Well, it was a blast! A delightful great big Camino conference.
It all took place in the middle of May on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, amid the trees and bushes in bloom and the green, green grass of the Pacific Coast. There were 400 of us, most oldies but fit and spry. The conference was a co-production with the Company of Canadian Pilgrims and the American Pilgrims on the Camino.
The theme was ‘Bridges of the Camino: Connecting Cultures and Hearts.’ No doubt the theme was chosen before Trump came to power, but in light of his attempting bullying of Canada, this was a pertinent theme; except that none of the American guests ever mentioned politics. This felt like the elephant in the room. However, the Spanish ambassador to Canada for the Kingdom of Spain, in his opening address to the conference, did go there! Gold star for Senor Martinez Serrano.
However, enough of my niggling as we had plenty of Camino to talk about. We were helped along by the most interesting lectures on many levels. I really enjoyed the history-themed ones: Spooky Remains: How Pilgrims and Monasteries Met Their Ends; and: When History Becomes Myth: The Complex Legacy of the Song of Roland; and a lecture on Elias Valina, the priest who revived the Camino Francés and painted the yellow arrows.
The evening entertainment was delightful: a musical and spoken word ensemble cast; the movie: The Way, My Way, loved seeing it again. And on the final night, music and singing and a hilarious one-woman show by Celeste Mancinelli called Crying on the Camino. Just a brilliant funny and insightful take on her Camino.
We were housed in the students’ lodgings on campus and had three meals a day (what a treat for many of us women, just to be fed and surprised three times a day!). It is a beautiful and large campus and our activities were all in a neat but spaced-out triangle. By that I mean we walked to the three points – as in the cafeteria, a brisk 15-minute walk from the lecture hall, the same for the residence. I say brisk as often there was not a lot of time built into the schedule for the walking part. But we are pilgrims and we walk! And with the meals and the walks, we had time to mix and mingle and chat.
Our check-in package included a bright yellow poncho (yellow is a Camino colour – the direction arrows on the trail are yellow. The wonderful organizers even had yellow arrows posted around campus to help us not get lost, we went astray anyway!) As it is the west coast or as a friend of mine calls it the wet coast, we had ongoing drizzle, so our ponchos were useful. Imagine, the waves of oldies all in their yellow ponchos. This got only more acute when it came to the group photo. We were to all wear our yellow ponchos – all 400 of us. And they had the clever idea of having us form an arrow (check illustration). This caused me great angst for the young people on campus – summer students, overseas students, sports teams – like an outer-space invasion of all these old people wrapped up in yellow plastic. Nightmares – therapy!
