1983 Belfast

Belfast 1983

Marie was introduced and was an immediate hit with all the Nixons and my friends. Nobody could really understand how I had managed to catch such a gem!

We were fortunate to have very good spring weather that year although Marie kept complaining that it was s ‘frio’. Mum set to work trying to teach herself Spanish and also teach Maria English. ‘Post-its’ were placed all over the house with the names of things in English for Maria’s benefit and Spanish for the benefit of Mum.

We had a big party at Robin Hill and invited all my friends –not many –but many of Mum and Dad’s friends. Every body was captivated by Maria. I basked in her adulation.

We travelled all over Ulster and showed Maria around.  She even met Auntie Marjorie-Dad’sister. I had a very small family which included two spinster Aunts. The Nixons are not prolific. "Thank God" I can hear some of my friends say.

Even though she was well-looked after Maria was very tired soon coping with the language and the culture. She almost immediately became  pregnant.

I worked briefly for a neighbour erecting glass conservatories while I applied for teaching jobs. tHis was another favour Dad did  for me which I failed to acknowledge at the time. Marie started to learn English and made good progress.

Thanks to the Times educational supplement, by June I had two interviews lined up: one in London for Brunei- with a superb financial package as a science officer. I didn't even know where Brunei was, so I got out the Atlas. It seemed a bit far away for me. The other was in Belfast with Jack C, an Irishman, the Rector of the Colegio Colombo Britanico in Cali Colombia. The job was as a biology a teacher and the interview went very well. At the end of it Jack asked if I would be interested in becoming his Vice-Rector? This greatly appealed to my vanity and I immediately said that I would. The money was not good but in those days I was still an idealist, and I was happier with the idea of Maria having her first baby in Colombia-a Spanish speaking environment that would be familiar to her culturally rather than Borneo about which I knew nothing at all. The offer of Vice-Rector clinched it for me…seduced by ambition for the first, probably not the last time!

I realised that it was easier to get a British marriage certificate than to go through the bureaucracy of getting originals from Mexico of our Mexican marriage! Such was, and still is,  the  the power of the white colonial culture.

So, Maria and I were married for a third  time in Belfast, if you  include the real marriage in our swimming trunks!   David Crawford as my best man. It was such fun. Life was a breeze in those days

In site of her popularity Maria would sometimes cry at night out of homesickness. Mostly for her Mum, I think. I was determined she would be happy in spite of her homesickness.


And so to Colombia we went in August 1983…my first encounter with real power!