Roma Weekend

This past Saturday was Roma Culture Day in Vratsa. Roma Culture Day is a Peace Corps celebration, not a Bulgarian one. Although my permanent site has very few minorities, it was good to learn about their culture and some of the specific challenges they face. It also helped place our work with marginalized groups in greater context. After panels and discussions, we were let out to play games with children from an orphanage in Vratsa.

On Sunday, the I and the other volunteers in my village went to church in the Roma community across the river. It was housed in a small metal trailer held up by rocks and wood planks. The outside was painted bright yellow a very long time ago. Inside, there were 7 wooden benches and a wood cross. In addition to the 5 of us, around 5 women, 10 children, 2 male teens attended. People came and went during the service. Songs were sung from a hand written book.

It began about half an hour late with reading from the bible in Bulgarian. The minister (?), who is also works in the mayor’s office, the school, and is always around town, spoke for a while. Then there was repetition of prayers and an elderly woman was blessed with oil. The minister also blessed us. I sat between two children. The small boy next to me whispered instructions when to stand, when to sit, etc. We were guests of honor. In front of me sat a woman with a baby and a seriously handicapped young girl. The baby was teething on a stapler.

It lasted about an hour. When we were leaving, he gave me a children’s bible in Bulgarian and invited us to return. We will be holding an intro to English language class in the trailer in a few weeks for the Roma community.

It’s difficult to give any concrete numbers on Roma in Bulgaria because self-identification varies significantly from other numbers and even deciding a firm definition for ‘Roma’ is controversial. According to the 2009 numbers from World Bank, UN, amnesty international, and CIA there are between 700-800k Roma living in Bulgaria. Historically nomads, Roma (romanticized as gypsies in the America) were forcibly assimilated under communist regimes in the 1960s and 70s. These programs were unsuccessful and most Roma in Bulgaria live in segregated Mahalas (neighborhoods). These Mahalas are generally difficult to enter and cut off from the surrounding environment.

Bulgaria has several programs designed to improve the situation for its minority groups. It was a launching member of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, an EU program to give priority to develop policies addressing Roma education, employment, health, and housing. “The Land-source of incomes,” is a smaller NGO working near a large Bulgarian city to provide start up funds, training, and close guidance to Roma families, enabling them to achieve self-sufficiency with their own small business and market integration. They are doing some really neat work. Here is a link to their website in English: http://www.agrocenter.info/?id=2

More information about Roma and Bulgaria can be found at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/roma

http://www.romadecade.org/