Gypsies in Soroca

Yesterday most of my group took a trip to the northern city of Soroca, directly across the Nistru River from Ukraine. There's an ancient castle there, through which we were able to roam. Afterwards we had lunch and listened to a panel discussion led by the Gypsy Baron (see the outrageous beard).

Here in Moldova - and probably throughout the world - Gypsies (or Roma in Romanian) are frequently discriminated against and stereotyped as a wild, theiving, dirty lot. We really didn't have much time to really get to know those Gypsies we did meet, but I found them to be very friendly, though torn between their traditions and changing to adapt to the modern world.

PS - Note the sign we saw in the castle - no smoking, no bathroom, and no sunflower seeds. Only in Moldova...

One friend of mine will be working with an Gypsy organization that seeks to improve the condition of this ethnicity and I look forward to hearing how his work goes.