Testimony Return to Testimony List The first day at school, an introduction to the real world of Europe? As we rounded the corner, we came across a straggling group of Roma families, mostly mothers with children. All of the youngest were sobbing and the mothers, or their older brothers or sisters, were trying to comfort them. I asked my Romani colleague, a Roma lady who assisted in translation and who was from that village, "What has happened, why were all those children crying." She looked at me with resignation, sadness in her eyes, and replied, "Oh yes, they have probably been sent to the Special school. It happens every year at this time. It is a little shock most Cigany children go through, it prepares them for the rest of their lives." A real event in 2002 in a village in North Eastern Hungary