Lynne, John and Calum hosted for the first time in 2007. Here they relate their experience:
This summer we were fortunate enough to host two children from Belarus for the first time. We had boys, which having one boy of our own, worked very well: we were used to having boys around the house and had plenty of boy’s stuff that we could use to keep them entertained.
We were very excited about their arrival, had turned our dining room into a playroom, got lots of toys out of the loft and dusted off the Scalextric. When the boys arrived they seemed just as excited and had played with almost everything within the first half hour. We all got on well but being normal, boisterous children there were also times when a reminder about behaviour didn’t go amiss. They ate nearly everything I cooked and the reports that Belarusian children like fruit are no exaggeration! Communication wasn’t a problem. Under the expert tuition of Maurice we had learned a few words of Russian which came in very handy, and coupled with the indispensable phrase sheets, it got us through - although there are frustrating times when you’d like to get to know your children better but can’t.
The two weeks went quickly, were quite a lot of work but were fun and had moments of profound happiness. We felt really proud to be part of CCLL and to be able to share our comparatively luxurious life style with two lovely boys. There were always members of CCLL to talk to if we had problems and we felt well supported. In fact it was almost like being adopted into one big happy family.
It was a very rewarding experience and something we are very happy to have done. We are looking forward to hosting again.
