Roma in BG
June 10th, 2005 by bulgaria1020.So i usually post the fantastic but i think today i’ll post some of the grimy stuff about Bulgaria.
Bulgaria has a huge Roma population. They are a people that immigrated to eastern europe from India a long time ago. The language that they speak is closely related to Sandskrit. Girls in Roma communities usually marry around 12-16 and have many children. Bulgarians usually only have 1-2 children. The Bulgarian population is actually decreasing every year b/c they have so few children and after some time, Roma will have a larger population than Bulgarians.
This community of people are extremely marganilized. It’s straight from the US in 1950. They have segrated schools, people won’t wait on them at restaurants and they are very poor. The teacher that we have been working with wont call on Roma students and told us that when we have our own classes not to give them high grades but not too low. Just pass them through the system, or they will be in your class again. They dont have textbooks and many of them have learning disablities. Also, the Bulgarian language is their second language so all the classes are even harder for them than the other children. It’s really sad to see.
I went to grocery store and a small roma boy came in w/o shoes and was very dirty. He had money in his hand and was trying to buy something. The lady shooed him out! It was awful and hard to watch. I didnt do anything at the time b/c i was so shocked. I have never seen something like that before. The little guy HAD money. He was loittering around or making noise.
Another Roma boy was in one of my classes and i’m certain that he needs glasses. He cant copy words off the board, but he really wants to. If i write them in his notebook he copies them right away, but his letters are terrible. He cannot copy very well and i think it is due to the fact that he cant see very well. After he copies what i have written, he begs me to write more for him.
It is common to hear the Roma referred to as gypsies, theives, lazy, and stupid. But from what i can gather they are hardworking and trying to do the best they can on the limited resources that they have. Many fields are worked by Roma men, women, and children. Entire families work all day long for only a small amount of money. My friend Eric was talking to some Bulgarians and some of the field workers were walking by and the Bulgaria stopped a worker. He took some of the strawberries from the field worker and gave them to Eric. It was really shocking!
During my stay here in Bansko with Katherine we talked about Roma students in her class. She said that her students usually follow her lead. There was one child who was constantly picked on by students and she told the students that the student was her friend. After that the student thought “hey, if that kid is friends with Miss Clark, then maybe i should be too”. That was one of her main ways to combat it in schools. Other volunteers do a lot of outdoor activies involving the two groups so that the children can stop the hate from a young age.
At my permanent site there is a 100% Roma school. It’s not the one i’m working at but i hope that i can get the students from my school familiar with the other school’s students. I think it is so important for the racism to stop!