Chronicle of Monday 11 August

Dear parents, grandparents, friends and all the other pilgrims,

Today, as the stage was short, we were able to wake up a bit later than usual. What’s more, there was freshly made coffee at breakfast, which was a sign that the day was looking good. Today, in our morning prayer, we meditated on fraternal correction and the need to overcome the fear of saying things so that everything goes well. During breakfast a little fox came to visit us.

Well, in the end the “short” stage wasn’t so “short”. Today we had some serious climbing to do, with stretches that left you breathless but that let you take in some stunning scenery from the top of the mountain. How well God made creation. The Ginesta Choir spent a good part of the stage rehearsing the songs they’ll sing in Rome, and the “cigarette gang” kept rationing their cigarette butts, which are starting to run short. By the way, you have to hear the new hit by the parish girls’ choir, “Flogoprofen”. It’s bound to be a success one day. In principle the idea was to do the whole stage in one go, but because of the steep climb we had to stop for a second breakfast by way of a rest.

The other day we told you about the squat toilets, those toilets in the floor they use here. In this field, nobody beats the Italians. After seeing toilets in the floor, rows of toilets for nursery children and squat toilets covered with a board to serve as a shower, today we saw the pinnacle of porcelain construction. This year’s Roca award goes to the double toilet in the place where we are sleeping tonight, with one bowl facing the other so that you can share the best moments of the day with your friends.

In the afternoon we were able to have a little time alone with the Lord exposed and then we read together today’s “In Conversation with God”, which spoke to us about not neglecting our duties as citizens. The priest who welcomed us today, Father Emilio, spoke Spanish, because he is of South American origin, and so today we were also able to have a time for confessions. Then we celebrated Holy Mass.

Today we discovered a cooking team without equal. Made up of Beto, Martí, Álvaro and Joan, they made us a dinner worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant: Italian spaghetti with a sofrito sauce of tomato, onion and mince. Xipi revealed himself to be a master chef in the noble art of chopping food by knife, and the rest of the team to be great connoisseurs of the secrets of the camping gas stove. To finish, we had an ice cream for pudding while reading the chronicles from the previous days, before going to rest so as to be ready for tomorrow’s hard stage.