Part of my spanish course i had the option of living with a local family,naturally i did this and it was a lovely experience.My family consisted of Felipe,Rosa (mumma rosa) ,two teenaged girls,Elina and Andrea and four lttle grommet boys from 8 months to 8 years,.They were such a beautiful family and welcomed me with open arms which was a nice feeling after been roughing it on the road.
At the start naturally communication was at a minnimal but the wonders of hand gestures,smiles and general body language can work wonders.The kids here are lucky in ways that they are allowed to do everything we as western children are not.They are basically unsupervised and roam free doing as they please.You probably think that is wrong and that trouble is big but it is quite the opposite,they are very well behaved kids and on the most part quite,also helping out around the house with chors more than i do.I think due to not having their parents saying ¨No don´t do this and no don´t do that¨ deters them from worrying about getting stuck into such things,oh and the no crying and whinging is so pleasant.If they cried they got no attention (unless they were hurt) so they tended not to sook like spoilt little brats.It may sound like bad paranting but they are great parents that love,teach and take care of their children amazingly,just different to what i have seen in western culture.
One night we went to a fiesta,me and the family.We rode in the back of a ute and i was stoked (but a liitle worried) to see the kids be allowed to ride the roof,it was all good and safe and they smiled ear to ear,as i was too.The fiesta was cool,a market,music,fireworks and rides.It was quite late at night and i was one of not many whitey´s in a sea of happy guatemalan adults and children.Felipe and Rosa were suprised when i told them we dont often have fiesta´s like this,here they seem to do it every couple of weeks in a nearby village,they love to party and dance.Juan-felipe,the two year old fell asleep in my arms and lucky me got to carry him around for a couple of hours.This was´nt anything new as he usually did this at nights in front of the t.v.Also one day i had to watch,or listen out for jose-ankel the little bubba,real little bubba.No worries i thought,with the experience with my own neese´s and nephews it shant be a problem.It was all good until he woke up a little hungry and me having no tits made for a screaming little rugrat.This went on for about 45 mins until i finally got him to sleep only for ten minutes later mario walks in and wakes him up.Luckily i cant swear in spanis or he would have copped an earfull.So after another half hour of screaming child rosa finally returned.I virtually threw him back and ran before they could even thank me.But at they end of my stay they were very greatfull for the help with them and as i said ¨its cool i love children¨
Apart from that Rosa´s meals were great.Three per day and super feeds all of them.She especially looked after me when i was pretty crook for two days and it was good to have a mum around that knew what she was doing,God bless mothers.I have heard someone say that a mother is the most beautiful creature on the earth and i think i would have to agree,we all relie on them and we all need them.
Felipe was also very interesting,he went through the civil war here in the late seventies,early eighties.He was locked up as a captive and even shot twice with the scars to prove it.He´s seen a lot and now has an awesome big familie and a little restuarant to get by happily.These people (Guatemalan´s) are so happy for what they have.Life is a struggle with money and standard of living but you would never guess it from their smiles and friendliness.
It was sad to leave my new second family and they tried hard to get me to stay also, but now that i can speak a little better spanish i told them i would be back on my return trip home for sure.Beautiful people in a beautiful place.
