A Day of Silence

It happens when you travel to a place where you really don´t speak the language. It happened to me in France. I realized when I went to buy my ticket from Montpellier to Avignon after spending some time on the train from Barcelona -- I went to say something in French, which I thought I knew a little, and only Spanish would come forth. There I was, completely in the realm of síl vous plait, pointing at something, and merci. Fortunately, my relatives met me at the station when I arrived, and this awfulness was eased. I listened to French for a week and spoke English with my hosts. At the end of the week, it was time for me to go back to Spain, but by a very long and indirect route. I was going to St. Jean Pied de Port, in the far Western foothills of the Pyrenees.

Clutching my ticket, I got on the train. I was to ride four trains in all, from 10:30 AM to 10:30 PM, all among speakers of French, left to my own devices for lunch and supper and finding my connections. It was for me a day of silence, not unlike a silent retreat. I watched the scenery as it shifted from vegetables to vines to grains, noticing with pleasure as we passed the wonderful pile of walled city at Carcassonne. It rained, another good silent retreat thing, sweeping the landscape with waves of water. Lunch happened, thanks to a team of ladies accustomed to dealing with silent strangers, and eventually dinner. Simple following of directions and pointing at my ticket when confused got me from one train to the next.


Then there I was at 10:30 at night, loose in a strange town with medieval walls around the part of it I was supposed to find my way in, and behold! a man from Quebec appeared to help me find a place to sleep. It wasn´t the one my relative had called, but it worked fine. The man was planning to spend a pleasant day seeing the town and speaking French. I, on the other hand, was in a hurry to leave there and get someplace where they speak Spanish.

I am here to report that an occasional day of silence is a good thing. I learned some things about the work I am doing and wrote them down. And now, I´m having a great time speaking Spanish. So -- it´s a bad thing not to speak the language. But, it´s a situation that may bring blessings.