Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMr. Nemec – who is not a Rom – is a good friend of my father. He lives in our street, and told me this story in our garden while he was fixing our boiler. At fifty-two he is tall and stocky with light hair and blue eyes: a great guy."Before the Velvet Revolution […]
Working
If they started working
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemI spoke with a Romany entrepreneur who wants to remain anonymous."I am in the construction business. Some time ago I got an offer to dig a trench half a kilometer long to lay phone cables. I started hiring people, offering a couple of days of well-paid work.Surprisingly enough, I encountered […]
We stopped playing there
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemOne day I met a friend I hadn’t seen for a long time. His name is Chumaj. When I asked him where he had been for so long, he told me this story."I’ve been playing guitar since I was little boy. I used to play with the Roma folklore ensemble […]
Since then I’ve been known as a fast and reliable worker
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemI recorded this story in the town of Rehlovice with Jozef Pohlod, a Rom from Usti nad Labem. I went to see him on a Saturday when he and his wife and kids were working in the garden. It was a beautiful day, so we sat down and began talking […]
She really put all of herself into it
Author: Martin Zaplatilek, BrnoLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #4EastWest InstitutePragueThe lady in Hradec Kralove who told me this story died two weeks after she told it to me. That was really strange. When she was telling me the story, I could feel that she really put all of herself into it. I could see that […]
Don’t hit it!
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMilan told me this story at his parents’ flat in Usti."Who am I? What do I look like? My name is Milan D. I’m 28 years old and I have black hair like all Gypsies. I’m 172 cm tall and I weigh 102 kg, so I’m a little heavyset. I […]
As an entrepreneur, Mr. Banom …
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMiss Jirina Banomová was glad to have this conversation, which I recorded in her kitchen. I had a good time. Jirina is thirty-one, slim, and approximately 170cm tall. She has brown eyes and black hair. She is Romany too."This story, which I love to remember, happened a year and a […]
All the jobs are taken
Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoGábina Oláhová told me this story in her room, which looks like the rooms of most twenty-one year-old girls."I’ve been listed at the Employment Office for two years, and now I’m looking for work. But I often think that it is hard for me to find a job because I’m a Rom. […]
May his hand with the bow in it do what he wants
Author: Katerina HolubovaLocation: BrnoLukás Conka is a nineteen year-old Romany boy, who now studies at the Junior High School for the Arts in Kosice, Slovakia. The violin means everything to him. He fills up every moment of spare time by picking up the violin and starting to play.I knew the story about how he came […]
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