My first week hasn’t even ended and I already have been through an emotional rollercoaster. But before I get ahead of myself, a brief recap:

After trying my best to remember how the Prague metro system works, (thank goodness it’s so much like DC’s!) I start my day by attempting to find Dženo’s office. Luckily, the directions were quite clear and I find it relatively easily, despite how nondescript the building itself is.

Entrance to Dzeno's Building

I walk into the office, only to be told that this summer it will just be the coordinator and myself in the office. So much for shoulder to shoulder training.  According to Ivan Veselý (the coordinator of Dženo), there has been a steady stream of disappointment for the organization. He laments that although the organization has produced studies, complete with recommendations for the Czech government, nothing is being done. He blames the bureaucracy and the Bolsheviks which run the system. An interesting turn of events, but nothing I can’t handle. He then turns to discussing the fact that he sees Dženo being used as a scapegoat by the Czech government, an alibi to present when they are asked about involvement with Roma groups. In response to this I can do nothing but try to look empathetic.

To try to make things a little less heavy, I mention ideas about using Facebook and twitter as advocacy. However,  he seems less than enthusiastic.

“They’re for fun. Not serious business.” He says. Okay, different tactic.  (Note: I did create a Causes page about the quilt we will be working on this summer – check it out!)

I ask him how he feels about the website, and offer to work on a new one. “It could be updated,” he says with a sad smile, “but who would maintain it if I stop working here?” (Additional Note: If you would like to check out the very first version of a website about the quilting project, tell me what you think!)

It’s a good question considering Dženo and Ivan are one in the same. So I bring up the idea of the quilt, and he seems to perk up a bit. He already has contacted a woman named Emilie Horačkova who is an activist for Roma rights and an experienced craftswoman and we plan a meeting for next Monday.

He seems to be at a loss, however, about where to get in contact with the women we need to make this quilt a reality.

“Oh, Emilie knows lots of groups. She can talk to us next week.”

Next week?! Maybe it’s the neurotic east coaster in me, but that is way too late! I ask if I can look around too, and he says of course. Then he sets me up in the back office to do some research on women’s groups.

Luckily, with the help of  The Advocacy Project and a quick internet search, I got in contact with a Roma women’s group called Manushe, which works out of the group Slovo 21. They immediately get back in touch with me, and we planned a meeting for the very next day. As we discussed this project, they seemed to get more and more excited, and we settled upon working with the women at their summer school for Roma women. The timing is perfect – it’s the same time that the director of  The Advocacy Project, Dr. Iain Guest, is coming to Prague.

The only thing that is really weighing on my mind is the fact that I worried these women aren’t going to OWN this project. How can I be sure that this is the best strategy to get the issues heard? What else can I do to help Dženo, especially when the director seems almost defeated by trying to break through the government? Am I in over my head?

How can I make sure this project doesn’t  become another victim of bureaucracy and Bolsheviks?

I did it! After a scare about a Mechanic Strike at Reykjavik airport, a couple stops at security (do I really look that suspicious?) and a layover, I am in Prague!

It is even more beautiful than I remember.

Pražský Hrad

A beautiful view of the castle complex from across the river.

However, I have never been here for tourist season when it is full swing. It is like being in an entirely different city. Walking through Staré Mĕsto (Old Town) I kept getting the feeling of déjà vu…not in the location, but in the atmosphere. Everyone was laughing, taking pictures, and posing in front of such landmarks as Staromĕtské Námĕsti (Old Town Square) and the Astronomical Clock. There were tour groups, and I heard at least five different languages in about two minutes. Vendors were everywhere, selling “traditional” Czech cuisine. There were shops selling “I love the Czech Republic” and “Prague Drinking Team” t-shirts. There was the smell of almost too many people, sticky sweet snacks being sold from street vendors, and cigarette smoke wafting above the crowd.

There I stood, immersed in this atmosphere that I know I have been in before. And then it hit me…it was Disney World. It felt like I was in an amusement park, but not just any amusement park, it was the idolized Disney World.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Disney World (I visited for the first time as a thirteen year old…and I cried like a three year old when we have to leave. Ask my parents. It happened.) But there was this feeling of almost contrived fun. People gawking at the figures bopping in and out of the Astronomical Clock. Children screaming for toys and candy. People hawking as many products they could get tourists to buy. Lawns are preened and perfect and the castle stood like a monolith above the fairy tale city.

Tourist Season

Tourists wait in line for "traditional" Czech delicacies

Costumes!

A "tower guard" at Charles Bridge. The Disney metaphor is quite fitting here, yes?

But there is something lurking below the frivolity that is tourist season in Prague. In Disney, you never know who the people in the costumes really are. You just see what you want to see. That’s how it is here: you see only the costume of Prague. You don’t actually get to run into Minnie’s arms. But knowing that the  mistreatment of Roma still occurs while people are hawking bags with “Prague” scrawled all over them  to rich tourists is like seeing Minnie Mouse taking a swig out of a flask. It makes the rest of Disney World seem a little off.

