SI MONTHLY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2005 Travel and host reports
From SI Exco News
Host and Travel Reports
Visit of Mr Peter Postel From
Hamburg Germany during the month of May 2005
By L V Subramanian, Bangalore
I have been hosting travellers from Germany/France/Switzerland but I would like to narrate my family’s experience of hosting Mr Peter from Hamburg Germany who came for a period of 2 nights and stayed at my place almost for a week understanding our culture, way of living and our family value systems.
I got an email from Mr Peter aged 52 of Hamburg and he wanted to know whether he could stay with me for a couple of nights. I explained that I was having my aged mother (who could not move about much for opening the door, etc ) and my daughter who was school going. He confirmed back that he would adjust to our family schedule and he would not be a hindrance to us. I reconfirmed with an welcome invitation that he could spend the two nights at our place. He arrived at our place and understood our family relations. He showed us his credentials and photos of his family. He valued respected and adopted Gandhian values and was a strict vegetarian and teetotaler and fitted in perfectly with our family.
He was a computer programmer working for the University and had taken a year off from his work to be in India and understand the diverse cultures prevailing here. He had travelled all parts of India and stayed with different families and enjoyed his stay with all.
He was keen to know about our customs, how we did pujas. I took him to temple and also to the shops and made him familiar with the bus numbers and bus stops. I thought he will have difficulty but he could manage to travel and reach home well in time. He would help me while preparing dinner and soon learnt the art of making rasam and sambhar during his stay at our place.
He helped my mother with the little household chores and also spent a lot of time speaking to her in English and understanding our culture. He saw the goodness of our joint family and asked me about why I keep my mother with me. I told him about our Hindu philosophy as to how children take care of their aged parents. He became very emotional and said “ I am in Hamburg and my mother at the outskirts village all alone but after having seen you take care of your mother, I will also take her with me to Hamburg to the place where I stay.” And this he confirmed after reaching Hamburg that he has brought his mother. This gave me and my mother lot of happiness since we could impart some of our valuable hindu value based advise to him which he accepted willingly.
He is regularly in contact with me and has sent us photographs of his family and children and also invited us all to visit Germany and stay at his place.
We found this association a wonderful experience and do look forward to similar ones in the near future.
from Servas India Newsletter
Servas friends made, thanks to Hurricane Rita
At 12:30 am on September 23, I was awakened by a phone call from a Servas Peru traveler, Roxana Suarez, fleeing Houston, Texas with her brother and friend as Hurricane Rita approached. She asked if my husband Jeff and I might be able to shelter them and their two dogs. While we offered to share our home during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we did not reach any Servas hosts in need of our offer, and so I was delighted that a Rita evacuee had called, and I immediately answered in the affirmative. Our weary travelers arrived at 2:30 am after a long, hot, 22-hour trip that should have taken 4 hours on a “normal” day.
While our guests spent most of that first day at our home sleeping and recovering from their stressful journey, we went to work. My cynical co-worker exclaimed that he would never leave strangers alone in his house, where they could “wipe me out.” I knew that I could never adequately explain how much the mutual trust inherent in the Servas host-traveler relationship has enriched our lives over the years. Instead, when I go to work tomorrow, I will tell my co-worker what greeted me that afternoon when I returned home: our kitchen was overflowing with groceries that they purchased, other thoughtful gifts awaited us, and more importantly, our refreshed and very grateful guests greeted us with warm hugs.
We enjoyed a weekend sharing food and wonderful conversations. Roxana cooked us a traditional Peruvian meal, and she and her brother Edgardo offered information about their culture. My husband, Roxana, and I shared information about Servas and its philosophy with Edgardo and Mehl, who were not members. Under these emergency conditions, we did not worry that they were not official Servas travelers. However, we explained to them that the best “thank you” that they could give us would be to join Servas themselves, which they promised to do. On our last evening, we gave them “WAGE PEACE” bracelets from the American Friends Service Committee as a memento of our weekend and reminder of the mission of Servas.
Finally, we toasted our new friendships and the positive impact of Servas on all of our lives. Our Hurricane Rita evacuees arrived as strangers, and left as family. Our dogs, on the other hand, are just glad that their dogs left, period.
Story submitted by Celia Pechak
inserted by Amelia
