Testimony Return to Testimony List First snow As usual I was seated by the broken window, separated from the other children. As usual I was not allowed to speak. As usual I was bored. The teacher spoke in a strong Russian accent, his Hungarian was not good. He did not really talk to the other children but rather shouted, grunted at them and if their reactions were slow, because they could not understand him, he would hit them. I was lucky because if I kept quiet he ignored me. It was about mid-morning, I felt the cool breeze cast through the broken window pane, it was fresh, clean, refreshing. A stirring outside caused me to look out the window and oh, oh what a delight! I looked around at the class, they were looking at their books and the teacher was sitting at his desk, picking his nose. If I spoke the teacher would beat me with that ruler, I looked out of the window, again, oh how magnificent, what a wonder! One or two of the other children were staring blankly out of the window. The teacher noticed one, he stood up, walked over to him and struck him over the head, "Pay attention to your book!" he grunted. The other children immediately looked down at their books. The teacher lumbered back to his desk and slumped into his chair. I looked out of the window again, I could not contain myself any longer. I stood up and headed for the classroom door. The teacher noticed and bellowed at me, "Where do you think you are going? Go back to you place! Stop! Sit down!!" he was getting up, so I ran to the door, "No I cant" I called back, as I opened the door, and slipped through the gap, the teacher's ruler crashed against the door frame, he had missed me. The thought did cross my mind that I would pay for this later. I ran down the corridor, through the vestibule and out into the open, swept by cold clean air. I began to run home, tripping sometimes as my bare feet hit the hard frozen earth. I ran and I ran, the air rushed past my ears, my hair flowed out behind me and yes I ran, ran as fast as I could. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead I saw someone else running in the same direction. Oh, how wonderful, it was little Zoli, my brother. What a delight I felt to see Zoli running so. He must be feeling like me. I suddenly broke my gallop to let Zoli get to our home first, yes, let Zoli have this pleasure, oh yes, Zoli must be the first to say... As we approached our little house, I almost caught up with Zoli. He sped into our home and, of course, ran straight in to the kitchen. There was our mother, preparing a large cauldron of soup, it all smelt so wonderful. "Mamma!" cried Zoli, "It's snowing!". My mother turned, a broad grin came to her face and she embraced Zoli, my mother saw me and I could see the elation in her face as I approached her, with no more to say, and embraced my mother and little Zoli. We stumbled back to the door, tripping over one another, giggling and laughing like a curious human bundle and then we stood together, still holding one another, gazing as the snow swirled in ever more rapid circles and then changed into a heavy silent flow building up a thick white carpet on the ground. Oh what happiness, what made all of this happen so? why is not every day like this? I looked at my mother, she was smiling, she was holding us tightly, we were all happy, very happy. The snow got even heavier and after, I don't know how long, my bare feet began to get cold and I was shivering in my thin dress. Zoli, I noticed, was also shivering. My mother pulled us back, pushed the door closed, turned and kissed us. "I have some hot soup for you both." she said. The next day, when I got to school my teacher beat me on my hands with that heavy ruler, in front of the whole class. He shouted at me that I was a bad Gypsy, that I was very lucky to even be in that class with those other nice children, that in school I had to learn to sit still at my desk, that I was to be quiet and that I was not to ask any questions. He was still shouting at me as I returned to my desk by the window. The other children did not dare look up. I sat down. A refreshing cool clean air flowed in through the broken pane. I could feel it flow along my right shoulder and across my face, like a caress, as if calling me. I turned, outside, on the still fresh snow, a black bird was scurrying around trying to find food and the rising sun was casting strange multicolored patterns across the snow's surface. The sky was clear now, an intense blue, not a cloud in the sky, I found myself smiling, wondering, how did all of this happen like this, if it was someone, then they could not have learned these things at a school like mine... Adapted from testimony from a Romungro woman from Eastern Hungary.