Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 17:27:22 -0700
To: fishbreath@somewhere.net
From: ef
Subject: Re: vasarhely
X-Originating-IP: 212.108.194.234


one day, when the children were at the playground, a hungarian man came out from one of the houses and beat them with a whip. stinking gyspies, he said, get away from here.

mihalyka asks if children are beaten in america. i say, no. but i also say, your mother is just tired.

i didn't tell you that the mother beats them with a belt.

she does not beat them hard... and she is very tired
all the time. too young, and she neither reads or writes, much a child herself. she too is undernourished.

 

on the bus back to budapest, i sat with a young gypsy woman, of a caste higher than the gabor family. oh yes, there are castes among gypsies. she wore traditional clothing and had much gold jewellery. plump and very pretty. she had her two little daughters with her... they too were very pretty, and very cared for. their mother was always looking over to see if they needed anything... we talked for a while. the little girls were doing well in school. she was very proud of her children. the hungarian man across from us also talked to her, disrespectfully i thought. he even told a gypsy joke. doesnt that bother you, i asked. nah, she laughed. i know who i am. i am proud of my people. they talk like that only cause they are jealous. heh, i gotta remember that one, i said.


-e

 

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