So instead of teaching, I learned

Author: Lucie Conkova
Location: Usti nad Labem
Lucie Rohanova talked to me in our office In the 7th Elementary School in Predlice. She was a bit nervous, but I had the feeling that if there were more people like her in the world, there would be no need to talk about indifference or racism.
"For my training I chose to teach Romany history at a special school. At first I didn’t know if the children would be interested. It turned out that Romany children listened to me, but the rest were not interested. When we were talking about the Roms coming from India, a white girl asked: “Where did WE come from, then?”
There was one boy was covered with gold. I had read somewhere that Olash Roms especially love gold. One day when I was telling the kids what kind of Roms lived in the Czech Republic, I asked him if he was an Olash Rom. He didn’t know what that meant, but told us about his family’s customs.
So instead of teaching them, I learned a piece of their history.”