We met two teachers today

2005-01-14T20:02:00.000+01:00

We started the day with a drive to Jarovnice. This village is about 45 minutes away and the site of enormous tragedy and beauty. The ongoing tragedy is the squalor of the Roma in the settlement on the down-hill side of town. For many who live confined in such places, a lack of self-motivation destroys much of the outside “effort” to address their situation. The catastrophe that can’t be blamed for the scar on Jarovnice’s lower side was a flood.
It was 1998. Isolated, heavy rains turned the creek into a raging torrent that wiped clean most of the shacks the Roma call home. Fifty precious souls were lost, including ten children who attended the Roma School in Jarovnice where all the students are Roma and all the teachers are non-Roma. Some of the ten children were students of Jan (John) Sajko (it’s pronounced like “psycho”). Jan and the work he does was the motivation for our visit.
Jan is the Art teacher at the school. He had the crazy idea of entering the artwork of his students in international art competitions. The result: presentations in dozens of countries and award upon award. The children’s art is done with standard art supplies . . . when available. When not, broken egg shells and wood from a discarded table are turned into works of beauty. Creativity turn a wife’s discarded sewing patterns into works of art.
We wanted to visit to see about acquiring some artwork for the CBF Art Auction which has become a part of each year’s General Assembly. On our initial visit, Jan insisted, “I am only a teacher. I do not sell art.” He did suggest that he could provide us with art and we could provide his art class with much needed books. “A gift for a gift.” We had cut a deal.
We picked Jan up at school and took him to Prešov to buy the books and to have lunch. On the drive, we were impressed again with this man who is “only a teacher.” The colors the children use in their artwork is extraordinary. In one painting, two people are sitting by a fire. The fire is painted with blues and greens with a little yellow. “No one of the majority population would ever think of painting a fire with cold colors. . . . These children come from such a horrible place, but they are free. They are free to use colors that the majority children cannot use. I cannot use these colors. They are not in me. These children have more freedom than I do. The majority has so much they can learn from these children, but I am afraid it may be lost because they don’t see it.” Wow. For “only a teacher” that’s pretty good. That’s why he offered to participate in the Art Auction, so others can “see it.”

By Martin - a graduate who has returned as Jan's assistant

We had a great time with Jan, but had to leave quickly to make it back to Košice for a presentation by Dr. Ian Hancock. On the way out of Prešov, we picked up our first hitchhikers. Two students on their way to the bus station in Košice.
Ian Hancock wrote “We are the Romani People.” The US Embassy assisted with the translation of the book into Slovak and is sponsoring Ian on a tour of Slovakia lecturing on “Roma in the United States” and selling the book. It was an OK lecture. Broad strokes of Roma history along with the stereotypical “palm reader and fortune teller” motifs sprinkled with personal stories of fixing a damaged car with Bondo (the translator had fun with that). There seemed to be a bit of skepticism at his description of Roma life in the States.
He used “sacred” words of the Roma during his presentation. The first question asked of him afterwards was whether or not he was Roma. “Of course I am. How else would I know the culture and the words which we Roma do not share with non-Roma?” he answered somewhat incredulously. I had already had a long day and was worried that I would have a ticket on the car when we finally got out, but I couldn’t help but thinking, “What are you talking about, buddy? You just told a room full of non-Roma people! What’s more, you wrote it in a book that you already had published in the US!”
Ian Hancock is professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. He speaks with a British accent. I asked him as we were leaving the reception, “With an accent like that, how can you survive in Texas?” He responded with a thoroughly country drawl, “Well, the same way you can in Slovakia. I do have to talk like this though when I teach, or the folk in Texas can’t understand me.”
Two teachers on different ends of Roma education. One creatively uses language to express himself; the other creates the language of expression.

Until Something Better Comes Along

We met two teachers today