Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place).  All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train.  I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London.  

On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. 

Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935.

So many similarities to Canada’s Indian Residential schools. With one all-important key difference, of course: 1 mothers here chose to give up their children, mostly due to extreme poverty, and in Canada children were forcibly removed from their families.  But the same type of loveless environment for the children, over-regimented, under-resourced.  

To raise funds for the institution, donations of art works were solicited, creating one of London’s first ‘art galleries’ at the Hospital. Musicians like Handel also gave concerts to raise funds. The Museum records this history and also recognizes some of the students with a testimonial film and portraits.  

Here is one of the photos of former students. Lydia Carmichael is a founder member of the Old Coram Association, an alumni group of former pupils.

We should be very proud of the work of the Children of Shingwauk in Sault Ste Marie, a survivor group who are leaders in preserving the record of the Indian residential school system, establishing archives, and above all helping to promote a healing path for survivors and their families. The shock of imposing an English system on children of a totally different culture, spirituality and language was huge. And these children had known their parents and their communities. Losing that surely must have felt to them like being ripped apart.

This is a somber note with which to end this part of the blog. I do intend, however, to finally finish my pilgrim walk by doing the last gap - Lens to Lausanne - hopefully this coming spring, and thus complete the full distance of London to Rome (with an already completed extension to Santa Maria de Leuca at the south-eastern tip of Italy.)

Walking is peaceful. Time and space collapse.  What was centuries ago is still today, and our planet is one common home - water, air, sunshine, shared by all. And with that, time to go back home!