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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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​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 & 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!