A Tabloid Split
Many Americans, myself included, have romanticized the gypsy lifestyle to be adventorous and carefree. We picture independent, soulful people who are constantly on the move because they're too lively to settle into one place. Where does this idea come from? Music plays a huge role in our perception of the gypsy poeple.
In the song Airstream, Miranda Lambert sings about casual romance and remaining unattached. "Sometimes I wished I lived like a gypsy…break your heart, rolll outa town, 'cause gypsies never get tied down"
Van Morrison's Gypsy In My Soul depicts the ethnic group as restless wandereres. "Here and there and back again…Sometimes it feels like I don´t have any goal. It´s just the gypsy in my soul"
Both Santana and Richard Thompson share their heartbreak in Gypsy Queen and Gypsy Love Songs where they sing about falling in love with mysterious gyspy women who take off in the night with all the men's things. Including their hearts.
It's pretty clear, from our perspective, that Gypsies are initiating the split, leaving the rest of the world heartbroken and confused.
Truth Behind the Breakup
Wanna know what is really happening? Gypsies, or Roma people, travel because their villages are taken over. Torn down. Destroyed. They move because French and Romanian governments are in the midst of a political match of table tennis, bouncing Roma back and forth like ping-pong balls. Just last fall, France was offering 300 Euro and a one-way plane ticket for Roma to leave the country. As you can see, this uneducated, poverty-sticken ethnic minority is not seen as an asset to either economy.
The Rebound
What better time then now to come alongside this shunned group. Lets give them some hope! While in Europe, our WR team is going to live life with the Roma people, showing them what acceptance, love, and a helping hand looks like.
I like what Kevin Hoy, a missionary to Romania for over ten years now, says about witnessing to the Roma people. "We could talk to them all day long and they wouldn't be able to grasp what it is we are trying to say. Practical evidence of God's love is what the people need".
So what ARE Roma gypsies like? Meet Zoltan, Aliz, Dezso, and Erzsebet in this 3-minute video on the lives of the Roma today.
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