Jon Troast redefines the "Intimate Show."

Our friend Jon Troast (he's almost family - I think we need to coin a term for 'my cousin's brother-in-law) is doing something that is adventurous, enterprising, and just plain cool.  

See, Jon is a musician who does most of his concerts in living rooms.  For $100 dollars you can have Jon give a one hour concert in your living room and invite some of your friends (or people you'd like to become your friends!).  That in and of itself is pretty cool.  But right now, he's doing 100 concerts in 100 days as he drives around the country.  You can get a sample of how it might look by watching this bit from youtube:

I've found 6 of these 8-or-so minute montages of his tour on youtube.  You can also check out his website here, or his myspace page...

My parents and sister hosted Jon for a concert last year, and they enjoyed it.  We couldn't make it for obvious reasons.  My personal two cents is that this is a really fantastic experience, and a great way for folks to come together and enjoy the magic of music and community together.  I wish him the best of luck.  If you are looking for something unique to do with your friends, check him out.  You can contact him through his site above.  I'm not aware that he has any plans for a European tour, but if he does, he'd have a stop in La Coruña.  

Oh yeah, his music's pretty good too :-)  You can sample it as he's giving away a free download every week on his site.  If you are interested you can find his 5 albums on iTunes, among other retailers.  

Pilgrim Life

A friend sent me a link to a blog that contained this video.  In addition to watching the video, read the blog for a different take (two friends hiked: one made the video, the other wrote the blog).  It's a nice concise description of the camino experience.

I have only walked 6 days myself - but watching and reading this certainly excites me to walk the whole thing someday (I just made the observation to Faith that it will likely not be until we're into our late 40's or 50's before we'll get to hike the whole thing together).  

While it is a nice window into the pilgrim experience, I hope that you find it a reminder that it is not necessary to walk the camino to live life as a pilgrim.  Life is a journey - slow down and enjoy it.

Putzing around Portomarin

Tuesday, September 23, 2008.
Portomarin
0 Kilometers

Portomarin is a town of 2,000 residents found on the river Miño. In the 1960's the town moved from the banks of the river to the bluffs overlooking it before the arrival of a new dam. It is a beautiful town, and was a great place to spend a day of solitude. After a difficult first day, and an equally difficult first night on account of my fever I was seriously considering calling it quits, returning home, and delaying my first Camino trip until another time. After consulting with my advisory team (Faith) I decided to stay put for a day in Portomarin to rest before attempting to complete the journey. As a result, I had plenty of time to read, journal, listen to music, and take pictures.

I had this to say in my journal: "I think in my mind I imagined a trip of exploration, discovery, wonder, and relaxation. So far, 2 days in I'm already confronting lonliness. I'm reading a book (Gilead) that is grappling with mortality and purpose. I'm afraid I don't have what it takes to finish, and I've hardly begun - and a short journey at that (many pilgrims walk for 30-40 straight days). It is harder on many levels than I expected. Despite the free time, I'm finding it hard to focus time towards God. I'm having trouble "connecting" - whatever that means. I guess it means I am seeking some direct relating - no shock, I guess, considering my growing awareness of my own lonliness."

I did enjoy some down time, wandering around the ruins of the old town on the river, listening to music, and exploring the little town with my camera. But the best part of the day was seeing God provide once again in the form of new 'roommates.' Another group of outgoing Spaniards invited me into their newly formed community. We played Mafia in spanish - a game I have enjoyed very much in english. They adopted me into their midst despite my elementary communication skills. I ended up walking parts of the next 4 days with them.

You can click on the slideshow below for better quality pictures on the Picasa website. I've also added a few more details than normal in the comment sections.

Camino Fever

This is the start of several postings covering my first experience walking part of the Camino de Santiago this past week. Each post will cover one day of my journey.

Monday, September 22, 2008.
From Sarria to Portomarin.
approximately 25 kilometers (15 1/2 miles)

Walked out of our piso at 8am, not quite daylight on an overcast morning. A little past 8:30 I boarded a train at a station across the ria from our neighborhood. Fortunately, the train to my starting point, Sarria, goes by the closest station to our house. The clouds splattered the train with bits of rain as we entered deeper into the Galician countryside. At times it seemed like the mist and the forest conspired to swallow the train whole - this sensation was puncutated when we actually entered into tunnels. After arriving a little late to Sarria I found my credential after three stops and was finally on my way shortly before noon. (If you walk more than 100km of the Camino you have a 'credencial del peregrino' - a sort of passport that you must get stamped twice a day to prove you walked the distance. When you arrive in Santiago, you present your credential and recieve a 'Compostela' - a certificate confirming the completion of your camino.)

The day was harder than I imagined. I was very tired and sore quite early in the walk. The going felt slow, and I felt off-schedule from how I planned things in my head. I found taking breaks and eating food to be difficult this first day. God provided for me anyhow, when some fellow pilgrims shared some of their home-made empanada with me, and then when I joined three young spaniards for a portion of the walk. They were university students, and were very friendly and out-going. This was the beginning of the trend that carried me through the rest of the week - most of my community on the camino was with Spaniards - which was also a blessing. It provided me with a precious opportunity for extended practice, it grew my confidence in my skills, and it allowed me to grow in my cultural knowledge as well.

The walk the first day really reminded me many times of northwest Illinois, where my Dad grew up on a milk farm. The landscape was lush and green, dotted with fields of corn, wheat, and cow pastures. Plenty of the familiar black and white mottled milking cows were around, as well as tractors and farming equipment. The main differences were found in the size of the fields, herds, farms, and the structure of the houses and farm buildings (stone here vs. wood).

Of my five days of walking, this first day had the steepest ascending and descending. It was a long day, and I finally arrived stumbling into Portomarin somewhere between 6 and seven in the evening. I felt like I had zero energy, and could hardly believe I actually made it after such a long and hard day. I hauled myself to the showers, and realized after I was freshly clean that I was really cold - really, really cold. I put on as many layers of clothes as I could and retreated into my bunk. I was able to conjure up a blanket from the staff, but spent more than two hours both shivering with the chills while feeling really really hot. I realized at this point that I had a fever and had been likely walking for most of the day with this growing illness. I had no energy, and could hardly get out of bed. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, with the help of some Ibuprofen I brought for muscle pain, I was able to crawl out of bed and make it over to a restaurant for a little food.

I wrote in my journal that it had already been nothing like I imagined. If I were to learn anything from this journey, my first day showed me that as a mirror to the journey of life, the camino showed me that things can be hard and difficult, and that above all, it takes hard work. It takes willpower to go on even when you feel like you have nothing left.

Regrettably, I did not take any photos on this first day. It was probably the most remote portion of the camino I walked, and was quite pretty. It did threaten rain all day (but never did rain), and that combined with my focus on finishing kept the camera in my bag. Stay tuned for photos from other days.

Abscence

So I've been a little absent from the blog lately. What with a visit from my parents-in-law, a trip to a conference in Manila, raising pressure and stress as this semester of language school coming to a close soon, and not to mention raising three energy-absorbing kids - I've had little will to pound out another blog post. Faith, however, has been good about blogging - especially with pictures and the happenings of our family. You can go to her blog to fill in the last several weeks if you havn't already.

Here is a picture from the Philippines to entice you to check her blog for more.
We had an excellent time at International Team's leadership conference in Manilla. It was a long way to travel for a short 5 nite conference, but it was worth it. We were really encouraged by many people we met and heard from. Manila is a very fun and unique place. We were especially touched by the Filipino missionaries that are spreading across the globe to serve Jesus.