SJPP, I’d like to look for another opportunity.

Keep being a pest. They need people. They are busy, Monique, her husband and the board members. People sign up and then bail. I know in September before we arrived, she was beating the bushes for a few October replacements.

 

[JDAcadie]

I'm going to make this a personal goal of mine: learn enough French to volunteer at the Pilgrim's Office. I would love nothing more than to welcome pilgrims as I've been welcomed.

Do you speak another language other than English? That might do.

 

[truenorthpilgrm]

Do you speak another language other than English? That might do.

Some Indonesian, not useful for the camino

 

[JDAcadie]

Some Indonesian, not useful for the camino

I must admit we didn’t register more than one person from Indonesia.

 

[JDAcadie]

I love this and so wish it was me. Being unilingual english, not sure I would be a good candidate.

Unfortunately, no.

 

[JDAcadie]

FRANCE: Day 2
1er octobre 2024

TRAVEL BLOG
Musings on Midlife’s Misadventures

Bonjour! Guess who was back first thing this morning? Our buddy Kevin! He came to say goodbye once and for all. He is off to Toulouse to visit the museum on the mathematician Fermat. He is studying for his Masters in Math in Taiwan. Brainiac!

We gave him a nice T-shirt that had been donated by a merchant down the street. Kevin went on his way very delighted. Here is the message he sent me later on What’s App.

“Now I’m keeping walking.
Thank you for all of your Loves”

Too sweet eh?

I love Brazilians. I don’t speak Portuguese and from my experience hiking the Portuguese Camino last year in Portugal, they don’t like it if you speak Spanish to them. HOWEVER, Brazilians? They don’t mind AT ALL!

I registered Adriana and Ricardo from Brazil this morning. They were so excited to be doing a Camino, so full of energy and so grateful for all I did to help send them on their way. I was only doing my job! More photos and big hugs all around, and off they went, happy as clams at high tide.

Day two is done and I’m not getting much sleep. I can’t seem to get rid of my sinusitis, so in the morning I’m coughing, gagging and spitting. Gross! It doesn’t stop me or get me down though. There is simply no time for that.

This morning was not too crazy, but after lunch? OMG!!! From this poor Australian woman with mental health issues who needed to vent for a few hours, to a group of South Koreans with their tour guide waltzing right through our office, to use our private bathroom and ignoring Trish’s request to stop, to a man delivering six bicycles from people expecting the Welcome Centre to store them
until they arrived, to people wanting free accommodations…, it was a mad, mad day!

Our “patronne” is a lovely French woman named Monique. She trained us and helped us out yesterday, but we won’t see her again. I had taken to secretly calling her “Attila the Hun » in our email correspondence, because both Diane and I found her to be quite « raide! » at times. In person she isn’t, but she doesn’t suffer fools lightly. She and I get along great!

It was HER I had to call about the distraught Aussie, HER I had to call about these no-name cyclists expecting (unannounced and unnamed) the Centre to be a warehouse… and she is absolutely a GEM! So I just nicknamed her « The Dragon Lady » instead.

We had less than two hundred pilgrims today, and again, I registered pilgrims from sixteen different countries. I spoke more Spanish than anything else today. I need the practice, so all good.

At 8:15, as we are preparing to close up, do our stats and count the money, in struts this singing and dancing Frenchman with his girlfriend and a Belgian friend. He put on a delightful show about hiking the Camino. Quelle magnifique façon de clôturer notre journée! Signing off once again with infinite gratitude, from SJPP, France. ¡Abrazos!