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Published: March 26th 2008
Two points first: This should be quite random, so prepare yourself. And, I'm still recovering from my month-long cold-like illness. Essentially, I'm sick of being sick, and no, orange juice does not help. Okay, those two things being said, let me begin.
Since I've been here, I've been to three real places where I felt like I learned more in-depth stuff about Czech life. The first was a shelter for youth. A Slovak friend who attends university here interned at this shelter for a year, and she invited me to visit with her in order to have an English conversation with one of her former clients. The place is like a group home for teenagers, and then there's another section for people who used to live there and are now older and have much more freedom. For me, as a future helping professional, it was pretty interesting to visit, but unfortunately I can't compare it to a parallel place in the US, because I've never been to one there. It seemed like a good setup because the teens have a decent amount of freedom, but if they miss curfew or something, there are strict consequences. And I thought it was cool because there was a group hangout area with pool tables and stuff. It was pretty weird because when I walked in and was going up the steps, they really reminded me of Toubab Tower in The Gambia, and then later we were in a computer room, and they had djembes (West African drums)! So, I don't really know what that means, but okay. I was jealous that my friend, who studies social work, has a mandatory practicum, so she was more enabled to get such good experience before she graduates. I'd love to go back there again and talk to the teens more.
The second place I went was to a Roma (ie. Gypsy) Museum, which happens to be the only museum in Central Europe which is devoted to the Roma. I went there for my Development of Ethnic Relations in the Czech Republic class. Although much of the museum was only in Czech, a decent amount was translated into English, and my professor explained a lot to us. Some important things I found out: the Roma have lived in Europe for about 1000 years at this point, and even now, they are often unapologetically discriminated against; unlike in the US, where racism is mostly not publicly condoned, doctors were still sterilizing Roma women without their knowledge in at least the 90's; the Roma population in the Czech Republic (who were almost completely integrated) was essentially erased during the Holocaust, and the Roma who live here now immigrated, or were forcibly relocated (mostly from Slovakia) by the Communists, after WWII; the Roma are not one homogeneous group, but the population is made up of at least 4 different entities, in the Czech Republic, at least. The main thing that struck me, though, was how separated the Roma are from non-Roma. For example, we watched a movie which showed people living in villages, using a village water pump and transporting water. Like people living in Appalachia in the US, many live without electricity, and in extremely different conditions from an average citizen of either country. After the museum, we walked through the neighborhood (a predominately Roma one) on our way back to class. Although these Roma are living in Brno, a city, they are still very separate from the rest of the city population. Their neighborhood is only the area of a few blocks, and my professor said that most people stay within that area their entire lives. When we got to one traffic light, my professor explained that few people who live in that neighborhood will go beyond the light. A big part of the reason is fear of attack, verbal or physical. My professor said that Roma parents are afraid to send their children to schools outside the neighborhood, even though those schools are better. Speaking of education, for a long time many Roma children were placed in 'special schools' for children with developmental disabilities, and even now, it is difficult for Roma children to stay at the same level as non-Roma children, because typically their first language is Roma, and when they begin school they must also begin to learn Czech. And I am always stunned when I happen to be with Slovaks or Czechs and afterwards they mention that someone on our bus or in the street was a Roma. I cannot tell the difference if they're wearing typical Czech clothes, perhaps their hair is dark and their skin is a little darker. To me it's just another person, but to them it's a Roma.
The third place I went was to a rock concert with my roomie. We saw two bands, and they were both Czech (Scissorhands and Sunshine, if you're interested). I liked them both, but I got kind of annoyed because 90%!o(MISSING)f the words they used were English. Yes, it was convenient for me to know what the songs were about, but they should be singing in their own language more. Plus, I wondered how much of it the people there even understood. It just seemed kind of ridiculous to me that they were from the Czech Republic, playing a concert in the Czech Republic, and singing to Czechs, and they sang in English. But still, we had a good time. Something else was strange for me there, that it was mostly high school students, and yet many were drinking (I think the drinking age here is 18, but it's much less strict anyhow). That would obviously never happen in the US, and it was interesting to me to see that even though they were allowed to drink, no one I saw was overly drunk.
