ties’n things

As you can see in the sidebar, i’m reading I read “De nacht van de schreeuw”. Could be translated as “The night of the scream”, but it doesn’t sound that good in english. I actually almost finished the 475 pages after only a couple of days … it is that good.

It’s a true story about a Dutch writer, Marjon van Royen, who lived in Mexico for a while, working as a journalist for a Dutch newspaper. She wrote this book about her life here in Mexico, what she’s been through and about the enemies and friends she made. It’s maybe a bit like a diary, but it reads like a novel. Although this story took place in the nineties and mostly in Mexico city, i still recognize a whole lot of it. Life isn’t always easy being a foreigner AND a woman in Mexico, but still there is love. Love for this country where men are king, a country of sometimes incomprehensible logic, unbelievable politics and corruption, but also of hospitality, generosity and contentment!

To Belgian standards we are not rich at all, but compared to the Mexican ones we are. Although we hardly come close to the real rich people in this country, that’s another story! And sometimes we wished we could do something for the people struggling to survive here … but that would be considered disrespectful i guess. Gringos are not supposed to judge a country they hardly know/understand, and i couldn’t agree more. So now we just try to make a difference on a lower scale. By paying Rosa, who cleans our house, a bit more than she would make elsewhere for example … and taking men with us in the back of our pick-up truck so they don’t have to walk home with those logs of wood on their shoulders.

In the past year i learned a lot from the mexicans and their way of life, and – i know this sounds corny – my life will never be the same because of this experience!