Talking with the different classes in the school. Many of the kids below do not have parents as they left to work in other countries such as Italy, Greece, and Spain.
Day 1 Dudas-Simian
In the past, I made great Rom representative contact (mentioned him before), Domnul (Mr) Mihai Otto and together we were able to organize a Roma tour for other Peace Corps volunteers. The goal was to show other volunteers how the Rom community lives and hopefully help me in stirring up plans and ideas of how to get a Peace Corps volunteer into these villages. Couple of goals I'm trying to accomplish is;
1.) Continue education of myself and other PC Volunteers about the Rom community.
2.) Find out the dreams Rom kids have. Are they the same or different from kids in the city of DT Severin (very interesting I'm finding). I have already visited a school in Severin and asked a a class of 10 and 11 year olds what their dreams are (haven't posted anything yet).
First village was a village I already visited but saw in a different light the second time around. Dudas-Simian is the biggest Rom community in the Mehedinti County (same county as DT Severin) and is very close to the city.
We visited the school this time and then walked around the community with three other PC Volunteers and a gracious translator that is voluntarily helping us (thank you Irina). Going to the school was great because anytime you get to talk to the kids they still have a (somewhat) innocent perception on life and all seemed to love school.
As we were walking through the community, all the kids started holding the volunteer's hands. It almost felt as they were holding on to hope because they wouldn't let go and they were sometimes fighting on who go to hold who's hands. They held our hands the whole time we walked through the village at times stopping at people's houses to hear their interesting and at the same time, sad (from our perspective) stories.
We constantly had to explain ourselves of who we were because at times it felt like we were being set-up for failure as they were expecting (not surprised) money or some miracles from us. Many of the Rom wanted us to see their house and take pictures of it in hopes we would bring them aid. We were explaining what we were doing first, learning about their culture and talking with the people. It's tough trying to combat the poor, but it's even tougher trying to combat the mentality and beliefs of a culture when our perspective sees it as not acclimating to the norms of society when we are not sure exactly what they want, besides the immediate needs; money, medicine, and decent housing. However, in talking to some, they did say they needed more jobs.
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Girl on the left, holding baby in white, married at 14 has her first child at 15 and currently is 16 years old.
Girl on the right, holding the baby in green, is 19 and believe she was married and her first child at 18.
1.) Continue education of myself and other PC Volunteers about the Rom community.
2.) Find out the dreams Rom kids have. Are they the same or different from kids in the city of DT Severin (very interesting I'm finding). I have already visited a school in Severin and asked a a class of 10 and 11 year olds what their dreams are (haven't posted anything yet).
First village was a village I already visited but saw in a different light the second time around. Dudas-Simian is the biggest Rom community in the Mehedinti County (same county as DT Severin) and is very close to the city.
We visited the school this time and then walked around the community with three other PC Volunteers and a gracious translator that is voluntarily helping us (thank you Irina). Going to the school was great because anytime you get to talk to the kids they still have a (somewhat) innocent perception on life and all seemed to love school.
As we were walking through the community, all the kids started holding the volunteer's hands. It almost felt as they were holding on to hope because they wouldn't let go and they were sometimes fighting on who go to hold who's hands. They held our hands the whole time we walked through the village at times stopping at people's houses to hear their interesting and at the same time, sad (from our perspective) stories.
We constantly had to explain ourselves of who we were because at times it felt like we were being set-up for failure as they were expecting (not surprised) money or some miracles from us. Many of the Rom wanted us to see their house and take pictures of it in hopes we would bring them aid. We were explaining what we were doing first, learning about their culture and talking with the people. It's tough trying to combat the poor, but it's even tougher trying to combat the mentality and beliefs of a culture when our perspective sees it as not acclimating to the norms of society when we are not sure exactly what they want, besides the immediate needs; money, medicine, and decent housing. However, in talking to some, they did say they needed more jobs.
- - - - - - - - - -
Girl on the left, holding baby in white, married at 14 has her first child at 15 and currently is 16 years old.
