tales of a female nomad by rita golden gelman

Hmm, but when, if she's always going to be the guest and never have her own place and receive guests? Basically she's a freeloader - she'll teach you some English and read her books to your children in return for all the food and accommodation and getting to watch your sacred burial ceremonies, etc. So she's okay with accepting hospitality from all these people because she reasons that she'll do favours for other people when she can. And it's all because she believes that you should give and receive favours. It just seemed that she was happy to insinuate herself into people's lives, always expecting them to accommodate her, but not noticing the disruption to their lives she was causing (like the women in Guatemala having to protect her from their husbands). Which wouldn't have annoyed me so much if I'd expected this to be a memoir, but I expected it to be more about the places she visited. So the NZ chapter made me realise how little real info she's giving on all the places she visits. I only kept reading because I wanted to read the Galapagos and NZ chapters. No wonder she lost all her friends!Īnd people who go off to exotic places searching for a spiritual awakening really annoy me - it's only because it's exotic that you're falling for it, it's the same old mumbo jumbo all over the world, just different small print. Then when she'd realised how hollow that life was and went off and worked for a children's charity in Guatemala, she went back to LA for a visit and all she could talk about was the great work she was doing for the children, how fulfilling, how empty and shallow is the LA lifestyle etc. She seems like such an annoying person! At the beginning of the book she talked about her great life, hobnobbing with celebrities and going to premieres. When she ran into the tribespeople in remote Borneo and wanted to go off with them (to be one with them, no doubt) I was thinking 'Run! Get away from her, you poor sods!' She spouts the philosophy of wanting to know the people and 'be one with them' (which she often seems to equate to just wearing their clothes and eating their food) but is also happy to be treated differently as a foreigner when it's more comfortable, and use her special status as a foreigner to get special treatment.

Eating meals with the prince alone, because his wives don't eat with him. Bullshit.Īnd then in Bali, where she wasn't comfortable with the way women were second-class citizens but was happy to live as a guest with the prince for two years. The incident in Guatemala when her host was beating his wife creeped me out: 'I can't interfere, that's her destiny'.

She's also not a true nomad, having a good income from her books and being able to fly back to visit her children whenever she wanted, and staying in one place for years at a time without having to wash dishes for a living. The author wasn't very likeable for me, and I didn't like her exploits. Probably because I expected to really like it.

Tales of a female nomad by rita golden gelman