After that big night in Antwerp, the hosting family took me to Tessenderlo in the afternoon where I had comfortable family conversations in the backyard. I had plenty of time to work on my reports.
I got up at 10 o’clock and the family and I breakfast outside in the garden at 10.30 in the morning. Mother Ingrid was just finished reading the Saturday newspapers out of this region and breakfast was served with a cup of warm coffee with milk and double sugar.
After this breakfast I checked my emails. This really was relaxing, because I could be busy on my website, without rush of having to get on the road again.
My mailbox explodes when I don’t publish a daily report in time, next to that I get so many emails from media representatives that I have to schedule in or reply to someway, because this project works because of the media attention it gets – and that will get me around.
Ingrid told me she would bring me to me next address too; the next location in Tessenderlo was only 19 kilometres away from Geel. “Why should you hitch that little bit?”
In Tessenderlo I was welcomed by the Nys family, and I got Sophia’s typical girly room to crash in for the next night.
The Nys family aren’t big meat eaters, so they offered a great variety of vegetables and fruit. And it all goes accompanied with some glasses of white wine! Lovely!
Some neighbours of the family came over and while the kids played outside or watched TV, I got involved in very interesting conversations with them. From the conflicts in Northern Ireland to the ones in Israel, highly political.
I am still very amazed about the fact that Belgium has five governments. Accumulate that with the three different languages they speak here (Dutch, German and French) and you’ll understand that federal decisions go very slow – and it takes years for a highway to be built.
Just imagine yourself in your house with ten people speaking only different languages and maybe you’ll understand the situation when somebody asks around “Who is finally going to do the dishes?”
