 | Behind his big almond eyes, gelled long hair, fixed at the back, his beard carefully shaved, leather boots and short tight pants, Adrian fits perfectly in the mould of a cabaret Latin singer - or the image we would have of one. With a deep glance in his eyes, he is however very far from the joyous airs sung in taverns... « I would do anything to leave this place, to leave Romania. To concretize my dreams, to do what I am made to do. » One foot barely stepped on the bus, where he has come to have coffee, Adrian goes straight to the point. His passport in hand, he has spent the day in Timisoara, trying, after so many shut doors and rejections, to obtain a touristic visa to go to France or Spain, where his father has already emigrated. Five years of studies in Theology only allowed him to obtain a job as a Latin teacher, in a small school for Roma students, 30 kilometers away from Timisoara. Without rebellion nor resignation, he seems to be accepting his fate. In the evening, he invites us in his village. "You are my guests for the night.", he says with a smile. And, entering the bus, he confides to me that he has the impression of being one of us, that he feels good with us. "I am not ashamed, but you will see, my place is very modest. There are my goats, my horse and my chickens. That's all." His house, left unachieved, he has built himself with his father and sisters, in the Gypsy architectural style very specific to Romania : curved roofs and wooden windows, of a Baroque-like style, clashing with the darker houses of the Communist era. Symbolically, he makes us enter through the main fence, which opens on the only soil road of the village. « Here is my palace ». In his room without lights, ancient icons are hung on the wall. Adrian wishes to become an Orthodox priest, like his father. But, at 24, he is not yet ready to marry, a mandatory condition to become a priest. He works on the farm, to feed his family, his father being gone, he is the only man of the house. Nevertheless, in an odor of straw, of roosters' singing, and of a warm village life, his place is not here. « I would like to finish my studies, and to work deeper in Theology. Here I feel enclosed. This is not my life. I want to earn money, I know that money is not everything, but believe me, when we have nothing, it is all we think about !». An unforeseen breakdown of the bus will keep us from spending the night with him, in the surrounding mountains. But these hours shared together made us discover another face of Romania, a generosity which is both unexpected and so often disclaimed by the Romanians themselves : the hospitality and the distress of the rural Roms, for whom no professional perspectives seem to be allowed in their own country... |
