Sonja and Martin Weber from Thalhofen / Marktoberdorf are rather atypical as host parents. At the age of 27 and 28 at that time, the Webers were the youngest host parents so far. Sonja, who has been actively involved in the MODfestivals team since 2011, had not actually planned to host a guest. In 2014, she spontaneously stepped in when no home had been found in Marktoberdorf for Irakli "Ika" from Georgia shortly before his arrival. "We moved into our house from a two-room flat only a year before and had a guest room for the first time in 2014! So why not? And it was a great match, because we were about the same age and he spoke very good German," says Sonja, all-round unconcerned.

She was able to combine working at the festival and being a host mother at the same time. "He drove there with me in the morning and then just went home with me at night, just like you would do with children," says Sonja with a smile, who quickly developed maternal instincts for her guest and took care of him all around. Although the mother of three did not have any children of her own at the time, she immediately developed motherly instincts that helped the young guest from Georgia out of trouble time and time and again. For example, when he missed his bus to the performance venue on a trip to Ettwieser Weiher, Sonja picked him up, drove him home, quickly ironed his performance clothes while he took a shower and then took him to the concert, where everyone else was already waiting for him. Nothing unusual for Sonja, "just what you do as a mother".

"Ika", the Georgian guest from that time, not only remained in good memory with Sonja and Martin Weber, they also stayed in loose contact until today. "Hello Mum..." is what he says when they write on Facebook. Back in 2015 they met again at the Oktoberfest in Munich and in 2017 he came to Marktoberdorf to visit and was a guest at the relay mix marathon. The Webers still have to visit Georgia. However, as soon as the children are older and the pandemic is over, this will be realised as soon as possible.

After this positive experience, Sonja and Martin became host parents again in 2016. With Emeka, they had the choir director of the Lagos City Chorale from Nigeria as a guest. When he explained "This is my Mama" to his whole choir, the choir also had to smile a bit, as he was at least twice Sonja's age. But neither Emeka nor Sonja had a problem with the age difference. The problem was that Emeka was always cold, so she turned up the heating, got thick jumpers and put on winter bedclothes. The guest from Nigeria soon got used to the Allgäu climate.

After the wonderful experiences with "Ika" from Georgia and Emeka from Nigeria, it was clear to the Webers that they wanted to remain host parents. In 2017, their first daughter was born and the guest room was converted into a children's room. So unfortunately there was no room for guests. In 2018, Sonja's parents stepped in as guest parents. Also rather untypical, as usually the parents become guest parents first and only then the children. But even so, Sonja enjoyed travelling with her parents' guests. In the meantime, Sonja and Martin already have three children. Nevertheless, they want to host guests again as soon as possible. As soon as their spatial situation has changed."We're working on it - when we build an extension, we also plan to have a guest room," says Sonja, who doesn't want to miss being guest parents, because "not even on holiday do you get as close to people from foreign cultures as when you have them as guests at home," says Sonja Weber: "That has enriched us a lot every time, we want to have that again."

Photo caption:
Sonja and Martin Weber with their guest Irakli "Ika" (centre) from Georgia in front of the Richard Wengemeier Hall of the Bavarian Music Academy Marktoberdorf.

Photo: private