Guesthome in Ouddorp
Ouddorp is a small coastal village on the island of Goeree Overflakee, just below the big city of Rotterdam. Very nice people live here and many of them go to church. My task on this island is to find out about youth in the churches, what they think, how many youth groups there are and if they are interested in building bridges.
On the 17th of November i went to my lovely host family in Ouddorp. It was quite adventurous to get there from Kruiningen but I succeed. Almost. The buttons in my last bus didn’t work so when I wanted to leave the bus I couldn’t because even if I pushed the buttons three times just to be sure, it didn’t stop. I couldn’t be sure. So I went to the bus driver who was very helpful and kind by the way even if he didn’t really speak English. So he stopped at the next bus stop and I was just thinking how to get back to the other bus station when fortunately Elma (my host mother) just appeared from her car. It turned out that she was waiting for me to pick me up at the bus station so when the bus came, she saw me on the bus and she just followed the bus by car till the next stop.
When I got to their home, I met with Hannah who was their 18 years old daughter and later Jaïra who was their youngest daughter (basically they are 3 but the oldest girl doesn’t live with them anymore). Anyway, so after that we sat down around the table and talked a little bit about myself, what am I doing, and why, and about the tasks what I’ve got from John for the weekend. Later me and Hannah went to the supermarket by bike and bought some ingredients for my oat cookies as we planned to bake some. It was very fun. As soon as we got home and started to bake everything became more fun. I turned my Christmas playlist on and then we did the cookies together with Hannah while we were chatting. I really enjoyed it. And everyone enjoyed the cookies what made me quite happy. As the night came we started the Posthuma family’s Saturday night routines. The father made some fries with croquettes (as I couldn’t eat that he made me fish. It was delicious.) what we ate next to the tv as it was a family movie-dinner night. The food was very delicious and it was nice to watch a movie together. After the movie they told me a little bit more about Santa Claus and that how Dutch people celebrate it. It was quite new for me as here it is almost like a pre-Christmas but in Hungary it’s just only one night. You get some chocolate and that’s it. At home it’s mostly just a celebration for the children. Here in the Netherlands they also have an own Santa Claus TV channel. After that they almost told me everything, we sang some Santa Claus music together then they asked me to bring my shoe in the living room next to their shoes so maybe the Santa Claus will also give me something. At this point I felt a little bit embarrassed as I felt like I am bothering their Santa Claus celebration but I also knew that if I don’t put my shoe there then I would maybe hurt their feelings so I did it. After we were chatting a little bit but I went to the bed quite early because it was a long day.
Next day we woke up early, ate our breakfast and got ready to the church. And the Santa Claus also came so we checked what we got. I am very grateful to them for involving me in this and That they bought me sugar free chocolate. It was so nice how they tried to do their best. As soon we got ready we went to their church together. They had a very nice service. This service was a special one where the pastor mentioned the people who died and the people who were born in that year. I had the opportunity to speak with the youth leader of the church thanks to Elma and later with the pastor as well what hepled me a lot to be done with my tasks what I’ve got from John. I had a very successful talk with the youth leader and the pastor as well. They both liked the idea and the pastor even said that their church is always open for Bridge Builders. After the service we and played some board games with the girls. Later we ate Lunch together, then we went to the beach to collect the plastics together and to walk a little bit. I enjoyed it so much That we collected plastics. I am personally quite worried about the nature so it made me feel very good that we made something useful like that. We also collected some sea shells and saw two seals. It was cool. I mean you can’t just see randomly seals in the nature anytime a few meters away from you. After that we went back to their place. Everyone was quite tired so we just took a rest and had nice conversations. The dinner of the last night was gluten and lactose free lasagna. And I can’t even tell how delicious it was. The girls also mentioned that I should come more times if they are always going to prepare these tasty foods. Well I definitely agreed with them. After dinner we continued what we did before: taking a rest and just talking, have some nice time together. I went to sleep early again as I had to go to teach next day. The morning was very slow. I mean I was quite slow as I was tired but I got ready in time. I even took a picture with Elma and Hannah before I left so I can have a nice memory of them. Unfortunately the others were still asleep so they couldn’t be on the picture.
I was so glad to be a part of that family even if just for a weekend. They were very nice and hospitable family. I very liked how I could always feel how they like each other. I can’t even imagine how big love there can be in their house during the Christmas Eve but if I’d have to describe it, i would say a super huuuuge endless love. And I would like to wish that kind of love to feel to all the people on earth for Christmas because this is what that is about: showing your loved ones how happy you are to have them in your life and spend some gold time together.
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