Girl on the right, holding the baby in green, is 19 and believe she was married and her first child at 18.
Difference between kids in America and here is, many times in America it's not planned while here it is customary.
Girl (center) in the pink shirt is 14 years old and just wants to go back to school but her parents believe she should be home instead taking care of the family.
Volunteers walking (below) through the village while holding kid's hands.
Visiting the school and learning of their dreams:
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Visiting the school and learning of their dreams:
Viola, 10 - Future teacher
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Gabriel, 9 - Future Mayor
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-------------------------------Gabriel, 9 - Future Mayor
-------------------------------Adam, 11 - Wants to help his mom and future singer
-------------------------------Laura, 10 - Continue school and Future Teacher
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Etymology of the word 'Rom':
Where does the word Rom (representing Gypsy's) originate from?
(exert taken from Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca):
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Gypsies widely use to refer to themselves (and literally to mean man or husband): rom among European Gypsies; lom in Armenian Romani; and dom in Persian and Syrian dialects. (And so we see that the term Rom, as in Romany, has nothing whatever to do with Romania, where, confusingly, the Gypsies have lived in great numbers for many centuries. Nor is it, as English Gypsies told the social anthropologist Judith Oakley, "cos we always roam.") Rom, dom, and lom aare all in phonetic correspondence with the Sanskrit domba and the Modern Indian dom or dum, which refer to a particular group of tribes who may look familiar.
In Sanskrit domba means "man of low caste living by singing and music." In Modern Indian tongues, the corresponding words have similar or related meanings; in Lahnda it is "menial"; in Sindhi, "caste of wandering musician"; in Panjabi, "strolling musician", in West Pahari it means "low caste black-skinned man." There are references to the Dom as musicians from the sixth century. The Dom still exist in India; they are nomads who do a number of jobs: basketmaking, smithing, metalworking, scavenging, music-making. Not surprisingly, many people have leapt on a Dom theory of origins for the Gypsies.
--- Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca
(exert taken from Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca):
----------------------------------
Gypsies widely use to refer to themselves (and literally to mean man or husband): rom among European Gypsies; lom in Armenian Romani; and dom in Persian and Syrian dialects. (And so we see that the term Rom, as in Romany, has nothing whatever to do with Romania, where, confusingly, the Gypsies have lived in great numbers for many centuries. Nor is it, as English Gypsies told the social anthropologist Judith Oakley, "cos we always roam.") Rom, dom, and lom aare all in phonetic correspondence with the Sanskrit domba and the Modern Indian dom or dum, which refer to a particular group of tribes who may look familiar.
In Sanskrit domba means "man of low caste living by singing and music." In Modern Indian tongues, the corresponding words have similar or related meanings; in Lahnda it is "menial"; in Sindhi, "caste of wandering musician"; in Panjabi, "strolling musician", in West Pahari it means "low caste black-skinned man." There are references to the Dom as musicians from the sixth century. The Dom still exist in India; they are nomads who do a number of jobs: basketmaking, smithing, metalworking, scavenging, music-making. Not surprisingly, many people have leapt on a Dom theory of origins for the Gypsies.
--- Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca
1 comment:
Far from wishing to speak for Oakley, I just wanted to raise an issue - the difference between etymology and anthropology. The etymology of the term Rom is quite different to peoples' lived experience of their "being" Rom. Oakley is not trying to capture some abstarct and concrete "fact", as if there were such things in the lived world, that each of us (in our very own and very disticnt ways) live and "are". Rather, anthropology attempts to grapple with how people understand their own position, in their terms - of course, all such endevours require some form of "translation". Moreover, perhaps the people best suited to defining Rom, or Gypsy, or Traveller or Gitano, are those people themselves in their terms (I doubt that you would disagree)... And this means there will be no universal meanings - there will instead be the important thing about "being" Rom, that is the thoughts, feelings and lived experiences of the people themselves. These are hardly ever likely to mirror etymological "facts".
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