What other random things do I have to talk about within this entry? Well, one thing is how much I despise going to the grocery stores here. It's really the only time in daily life that I'm guaranteed that someone is going to speak to me in Czech and mostly I have no idea what they're saying. Plus, it's usually difficult to guess which products I'm buying. You may think, it's easy to buy things, there are pictures, aren't there? Well, yeah, there are pictures, but okay, take bread for example. I try to be semi-healthy when making my pb & j, so I try to buy wheat bread here. I discovered a while ago that 'cerealni' is basically wheat bread. But wait, why, then, does my bread smell like rye bread? Because, for some reason, rye is a main ingredient in wheat bread here. So now, I've figured out what the word for rye is, and I try to read the ingredients to get the one that has that word furthest down, because I'm not a big fan of rye flavor. Oh, and you don't even want to try shampoo. Oh my. Okay, so say I've got all my items, and I'm waiting in line. Because there is no 'bagger' at stores here, and really, not usually bags either, the shopper must bag all their items themselves. So, it's pretty stressful to try to stuff everything in my backpack and at the same time pull out the correct bill for payment. And then, about half the time the cashier will say something to me, which I figure is like, do you have the correct change, like if it were 147, and I give a 200, they also may want like 7 or 47, which is additionally challenging, with me still not used to the money, and not really knowing what they're saying, and knowing that I'm holding up the line of 7 people behind me. So, yeah, don't like grocery stores.
Oh, let me also tell you about the main Easter tradition here. Although I didn't personally experience it, I can explain. Guys here, and also in Slovakia, get willow branches, braid them, and add ribbons to the ends. On the day after Easter, they get their buddies and some water, and take their Easter-branches and go door-to-door until they find girls. The girls are whacked with the sticks and then have water dumped on them. This is supposed to make for a healthy and happy year for the girls. And in return for the attack, girls are supposed to provide nice-looking Easter eggs, chocolates, and, depending on age, alcohol. Sounds legit., right?
I am happy to report I had my first Czech-English conversation with a stranger recently. I was the only one waiting at the bus stop until an older man walked up too. He said something to me, to which I said "Nerozumim cesky" (I don't understand Czech). Then he asked me--in Czech--where I was from, and I answered in Czech, which was pretty exciting for me. And then I told him I was studying here at Masaryk, and that I was from the US (in Czech). And that was as much Czech as I could do, but then he, luckily, switched to English, which was decent. I felt like I was back in The Gambia, with random guys asking me why I'm here, what I think of the country, etc. But, because I had had that experience, I was totally okay, and used to people being interested in a foreigner. But it made me happy to have a conversation with a random person because I experienced renewed faith in inter-cultural communication. And although I have no hope that I will learn anything else remotely useful in conversation from my Czech-language class (although I know the ending for a certain type of grammar, (
very practical), I think I can teach myself some other good conversational stuff, because I see the usefulness of it. Our teacher has told us that in Chapter 4, we'll learn about food (and do you know, we'll probably make it to Chapter 4 at the end of April).
And one current-event related newsbit: So, you probably know about the debacle in Denmark dealing with Islam's prophet being pictured in comics. Well, just last week, to my surprise and disappointment, I read a story that said that a number of posters with these cartoons were placed in downtown Brno and were apparently posted by a group committed to free speech. They were quickly removed by police and there was a debate about if the people who put them up could be charged with a crime. And then this week I read an article that in Prague an organization has offered to play this new Dutch anti-Quran movie which ran into difficulty with being played on its original website. I haven't talked to enough Czechs yet to get an impression of if many people here are so anti-Muslim, but I surely hope not.
So, sorry for the length of this, but my Czech class was canceled today so I had extra time. Also, sorry for no new pictures. This weekend I'm going to Krakow, Poland, which is pretty exciting, so I'll tell you about that next week! Hope everyone's Easter was chocolate-filled, and hope you're all in peace!
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Kathy Oxenreiter
non-member comment
Easter branch whacking
I was just wondering if you got whacked with the Easter branches or do the Czech boys only go looking to whack girls they know well enough or have Czeched out previously? Your punny mother!