Waves

Here we see part of the SIL (Wycliffe) Roma Service Group in Romania. Jeremy, Zoltan, and Cheryl (right to left) have asked Keith (standing) to give them advice on media projects. They have already made a couple of recordings in a version of Romani (South Vlax).


And in the next photo, we see what they are so intently looking at.



No, it's not the illustrations they hoped to use in animating a recorded story from Scripture. They are looking at the recording itself. Or, rather, the wave files of the recording. 

Each set of blue "waves" represents a different voice. Should the volume be increased or decreased? What about  the space between voices? Should there be more of a pause?

They spent a lot of time editing a recording together. The result was far more than just a well-edited recording project. The time spent will have a ripple effect now that three (or four) more folks equipped to make quality recordings of Scripture in Romany languages.

Zakuska + Romania + Romany

It turns out the boy in the last post was helping to make "zakuska." It's a Romanian dish eaten on bread. We were in Romania this past week, and our hostess recognized the boy and the activity. She told me she could probably get a recipe for it, but it would be for 8 kilos of peppers, etc., since the people she knew canned it in large batches. 

What we were doing in Romania? Staying with members of the Wycliffe/SIL Roma Service Group. They were working on some media projects in Romani languages. However, they weren't really trained in doing that and asked for Keith's help.  So that's what this photo is about. And the other photo is of some Romany girls on the street of the village. I was very impressed with their braids.

Back to Zakuska--I found a couple of recipes on line which all included eggplant. Apparently not all versions do. Here's one which does not call for kilos of anything. Let me know if you try it

(or this hairstyle)!

Ingredients:

2 chopped onions; 

3 cloves garlic chopped; 

4 roasted red and yellow peppers; 

2 small eggplants, roasted and skinned; 

6 small tomatoes, skinned and seeded; 

1 tablespoon tomato paste; 

chopped parsley; s

alt and pepper.

Preparation: 

Saute the onions and most of the garlic (2 cloves). Add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. Add chopped roast peppers. Cook approximately 5 minutes to soften. Add coarsely chopped eggplant and parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Cook approximately 3 minutes. Chill in refrigerator. Decorate with parsley and serve with Feta cheese. It can be refrigerated for a week or more in a glass container. Add a little olive oil on top to preserve longer (optional

By Cristina Paraschiv Feb. 28th, 2013 

http://www.justluxe.com

Language . . . Barriers?

Why is this young Romany boy grinding peppers? Could it be because he lives in the Hungarian-speaking part of Romania? And because peppers are a major ingredient in, say, goulash?
I can't say for certain that that is why he was grinding peppers on this summer afternoon. Those are just my educated guesses. This boy lives in a complicated linguistic situation. Romany around him speak their own version of the Romani language (Gabor) at home. The other villagers around him speak Hungarian. The national language is Romanian.
There are schools in this area in Hungarian. There are also schools in Romanian. There are no schools, not even preschools, in Romani. 
It would be easy to start a school-readiness program for Romani-speaking children, though. There's a series of Parent-Child Club materials which could be used by any willing leader in any location with very few materials. The leader does not even have to know Romani, as long as parents are willing to come with their children and speak their own language with them. Here's an example in English. Let me know if you would like to know more!

   

PARENT-CHILD CLUB:  Rough/Smooth

Activities (choose one or more)

1. Put something smooth and something rough in a box or bag. Let people feel these things without looking at them. Ask what the difference is in what they feel—one is _____ and the other is ______.

2. Group discussion:  name something that is smooth and something that is rough. (Note:  this will differ per culture and language.) Maybe take turns calling out something that feels smooth and something that feels rough.

3. Talk about a little baby that the whole group knows. Discuss how soft the baby’s cheeks are. Then name someone who doesn’t shave very often. Their chin and cheeks feel rough.

4. Gather 10 pieces of cloth that are about the same size but have different textures:  from very soft to very rough. Have the group put them in order, from softest to roughest. If the group is very large, divide into several groups, each with their own set of pieces of cloth.

Story time or Bible story/singing/prayer

5. Everyone draws an activity that makes hands or faces rough. This will differ depending on the people’s circumstances (doing laundry; working in the fields; selling things in the outdoor market; hand work . . .).

6. Treasure hunt. Divide the group into smaller groups of three, four, or five. Each group searches in the classroom for at least three things that feel smooth and three things that feel rough. Then each group shares what they found with the larger group. (Note:  you might hide things around the classroom ahead of time. Or the groups might find things that they cannot pick up—the wall might be rough, for instance.)

8. Make sand paper with sand and glue. Use stiff paper; spread glue over it; spread sand over the glue; let dry. Have everyone sand a little piece of wood. The sand paper is rough, and the wood becomes smooth.

9. Use the sanded pieces of wood to make a little table, birdhouse, or some other thing that fits the local culture and situation.

10. Walking barefoot makes the soles of your feet tough. If it is culturally appropriate, have everyone look at the soles of their feet. Discuss:  how many toes do you have? On one foot five and on the other foot five. Which toes are similar? Do these toes have specific names (example in English:  big toe, little toe, middle toe). How do you take care of your feet? Talk about trimming toe nails and washing the feet. Discuss what happens when you walk through something dirty.

11. Closing. Have the group sort themselves out in the following order:  littlest feet first; biggest feet last. Leave, single file, in this order.

 

Just In Time

Gifts from an American Christian provided firewood for two households in a Roma village in Moldova.Wood burners provide the only heat in these poorly-insulated homes.  Local leadership chose these families based on need.

