ALL ANTWERP: “I call out good morning to everyone” (Antwerp)
Every day our reporter and photographer pick a casual passer-by off the street for a chat. Want everyone has a story. And certainly in Antwerp. Today: Ignatio Valencia (43).
“With a simple happy good morning you can make everyone’s day. I’ll be on the street every day if I can when school starts around here. Then I shout enthusiastically tomorrow to everyone who passes. People thought that was really weird at first, but now they’re just mine. I know almost all the children by name. I am there from 8 am, which is a fantastic time of the day. Everyone already sees me from afar and starts to smile. That happy good morning comes straight from my heart.”
“Sometimes I greet people in Spanish. I am from Ecuador myself. Recently I took my three children there again. It was the first time for the youngest. Here in Belgium I speak Spanish with the children and they answer in Dutch. When the other children there also spoke Spanish to them, they suggested that they could answer in Dutch. It took some getting used to it not so much there.”
“It had been ten years since I was still in Ecuador to see my family. It is beautiful there, but I would not immediately say that it is more beautiful than in Belgium. It’s different there. Each country has its own charm.”