Who's Who (Part 1)

We have met a host of interesting people in our first eleven days on the camino. They include:

 Caroline, a Belgian woman who will interview for a job in forensics when she returns home. She speaks five languages.

 Frieda, a young german woman who walked the northern route of the camino in 2010 and will use her newly acquired bachelor's degree to work in set design.

 A Spanish woman from Burgos who puts on makeup in the aftrnoons and with whom I have only exchanged two words, after I introduced myself. She says to me,"Hola Raquel," and I answer,"Hola Carmen." Now she speaks to us in Spanish, but I understand about one word out of a dozen.

 Bridget, an Irish librarian who lives right next door to her place of employment--one of Ireland's two (I think) federal prisons.

 Mark, another Irish man, who is writing a book and has a foul mouth. Just like the guy in "The Way." 

A quartet of Italian men, all from different places and strangers when they began the camino. Two of them will go back to their jobs on Monday. Ricky's girlfriend will join him on the walk from Santiago to finisterra. Alessio walked the camino in 2010 and has cystic fibrosis. They really did sing a song for us at dinner last night, and it was eveything you could hope for, from four boisterous(when together) Italian men.

 Debbie, from Colorado, who decided to walk the way when her son turned sixteen and could transport himself in February. She wears almost all purple, down to her bandana and water bottles.

 Stay tuned Part 2. I haven't even mentioned most of the people we met on the very first day.