October 18, 2004
Sunday

Gijón

I was to call Manolo at three o’clock, and I was nervous. Talking in Spanish on the telephone is difficult for me. Without seeing one’s facial expressions and gestures, it can be very difficult to understand what is being said. And, I haven’t spoken to him for over two years.

His wife told me to call at three. At least, I think it was his wife. When I called the house last night, a woman answered and, when I asked for Manolo, she said that he wasn’t in. I wanted to be sure I had the right man and I asked if he was a doctor who was on the camino and she said yes. At least I think that’s what I said. Perhaps she thought that I said that I was a doctor who was on the camino. Well, I would soon find out.

It’s not easy finding a phone number in a Spanish culture unless you know the person well. Let me give you an example. Back in 1982, or around then, I was president of the Boston Jaycees. The national Jaycees were having a convention in San Antonio, Texas. My chapter was sending me to Texas, but I thought that I might take some extra time to take a train and go on to Mexico City, the capital of our neighboring country to the south. Kathy, our vice president, suggested that, while I was down there, I should look up the president of the Mexico City Jaycees and exchange gifts. She gave me a name — So and So García.

So, at some point during my stay, I asked the hotel concierge if he would help me locate the phone number of So and So García. The man said sure and then asked, What’s his mother’s name? It seems that you have to know a person’s mother’s family name to locate it in the phone book because they are listed in alphabetical order according to the mother’s name. So, follow me now, all of the people named García Fernadez would be before García García which would be before García Gonzalez which would be before García Hernandez, García Martinez, García Parra, all the way to García Zapatadero. See the problem? You would have to check each subsection to see if there was a So and So García in each one. And since García is one of the more common names in Mexico, the number of possible permutations was quite large. Needless to say, I never did get a chance to meet So and So García!

Fortunately for me, Manolo’s last name isn’t very common. There were a total of three in the Gijón phone book. Unfortunately, there were two entries with the initial M. (The phone book only lists initials for the fist names.) So, as long as Manolo didn’t live in some suburb not listed, I had pretty good odds of reaching his home. And I did.

So, until three o’clock when I could call him, I had to stay otherwise occupied. The first thing I did in the morning was to wash out my shirt, socks, and underwear in the sink in my room. I then put them on plastic hangers and hung them out the window, which faced the patio de luces (the patio of lights or atrium). Most windows that face the patio de luces open inward and are barred to prevent unwanted entry. I think these bars make a perfect clothes line. And since the patio de luces is open above to the sky, things usually dry pretty well (unless there is a heavy rain).