Gypsy House

Gypsies here are not the wandering minstrels and singers that they are in literature. Here they are a very definite second-class citizen. It seems they were brought here from India several hundred years ago by a king who needed a serving class and they were chosen to fill the bill. In the past fifty or so years (as well as I can gather) they have fallen from servant status to lower-than-dirt status. They certainly are everywhere begging. Unfortunately, these are not passive beggars; these beggars are in your face and follow you along the street or accost you at your table in a restaurant. They do not take no for an answer. I have been warned many times to watch out for them as they will steal you blind. That is true anywhere if you are careless, so I take the warnings with a grain of salt.

I have tried saying no in a variety of languages. I have held up my hand in the international STOP signal. I have tried saying “Englesy.” Sometimes they bring cards and trinkets to your table. This happens often on the trains. They come down the car, drop the trinkets on your seat, and then return a few minutes later to collect them or the money instead. I have tried handing them back. None of these methods seems to work at all. In fact, it seems that any sort of response is seen as encouragement and they are even worse in their tactics. The best thing to do is to look away and ignore them. They will eventually leave you alone.

There are stories in the European press of Gypsies here and there committing crimes. These stories are received with outrage from the local people as they are appalled at the reputation that Romania is earning because of these few instances of murder and mayhem. It is a huge problem here. Some of the children are sent to school but most of them do not attend. I understand that most of the ones who do attend are there only to collect the money that the government pays for attendance. Unfortunately, most of them do not attend long enough to gain much from the experience.

The children are sent out to beg each day and must bring home a minimum amount of money or they are beaten so they say. I have seen groups of families in rail yards. Often the adults are haranguing the children and I can only imagine what they have done to deserve such abuse at the hands of their parents.

I have heard stories that parents maim their children so that they can earn more money than if they were healthy and whole. I cannot even imagine this sort of thing, but I have to wonder when I look at so many mal-formed Gypsies. They do seem to have more major injury damage than the whole of society.

No longer do they roam Eastern Europe in their wagons, earning money as tinkers and entertainers. Now they have an awful reputation as thieves and worse. This house is supposed to be the house of a Gypsy king. It is east of here about an hour. It is a most interesting house. They say it has no running water inside but is beautiful otherwise.