Quilt with Friends in Guatemala

Remembering

Today, I'm remembering my buddies from 2 years ago!  Magda and her cousin, Michelle, spent a lot of time on the quilt during our 10-day stay in San Pedro, Guatemala.  My husband, Don was working on his Spanish with Magda's father. I brought along the quilt to volunteer at Magda's school.

Spending Time at Home

There was a lot of time to hang out at the house, so I brought the quilt out to the open-air hallway.   The girls taught me how to play Lotteria.

The Beanie Babies got to play along .  Even my teenie 2-inch "Little Bear" had his own little card for Lotteria.

But pretty soon Magda got tired of that.

Animal Song

Then we sang a song with 3 words..."Kitty, Bunny and Puppy".  We sang the silly song while the Beanie animals sat on the the quilt.  When I removed an animal, we replaced the word with humming instead.  The song got confusing and I made as many mistakes as the kids. (Think Simon Says)  The girls loved it when I goofed.

Other Stuff

I had a lot of other stuff packed.  I wasn't sure how I would communicate with the family, since I don't speak English.  I brought yarn for playing "string games" and Beanie Babies for teaching animal songs.  I even brought big and small squares and a glue sticks, for making paper quilts.

My Load

Packing wasn't easy.  The quilt itself takes up a lot of space. But at least I was able to leave some of these goodies behind. 

A Little Help

Over a number of days, Magda had time to go through most of my stuff. Finally, I put Magda to work, helping with my new quilt!

Art and Words

Magda, along with her cousin and her mom and sister, helped decorate cloth squares to add to my new quilt. Magda's mom, Lola made 2 squares. One was a design with the family names. Another was a drawing of San Pedro, with mountains, lake and animals!

Celebration Dinner

On our second to last night, a number of families gathered for a dinner celebration. There were quite a few kids, but not room to spread out the quilt. At least I was able to unload a collection of Mardi Gras beads I'd lugged from New Orleans!

Music and Food!

There was lots to eat that night and lots of laughter and music.  A couple ukuleles and some "plastic cup instruments" made things extra festive.  Besides the leaving the beads, behind, we lightened our suitcase by donating the ukulele as well.  

I miss this gang and memory from 2015!