The firewood arrived just in time. Sub-zero temperatures followed soon after--and stayed. 

The families were very grateful--and so are we!

Gifts like this are a big help. 
Villagers would be even more grateful if someone would help create options like local employment. They'd really like to provide for their own heating. Can you help them help themselves?

Looking for Some Good News?

12 RESULTS IN 2015 THAT WILL MAKE EUROPE A BETTER PLACE FOR ROMA Note:  The CBF Romany Ministry team is not directly connected with the European Roma Rights Centre. We do find good news encouraging. Perhaps you do, too?   Everyone has the right to be free from race discrimination. For Roma in Europe, though, that is more theory than reality. Most Roma in Europe experience discrimination each day. They are denied access to a decent education, refused the right to travel abroad, and many cannot even get equal access to drinking water.  Here are twelve ways we worked with Roma this year to make Europe a better place for all of us: For the first time in Europe an official Roma-only settlement was ruled discriminatory. This Italian court judgment reaffirms the long-held positions of many rights organisations that placing Roma in Roma-only camps, shelters or any other segregated housing fosters social exclusion and is contrary to the European Union laws. We helped a Roma community living in Uzhgorodo, Ukraine to legalise their homes. Sadly sometimes even EU funds are used for the segregation of Roma. Following our complaint to the European Commission, the regional authorities in Naples, Italy, stopped plans for a segregated housing project. Several Romanian Roma were detained and removed from Denmark. With the ERRC’s help, they have already established that their expulsion was unlawful. This year, we helped them reverse a decision refusing them legal aid to continue their case. Roma are often denied personal documents just for being Roma. 2015 was another successful year of our paralegal project in Ukraine, which has, in three years, secured 16 birth certificates, 24 internal passports and 3 external passports for Roma who were living without documents. We have to make sure that National Action Plans for Roma inclusion are really benefiting Roma. With our help, Roma civil society organisations in Ukraine are now actively engaged in advocacy with relevant authorities to improve and implement that country’s plan. When highlighting issues cornering Roma rights, the European Commission picked up our recommendations in its report on Albania, Turkey, Macedonia, and Serbia. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary for discrimination resulting from the failure to investigate a racist attack against a Romani man. The applicant was the victim of a racist attack by a man who claimed to be a police officer and called him a “dirty gypsy”. We intervened in the case as a third party. Perpetrators of an anti-Roma pogrom were found guilty of hate crimes in Italy. We were a civil party in the criminal case. The Macedonian authorities racially profile their citizens who are trying to leave the country and stop Roma from leaving. According to a court judgment delivered this year, the Interior Ministry has to pay compensation to a Romani couple who were not allowed to cross the border to visit their family. The European Commission also mentioned racial profiling at the border in its 2015 progress report on Macedonia. The ERRC worked with a local NGO to help the plaintiffs. Based on complaints we filed with local NGOs, the Ombudsman condemned segregation in two schools in Albania; the Equality Commissioner also found discrimination in one of the cases (and is still considering the second). The Ombudsman in the Czech Republic found discrimination following our complaint about discrimination resulting from a refusal to enrol a Roma child in primary school. “The ERRC is pursuing 158 legal cases in 17 countries. Institutions, ministries and schools must know that they can’t get away with discrimination.” - says Adam Weiss Legal Director of ERRC - “We are getting better every year at uncovering the ways they discriminate. In 2016 and beyond, we will be in court with new cases and securing new legal victories for the Roma rights movement. Note:  This article has been slightly condensed from the original.

Signs of the Season

December 21, the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in central Iowa it is as dark and gloomy as the photograph on the left. Can you even tell what it is supposed to be? It's an image of Christmas. That's also why I've linked it with this blue sign. I happen to be in a hospital right now, waiting for test results on my 90+ year-old mother. It will not be our first Christmas season spent in part or in whole in a hospital. Perhaps you're familiar with that, too?
If so, this post is for you, and for everyone who is not having such a holly jolly Christmas. I know a lot of you--you are missing a loved one who was with you last year and left a hole in your heart this year.  You are half-way through chemo and facing an uncertain future. Your home was bombed, and your country is in chaos. None of this has happened to you, but you've been depressed so long you've forgotten what it even feels like to be happy.

Whatever the reason, you aren't alone. Even in the midst of the frenetic tinseled hype of an American holiday season, a couple of local churches paused to hold an observance for those among us facing a blue Christmas.They were inspired by the baby in this little beam of light. You know, the one who grew up to be a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief.

+

 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

 

(Scripture references from Isaiah 53:3 and 53:4)

ROMANY COFFEE-MAKER

Do you have one of those fancy coffee-making machines in your home? They make one cup at a time, brewed through these fancy little coffee-filled gizmos (refillable plastic-and-mesh ones if you're thrifty), and they cost $100+ unless you get them on sale. I know the price, since an in-law of mine was Christmas-shopping for them. We don't need one, though. When Keith was recording the Eastern Slovak Romani New Testament, the Romany brothers showed him how to make coffee without any kind of machine at all. Here's how it's done.

1. Spoon desired amount of coffee into mug.

2. Add boiling water.

3. Stir in sugar.

4. Then stir in more sugar.

5. Enjoy with friends.

So, that's all there is to it. No fancy coffee-making machine needed. Feel free to send the $100+ saved to a worthy cause. (And let me know if you need ideas about which worthy cause . . . I know of one or two . . . .)