The kindness of strangers

On Wednesday I slept until 10 before I rolled out of bed and joined Samantha on the porch with her two adopted dogs, Matilda and Sarah. The house was designed by Samantha's partner Toni and is a beautiful medley of wood and stone and glass, fitting snugly into its mountain side landscape. Samantha made me a basket of toast which crunched through absent mindedly until she told me to sit straight and 'enjoy'. You know when you meet someone and everything they say is so true and they burn like Jack Kerouac's Roman candles? This is Samantha. 

I drank green tea and caught up on my blog on the sofa. Samantha showed me around their garden of Eden and explained how she had measured the light energy in the waterfall which ran through this ancient chestnut tree, and it was remarkably high. It certainly tasted better than anything Thames Valley produced. 

After lunch I had a siesta and then went into A Caniza with Samantha to top up my phone. Samantha runs a English school in A Caniza, and had a lesson with a prospective Cambridge student that afternoon. I had not been in Merle's bar long before Jesus and Javier offered to show me around the local sights. They seemed to pick up on my slight retecents as they kept saying 'no problem' and 'we amigos'. Our first stop was a huge abandoned monastry which was 'muy muy antigue', it was pretty magic being able to walk all over it, up crumbling turrets and into great ballrooms. Me and Jesus passed my Spanish dictionary back and forth, whilst Juan provided a running commentary of the purpose of every single building, which he just seemed to know as there were no signs. As we were leaving we had to dodge through a funeral party which was walking towards an adjoining church, which sent Jesus into a fit of nervous giggles. 

Afterwards we walked around the walls of the castle of the Sarmientos in the town of Ribadavia. Jesus started rambling something about 'judios' or Jews and I thought he was being inappropriate again until I realised he was talking about the town's prominent Jewish history. The sun was slowly sinking as we walked back up the cobbled streets to the car and everything seemed as it should be apart from me.

Driving back, Juan kept trying to cheer me up playing Rihanna loudly and giving me cigarettes but I was so tense about travelling to Ourense the next day I was finding it hard to smile. My toes were really hurting again because I'd forgotten to put plasters on them after my salt bath the night before so I went to the Chemists. When I came back to Merle's bar Samantha had returned from her teaching and was sat with Merle talking. As I sat down they both looked at me and Samantha said 'we're really worried about you'. I gulped hard. I felt like I was filled with knots but I didn't realise everyone could see them too. Samantha and Merle had decided I should stay until Monday to rest and replan my route with Merle's mountaineering friend. I started crying. 

People said before I left that I was brave. I wasn't and I'm not, I just didn't understand what I was undertaking. I've been unsure all my life about what my faith is. Right now though, it's in the incredible capacity complete strangers have for generosity. Protect the human x