Student.Go . . . on the Go, but staying home

Have you ever had a summer job? Or an internship?* This summer two students are interning with us . . . virtually. 

Jaya Nair is a college student with a wealth of experience. This is her second Student.Go internship. She is working our partnering organization, the Dom Research Center (DRC). The DRC works with Dom Gypsies** in the Middle East/North Africa. Their website recently crashed. Jaya is helping post content and create content. You can check it out at the Dom Research Center. It's currently a work in progress. A post from Jaya's interview with Amoun Saleem, head of the Domari Society in Jerusalem, should appear in the next several days.

Songezo Nkolombe just completed his first year of seminary (Baylor) online, due to Covid travel restrictions. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and serves as children's minister in a Baptist church there. It was a natural fit for him to work with Romany education projects. His first blog post on oral learners and oral culture will appear on the Romany Education Network this week. He's read a lot, he's listened a lot, and now he's turning that into Yearn to Learn: A Tale of Two Towns. 

This photo comes from a recent online meeting with Songezo, or Songz for short. Both he and Jaya have virtual internships. Songz is still in South Africa, still serving in his local church as well as assisting with education programs in Romania, Croatia, and Moldova. Jaya is still in Bentonville, Arkansas, while also interviewing people in Israel and meeting at least weekly with us in the Netherlands. 

We thank God for these two interns, for CBF's Student.Go program, and for the technology which makes these virtual internships possible!

*Guess which summer jobs were Mary's and which were Keith's:  lawn maintenance; church secretary; ploughing cotton; painting houses; walking (soy)beans; working in a sewing factory; K-mart clerk.

**Amoun Saleem, head of the Domari Society in Jerusalem, prefers to call herself "Dom Gypsy." 

Strawberry Fields . . . for a few weeks

Photo by Massimiliano Martini on Unsplash

Strawberries are in season! We love them! Ever wonder--if you didn't pick them yourself--who did? 

Here in Europe, the answer is like to be Romany from, say Romania. Our friend Zoltan Barabas leads a children's Bible club in a Romany neighborhood in Transylvania. This past week the day of the club fell on Children's Day in Romania. But Zoltan didn't think the parents would be doing much with the children. Most of the parents had gone to Germany to pick strawberries.

A group of adults there get contracts from the same farmers year after year. First they pick strawberries. Then they pick raspberries. Then, after a month or two, they come back home. 

Grandmother and child

And what about the children? Romany have an extended family structure. On any given day, a child is as likely to eat at the home of an aunt or a grandparent as they are with their own parents. If mom and dad have both gone to work, someone else looks after the kids. 

How does that work out for the children? Sometimes pretty well. Sometimes pretty poorly. You might say a prayer for them . . . and their parents . . . the next time you enjoy some strawberries.