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Working with the Roma
Rachel Norton - Letter #11 (August 3, 2007)
Look at me! I'm back in the United States! This newsletter for the month of July is late because I was busy packing, saying goodbye, and moving back across the ocean, and then unpacking, saying hello, and sleeping like the dead. Sorry! Sending a newsletter now that I'm already back home maybe seems a little excessive, but some interesting things happened in July that I want to share. My major task for July was working at the summer camps for Roma children. Every summer Attila and Livia Tomes, the coordinators of the Roma mission in Transcarpathia, host hundreds of kids for weeks of crafts, games, songs, stories, and worship. However, this summer camp was unlike any I attended as a child. The facility is small and suburban—no rambling nature hikes or polar bear morning swims here. The kids do sleep in bunk beds, but they're in real buildings, not cabins. Obviously, getting back to nature is not the focus of this camp experience. For the Roma children who come from surrounding villages and cities, the week of camp offers an opportunity to see life outside of their own communities, to meet children from other places, to celebrate Roma identity, and to learn about faith. Why, you might ask, must Roma children do this in a segregated environment? Would it not be more conducive to racial harmony to have both Roma and Hungarian children playing together? I don't have perfect answers to these questions. I do know this camp receives outside funding from the European Union, from the Church of Transcarpathia, and from private donations (from people like you!). This means that even the poorest children can attend, because their families are only required to contribute 5 Ukrainian hrievna (the equivalent of 1 US dollar) for the week. The camp experience would not be available to most Roma children otherwise. I also know that most Roma children suffer plenty of discrimination in their regular lives. It is nice for them to have something special, just for them. The camp environment provides spiritual nourishment. This brings me to something I've written about before (in my fifth letter, if you're interested), but am thinking about again these days. Where should the mission worker, like myself, focus his or her energies: on the material or on the spiritual? (Or perhaps one could phrase it: on social justice or on personal peace?) Obviously, I understand that these things go hand-in-hand. I know that you can't have one without the other. During this year, I've been focusing mostly on material support. That is, in our preschool programs, Alma and I have tried (in our tiny way) to improve the chances that when they grow up, the children might not live in such desperate poverty. By preparing them for school, we hoped to raise their odds of becoming educated and finding employment. By teaching the children to take pride in their Roma identities, we tried to address the shame felt by this continually affronted population. By talking to non-Roma people about our work, we wanted to challenge the bigotry and mistrust that keep the Roma isolated from their neighbors. But something I've been thinking about more and more is: no matter how much I try to bring justice to my friends in the camp, I just can't make that radical a difference. The children with whom I worked are always going to be poor and live in a racially bigoted society. The best I can hope is to have made tiny inroads into the gargantuan, complex problems that plague the lives of the Roma people. It will take generations to bring justice and equity to this community. And it won't come from outsiders like me, but through the work of the Roma themselves. But if the mission worker focuses on spiritual nurture, he or she can give the gift of peace right now, without having to wait for generations to see results. By strengthening and supporting the faith lives of the Roma, we might help them live with joy and integrity, despite the hand they've been dealt. With the love and grace of Christ, they can survive their circumstances, and resist the temptations of alcoholism and abuse. Maybe that's even more urgent than dealing with poverty and discrimination? This is something I thought of as secondary when I started my work this year, but I'm starting to think that the mission worker needs to actively minister to the spiritual lives of the people with whom he or she works, at the same time as, and with just as much passion as, he or she labors with them for social justice. I'm sorry that wasn't especially articulate; I'm just going to stop writing about that stuff now, and move on to more personal news! In the upcoming months I will be giving a few presentations about what I did and what I learned this past year (at Third Presbyterian in Rochester, and Takoma Park Presbyterian at least). Do you want me to come speak to you or your group and overwhelm you with millions of photos of cute kids? Let me know! I'd be happy to share. I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself now that my service has ended. Right now my plan is hang out in Rochester for the next six months or so and save some money (I've returned from my voluntary service completely broke). I have incredibly generous parents who are allowing me to mooch off of them for a few months. Then in early spring I hope to return to the Washington DC area and find a job in the NGO universe of do-gooding and world-saving. If any of you have any advice or contacts in that area, please send them my way! I'd be grateful for any help offered. Finally, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to all of you who have supported me during this past year. Because of your financial generosity, I was able to meet and exceed my fund-raising goal for the year! I also received many, many kind emails, cards, and even care packages during my time in Ukraine. Each one brought a smile (or outright laughter—some of you are funny writers!), and reminded me that I was never alone in this big world. For reading these interminable letters, for holding me in your thoughts and prayers, and for loving me from afar, I offer deepest thanks. Much Love To All, PS I've attached a photo of kids at the summer camp, all wearing new
hats they received. Cute kids!
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