Cléos account:
We were in Antigua next to the house of some people who were very kind. We played with only one of the children. One of three. He was called Ronnie. He was our first best playmate. The two other brothers were called Josue and Luis (but Anna called him Noga-Noga because she could never remember his name!). He had a shotgun, but not a real one. It shots rubberarrows. Once I shot at Anna and we loved. They had a dog called Dolly. We played with her too. We have a dog too but it has been left at our grandmothers house.
There was a big tree in their place. We loved climbing on it. Sometimes Lili and Ronnie helped me to go up and down.
We were in Antigua next to the house of some people who were very kind. We played with only one of the children. One of three. He was called Ronnie. He was our first best playmate. The two other brothers were called Josue and Luis (but Anna called him Noga-Noga because she could never remember his name!). He had a shotgun, but not a real one. It shots rubberarrows. Once I shot at Anna and we loved. They had a dog called Dolly. We played with her too. We have a dog too but it has been left at our grandmothers house.
There was a big tree in their place. We loved climbing on it. Sometimes Lili and Ronnie helped me to go up and down.
The people at the school had found us a parking space in a sort of courtyard owned by a family of five living in a small house and used by a small mecanic outfit, parked cars, a one-room-family-house- and-children-nursery and a small shop. It turned out to be a very lucky choice. The owners of the little piece of land who lived right on it in a small house turned out be a very nice couple with three boys, the youngest, Ronny, just the right age for the girls to play with. Overall the plot feels more like a car dump but their house had a little garden which we could just park in front of and use as our garden during our stay.
In the end we spent most of our weekends in some sort of family get together with them. They are a normal middle class family but very much down to earth and open. We not only learned a lot about the country but I think we managed to make some friends who would, if it was not outrageously expensive for them to travel, come and visit us in Europe.
We introduced our host family to some piece of European culture, which they took very seriously as you can see from the faces. In the end we decided to part with our 4 sets of boule balls to allow them to carry on with the great French tradition!
the local town festivity including processions, monsters dancing in the street, too much drinking (and subsequent fighting)
Lili’s account:
It was very nice staying with Ronny in their place because every day after the volunteer work we could play with Ronny and the other children of Marie-Helena. We lent our bicycles to many of the children living close by since they did not have any themselves. At the end of the land we were staying on there were lots of broken cars where we played a lot.
It was very nice staying with Ronny in their place because every day after the volunteer work we could play with Ronny and the other children of Marie-Helena. We lent our bicycles to many of the children living close by since they did not have any themselves. At the end of the land we were staying on there were lots of broken cars where we played a lot.
We managed to become good friends with the family inviting each other mutually to dinner (Roggenstone Lasagne vs. Chicken Pepian - one of Guatemalas best known dishes), getting invited by their friends to their barbecue place between the volcanoes and simple spending afternoons together drinking coffee. At one of these occasions, Kate had just gone out for the afternoon, I found myself sitting with Lucrecia (our host), her sister and her mother sipping Capuccino and discussing differences in family customs between Guatemala and Germany (I have difficulties picturing myself joining in the "Kaffeklatsch" of a similar group of German housewifes and mothers!!). I learned that a real Guatemalteco would never change the nappy of his child (I wonder whether I went up or down in their estime when bragging with my nappy changing abilities?).
