The Romani laugh through adversity

Exploring the secret to being undefeatable

Tzvetan making a spontaneous stop by a swing on his way to submit an application for social housing due to imminent eviction. Picture by Martina Petkova

Martina was riding in a car with a family from our Roma community: soon-to-be-18-year-old Tzvetan, and his parents. They were talking about how Tzvetan might soon start working in the street cleaning company that most if not all members of the Roma community work at.

“But it’s hard work and very little pay, you know,” the father said.

“It’s awful,” Martina said, having had no experience as a street cleaner but plenty of observations. “You work in rain, in snow storms…”

“We’re freezing in the winter,” the mother added.

“And in the summer, you get heat strokes,” Martina said.

The car erupted in laughter.

“No, I’m serious!” Martina said. “Just last week I saw a worker fainting, they called an ambulance.”

They continued howling with laughter. Martina realized they weren’t laughing because they thought she was joking or exaggerating. They were lau…