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Working with the Roma
Rachel Norton - Letter #5 (January 25, 2007)
Happy New Year! I hope that things are going well for you all so far in 2007! Life here in Nagydobrony is going well, especially since I had such a nice, restful break after the pressure of Christmas. Christmas Eve was a little crazy. The preschool and school-aged children performed a Christmas pageant together. The church was absolutely jam-packed and the kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement. Some of the children were so wound up about wearing costumes that they demanded the accoutrements of all the other characters, too. That is to say, they wanted to wear the wings of the angels with the crowns of the wise men and the ears of the little lambs, and carry the shepherd's crooks, all at once. In the end, I didn't actually see much of the play because I was crouched in the back of the room trying to keep the "off-stage" children from running around, and cueing them when it was their turn to join the nativity scene at the front of the room. After the program, the preschool children handed out the presents we had made for their parents, and all of the children received gift-bags that had been donated from various organizations (plus some extra little things that Alma and I snuck in). One of the elders gave a little speech about Jesus coming into the world to bring hope to the people. I, for my part, am filled with hopes for the children in the camp. The whole event was both joyful and exhausting. After Christmas, Alma and I traveled to southern Hungary to spend New Year's with some other volunteers. I had a really wonderful time with much eating, and talking, and sleeping, and reading, and watching bad American television with Croatian subtitles. It was especially nice to spend some time with Melissa, the other American volunteer in the program. And now I'm back in Nagydobrony. A couple of great things have happened in the preschool this month. The first is that we have a new stove for heating the building. The old stove was a homemade, patched-together metal drum with a chimney sticking out, and a bent pie-plate for a door. Cracks in it were sealed with mud. It was dangerous, and there was smoke and soot everywhere. The new stove has been funded in part by some of you (thanks for donations!). It is made of brick and tile and has an extra door for raking the ashes out. It is just the start of a lot of improvements we are planning to make to the building in the upcoming months. Even better, we have started to prepare our older preschoolers for learning to write. Every day we pass out little chalkboards and chalk, and ask them to copy some lines and curves that we draw for them. These aren't actual letters of the alphabet; rather simpler shapes that help the children develop their manual dexterity. It is really difficult for a number of them. Still, I have been absolutely amazed by a couple of the children. There are three boys in particular who sit quietly and with great concentration as they work on their chalkboards. Often, their efforts have to be corrected a few times until they understand how to make the shapes. But they stick with it, and practice again and again. And they are so proud of themselves when they finally get it! And I'm proud, too! In the past few weeks I've realized something both fascinating and frustrating. (Apologies again to readers who are totally uninterested in my theological musings—I'm about to talk about Christian stuff again.) Several people with whom I work have a completely different idea than I do of what the primary goals of Roma mission are. I came here to work for social justice for a group of people victimized by culture and society. But I have colleagues who work instead to convert the people in the camp to being "true believers." These colleagues believe that the end of the world is imminent, and that Judgment Day is upon us. They believe that the coming reign of Christ will involve the physical destruction of the earth. They believe that all non-Christians, plus all "bad" Christians (this includes Catholics) will be cast into hell. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we "save" as many people as we can before it's too late. I, on the other hand, believe that the Kingdom of God will happen here on the physical, actual earth. I think it will be a world where all people live in harmony with each other and with God. I think it will be brought about slowly, not in a sudden apocalyptic flash. I think it will be made to happen through the work of humans in concert with God, not with a single command from on high. I think everyone will be welcomed and loved, regardless of their adherence to what some human institutions deem proper. Furthermore, I think this utopian vision can be tasted just a little right here and now. So: this fundamental difference in belief between my coworkers and me makes our priorities slightly different. I am interested in the material welfare of the children with whom I work—seeing that they have enough to eat, warm clothes, people to love and support them. I am interested in looking toward their futures, and trying to provide the possibility for those futures to be better than the present. I think I have a responsibility to do all I can to help, right now. However, some of my colleagues think this is a secondary priority, since the apocalypse could be happening any minute. If the world ends tomorrow, it won't matter that some kid didn't eat lunch today, or that his mother won't have enough money left to give him lunch next week sometime. Here's a concrete example of how our differing beliefs affect our approaches to problems here. There is a child in our preschool who does not have a birth certificate. This means that he cannot register for school. Alma and I mentioned this to one of our supervisors. We suggested that we should start thinking now about how to get this child's papers in order because it will doubtless take some time to get all the bureaucratic wheels in motion, and we want this boy to be able to register for school in the fall. This supervisor thinks we should not waste our time with this, because maybe even with his papers, the child would not register, or would drop out after a week. Or maybe he would finish school but still be unable to find a job. There is no guarantee that our efforts will produce a positive result. This supervisor thinks it's more important to work on strengthening the congregation, so that the guardians of this child (he was abandoned by his mother at birth) will have an inner conversion, realize the importance of education, and figure out how to get the boy in school on their own. I agree that nothing can be accomplished for this child without the support of his parents. And I agree that tending to the spiritual lives of the people with whom we work is incredibly important. But I'm afraid that it might take years for this child's guardians to become receptive to the nudging of God, and he will be way too old to start school then. He will have missed his chance. And is it not possible that God is already trying to move these parents by sending us to give them a push? It's obvious that I'm frustrated. I have to remind myself that some of my colleagues have been doing this a lot longer than I have. They probably know stuff that I don't know. And together we are all parts of the body of Christ. (Sometimes I like to imagine that they are an armpit or a mole or something, but I'm trying to rein in thoughts like these.) We don't have to agree, but we do have to live together, and treat each other with respect. I'm working on it. Much
love to all, PS. As always, should you wish to contribute to the fund that supports my work here, you can! Just make out a check to the PC(USA) with my name and ECO number, 074436, in the memo line, and mail it to: The Presbyterian Church (USA) PPS. I know that the photos I sent last
month couldn't be opened. Apparently they have a virus. I don't
know if the
problem is
with my computer,
or my USB drive, or the computer I sent the email
from. So I'm trying to attach a photo of the children singing
during
the Christmas
pageant.
I hope it works!
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