The Gypsies living near the gold mines of Rosia Montana were settled along the narrow banks of a polluted river, crammed between the gold factory and a mountain of contaminated residue that continues to pollute their air and water. Their repeated requests to the local authorities to repair the corroded railroad bridge that serves as their only access to the main road was continually ignored until one of the children finally fell through the splintered metal. Officials hurriedly spread a layer of gymnasium mats over the corrosion.
Where natural barriers aren�t available sometimes man made obstruction go up separating Gypsy communities from the rest like the towering petroleum drums in the city of Ploiesti or the Berlin style wall constructed by the mayors office in Usti Nad Labem of the Czech Republic as a means to keep back the �indecent people from the decent ones�. Though parliament quickly ordered the wall dismantled popular opinion polls showed the barrier was supported by a large number of the population.
For some thousand years all Gypsies have been in diasporas. Though they spread the globe many of their legends speak of themselves as a people cursed for the sins of their ancestors and forced to wonder the world. This common theme may take root in their Indian origins as low-level members of the Hindu Indian Caste system.
Linguistics, blood and DNA studies have confirmed that they originated from Northern India, but what caused their migrations out of India � through Persia - Byzantium then the Balkans and the rest of Europe is still unknown. There are numerous theories ranging between a single migration to many, caused by wars, pestilences or the slave trade. Those that ventured into the Romanian territories were made into slaves and where they would remain for more than 500 years. This fact is still omitted in the Romanian school textbooks.
The holocaust, what Gypsies call poraiimos (the devouring), brought about the unthinkable, Gypsies along with the Jews were systematically exterminated or deported into wastelands without shelter, food or proper clothing to die slow, anguishing deaths. The public schools in many of these nations that exterminated Gypsies make little mention, if any, in their school curriculum.
Social workers in the field contend that the education of Gypsy children faces a three front battle between parent�s apathy, poverty and disinterested educators. Thirteen-year-old Valentina expresses the isolation and despair felt today by many young Gypsy students. �Everyday my parents work from morning till night. At home we don�t have water, gas or electricity. Many times it is very cold. I do my homework only when I can. In the evening when Mommy and Daddy come home we hug. We are very tired and say �goodnight�. If I can�t do my studies I don�t go to school because I am too ashamed� Two years ago the school nurse came to our classroom and she found lice in my hair. She began to yell at me and it made me feel so bad. Everyone began to laugh at me and I was put to sit alone at my desk because no one wanted to stay near me or speak with me.
My teacher said that I can�t come to school anymore if I don�t clean myself because I threaten to contaminate others. I felt very bad and began to cry and I promised myself that I will never go to school again.
Mommy and Daddy are not able to help me because they don�t have time for me.�
�All my children attend remedial special schools,� says a Gypsy woman from Hungary, �but I do not mind it. They like it. They feel well there, because they are together with their friends and relatives. There are only a few non-Romani students in the school so nobody tells them �you are a dirty Gypsy��.
�I didn�t like going to the basic school,� says Pepa G. from the Czech Republic who was transferred to remedial school in the 7th grade. �I was, for example, just sitting at my desk and the teacher kept asking me, �what are you doing here?� Even teachers who were not teaching me were complaining about me to the director of the school, but I never even spoke with them.