Solitude

The beautiful (and hope giving) quiet of Vyshrad.

But maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion. The further away from the city center I get, the more I feel less like I’m being smothered by the crowds and tour buses and merchandise. As I walk along the Vltava it gets quieter. I can hear birds over tour guides shouting. It starts to smell like roses. And soon, its just me. And it is beautiful. This is the world you only see in the movies, where the sun is just right and you can see why people fall in love with this place. The vision of a flask sipping Minnie has vanished, replaced with the feeling of happiness and awe that only little kids seem to get while watching Minnie prancing on screen. Maybe hope isn’t lost. Maybe I just will have to go a little father, walk along the river a bit more, and find out what I’m really doing here.

I have an outline, of course. A vague notion of how I want to approach this fellowship has been lurking in my brain for some time now, with the idea that I could always worry about the details when the time comes for me to start. And now the time to start is here.

Remember those ideas I was talking about? That outline of a plan? Well, it seems pretty solid if you don’t look at it directly. Quite simple, actually. We are going to make a quilt. We will involve Roma women. We will work with a community based group to create social change. How hard could it be? It’s just a quilt right?

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself in my head. But the more I look directly at this outline, the more cracks and holes I start to see in it. How can I make sure that these women want to do this project? How can I help them define the vague notion of culture so it can be understood in an equally vague way by the general public? How can I get the help I need in a city which turns its head whenever the word “Roma” is uttered? How is it possible to reconcile the idea of helping a culture while some people see the help as an appropriation of something that does not belong to you?

Well, tomorrow I meet with the Director of Dženo. It’s time to start asking some of these questions. And maybe, just maybe, work on some answers. Wish me luck!

I recently started a Cause on Facebook about ethnic discrimination in the Czech Republic, support it to show what a difference social media can make!

http://www.causes.com/causes/619958-stop-ethnic-discrimination-in-the-czech-republic?recruiter_id=6688974

….And it’s here. I leave for Europe in 3 days. Training has begun and I am getting more and more excited about the potential of my time in the Czech Republic. I also am nervous… beyond nervous. Everything is up in the air and as a tried and true list maker I am starting to sweat a little bit. Nervousness is always a good thing though – it gives all of us an edge and a focus which I think will be crucial to my time in the field.

Before I can even start to really sink my teeth into my fellowship, I will be in ICELAND. That’s right; volcanoes, midnight sun, and the northern lights are in my future. This program is not associated with the Advocacy Project, but instead is a University of Maryland study abroad program which will be an elective for my Master of Public Policy degree program. I will be studying Nordic Family and Child Health care and comparing their systems to the system in the United States. I hope that some of what I learn there will be applicable to my time in the Czech Republic – but who truly knows? I’m excited to have the chance to complete a class while going to a country I have always wanted to visit. Anyway, back to the main event: my fellowship.

I am hoping to be working for Roma women for my fellowship with the Dženo Association. AP has a history of quilting to tell the story of marginalized groups, so perhaps I will be able to get a similar project going to further the interests of Roma women. I still have a lot of research that I would like to get done – but I am excited to see what other organization I can contact to further develop this issue. I stumbled upon a Roma festival happening in Prague this week (check it out: khamoro.cz) and there is actually going to be a documentary presented about Roma women called Women (Re) present. So I now have my first lead on who I am going to seek out to be another resource for Roma women, and hopefully even more!

Also, I should probably mention that I have been to Prague before. I studied there in the spring of 2010 and am very excited to return to Eastern/Central Europe. It will be refreshing to be there with a purpose rather than just studying, and to be doing something worthwhile, rather than an internship where I make copies and deliver coffee. (Not to say there is anything wrong with that – it’s just not my thing.) I have to say, Prague is a GORGEOUS place. It will be hard to connect the discrimination experienced by Roma there with the picturesque beauty of the city.

Prague Castle Grounds

Taken by Beth Wofford May 2010

I am worried about a few things. Well, more than a few, but I’m trying to be positive. First of all, I haven’t had any contact with my host organization. I’m hoping that I will be able to get an email while I’m in Iceland, because as of right now I am simply living with an American woman for the summer. I am also worried about the reactions I will get from other people in Prague. I was talking to a friend yesterday, who shall remain nameless, who studied in a country in Western Europe. When I was chatting with her about my fellowship she responds with “I’m not going to lie, I have a pretty poor opinion of Gypsies.” This left me torn. She is a wonderful human being, but she said everything that I am so concerned about. They’re dirty. They’re lazy. They want to steal money. I am still struggling with how to talk about my fellowship while remaining sensitive to everyone’s opinions. It should be interesting. And I love interesting.

Here’s to an awesome summer and bracing myself for whatever it throws at me!

EDIT: In Day Two of our training we compiled a video about ourselves, check mine out!

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YouTube Direkthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-m1QvAZ8ZQ