Gypsies
The corona crisis has changed common stereotypes for all of us. We currently spend most of our time with my colleague Jan in the poor gypsy settlements in Spiš and we try to capture everything interesting that is happening.
We have been working in an extremely risky environment for several weeks.
It's always about not exalting yourself. We are friendly and trying to listen to them carefully.
They have a different way of life, a different culture, customs. Sometimes they are theatrical, sometimes sad, often funny, but I perceive them by one of us.
They do not like to show the misery in which they live. It's different than years ago. They are ashamed of many things and do not like to expose it "to the admiration of the whole world." I feel that many of them want to live differently and are trying. But they can't get out of it. It's a vicious circle.
None of us would like to be locked up in one place for a few weeks. But even the poorest in the settlements know that we are on the same ship and we have to endure it. They rely on those who decide to think well of them. And I think they like the fact that a dangerous virus is fair, at least in that it doesn't differentiate between skin colour or a luxury villa and a shack.
-MK-
