My Guatemalan family

Helga, the mother of the CS family had given me directions to their house and I found it after some looking, in a slightly nicer area, near the market. She had stayed home to welcome me and showed me to my room and around the house which surprisingly reminded me a lot of a German row home. Helga was trying to get some work done and I lay down for a nice siesta before the kids came home from school. Juan Miguel, the boy and the middle child, and I got of to a very good start playing Hacky Sack and talking about football. The two girls, Maria-Sarah and Olga, were a bit more quiet but very sweet once I got to know them a bit better. All of them were growing up speaking three languages, Spanish, German and English and were learning the Mayan language at school. Helga is a real power woman who manages her work as a psychologist and English teacher and is involved in community work next to being a great mom to her three kids, her two cats and her big dog.
I played a lot outside with the kids, teaching them how to hack the sack or just kicking football around. They invited me to share their meals, which is not at all to be taken for granted and I was involved in their family life right from the start. I walked the dog Lobo with Helga who was a very pleasant conversational partner, helped the kids clean the dishes after a meal and looked after them when Helga was at work. It was a great experience and I am really glad, that I met this wonderful family that reminded me a bit of my own a few years ago.
I went for a first swim in the lake which was refreshing but not as nice as I had thought because the water was quite polluted and I had to was it of under a shower back home. My bank gave me a headache and didn't let me withdraw money from my German card which was very annoying because the Australian bank charges me a lot more and I don't even know, what the problem was and I still haven't solved it...
I walked around town a lot, having a look at all the different vendors and bars that are far too many for the number of tourists passing through because the prime time of Panajachel is long over. It is almost sad to see all those colorful and nice looking places go down, seizing away with the tourism and the numbers of tourists in this area.
I made a veggie quiche on Saturday night and once again I was surprised by the low prices for produce in this country. I bought 3 big carrots, 2 zucchinis, spinach, 2 red peppers and a head of broccoli for about 1.50$ at the local market and each of them tasted better than the ones you buy in the supermarket! Helga had invited another German friend over to play some Skat which made me very happy because I hadn't played in a long time and it was one of my favorite games back in Germany. Unfortunately I had a bad day and lost to both of them by at least a hundred points...
On Sunday morning I joined Helga on a walk to Santa Catarina, a village about 4 km away. It was a nice little walk on the road along the lake offering great views onto the lake and it's surrounding volcanoes and villages. The highlight of the trip was a house on a cliff right above the lake that had a balcony extending out over the lake with a breathtaking view. We stood there for a while and I realized that this was when I actually fell in love with the lake. I had read a lot about it and that people had called it "heaven" and "one of the most beautiful places in the world" but I hadn't quite seen the beauty for myself. I have been to a few truly beautiful places and this was nice but not quite in the same league. Standing on top of that cliff overlooking the lake and it's surroundings everything changed for me. It was beautiful and majestic and it was only now that I could comprehend what the people I quoted before had meant.
We had very nice breakfast, delicious french toast made by Olga and my first coffee since I left the US, and a relaxing Sunday. In the later afternoon we visited a friend's dog and I went for another swim in the lake with Juan and when it got dark we played hide and seek outside.
I left them on Monday, one day later than I had planned, and I was sad to leave this beautiful family already because they had been so kind to me and offered me a wonderful time. Even the kids attempt to adopt me as an older brother didn't work (we were unsure about the legal issues) and so I had to say goodbye already but I was invited back whenever I was around in the area and I might even see them some time in Germany. Hopefully!