It all worked out.
Diane made it back before we started and only four kids showed up anyway. We spent all the time inside today. It's really a pity, since they have a yard of sorts, but can't use it. The neighbors have left all kinds of scrap building stuff there.
I went with Diane and a young teenaged girl... we'll call her A. Diane was going there to talk to the head and some teachers about the verbal abuse A recieves for being Roma. She's absent a lot and references this bullying as the reason. It was a pretty long meeting and I didn't understand most of it, but I listened closely and gathered some points. They had the boys who had been bullying her apologize (because we all know how well that works). Diane seemed kind of dissatisfied with the results. However, at least it's been brought up now. Later, Diane asked me if I could maybe do a theatre workshop at the school. I said sure, but for a mixed group like that I'd have to have some planning time (i.e. some warning).
What else... the older kids seem to be taking to exhchanging words. I show them English words and they tell me the Romanian words. It helps. Also, during kindergarten I learned "hai" (come) and "gata" (finished, though it seems to be used in the way we use 'enough'). "fată" is girl... slowly I'm picking things up.
I went with Diane and a young teenaged girl... we'll call her A. Diane was going there to talk to the head and some teachers about the verbal abuse A recieves for being Roma. She's absent a lot and references this bullying as the reason. It was a pretty long meeting and I didn't understand most of it, but I listened closely and gathered some points. They had the boys who had been bullying her apologize (because we all know how well that works). Diane seemed kind of dissatisfied with the results. However, at least it's been brought up now. Later, Diane asked me if I could maybe do a theatre workshop at the school. I said sure, but for a mixed group like that I'd have to have some planning time (i.e. some warning).
What else... the older kids seem to be taking to exhchanging words. I show them English words and they tell me the Romanian words. It helps. Also, during kindergarten I learned "hai" (come) and "gata" (finished, though it seems to be used in the way we use 'enough'). "fată" is girl... slowly I'm picking things up.