The portrait of a good girl

Dressed in a purple velvet tracksuit, which covers her voluptuous shapes and contrasts perfectly with
her skin color, wearing gold accessories, Ramona Varga or, more simply, Mona, as her acquaintances
caress her, accepts to be our guide in the community. of Roma from Bălnaca village, Șuncuiuș
commune. Although she has not lived here since she went to college, Mona is welcomed with open
arms at every visit. His duties require him to come more and more often here.

Ramona was born in Bălnaca, in the gypsy tent on the banks of the Crisul Repede river thirty-four
years ago. He has three older brothers who, as soon as they grew up, emigrated to Germany to work.
She chose to stay to finish school, and even graduated in 2008 from the Faculty of Environmental
Protection at the University of Oradea.

Mona's childhood was not without worries, although her father was a bully. Her mother was a
housewife and sometimes had to work during the day digging for little money. The financial problems
determined her, she says, to finish school and go to college.

"I did not do the worst, but it was not good. There were days when we had nothing to eat, but we
were all at the table. Our mother made us pie directly on the stove or homemade pita. That reminds
me of my childhood, ”she recalls.

She felt discriminated against both at school and in college, but that motivated her not to give up.
Ramona told us about a time when a colleague from college lost her money and everyone blamed
her. "There was a big scandal then," she says. Everyone blamed her because it was easier to blame a
gypsy with dirty hair. In the end, it turned out that she was not the perpetrator, and Mona still saw
her way and painted herself red, because that's how she felt then.

After college, he returned home and got a job at the town hall in Șuncuiuș. He works at the
environmental office and is also a kind of spokesperson for the Roma community in Bălnaca. They
take care of their problems, make sure they live in a clean environment and that they come to work
to receive social assistance. "I have been working for the mayor's office for more than 7 years. The
town hall helped me, I received a house, a salary so I could live normally. Now I am satisfied, I don't
know what I could want more ", says Ramona. She has also had a driver's license and has been
driving her own car for a year. He received a house in a social block in the locality where he has good
conditions.

The mayor of the locality says that he is satisfied with her activity at the mayor's office and that she is
involved in the affairs of the local community, regardless of the ethnicity of the inhabitants. She also
has one major flaw - smoking. "She is doing a good job and we are happy with her. She integrated
well even now, after so long we would not see ourselves succeeding without her help. It's worse with
breaks, but you know how to say: long and frequent breaks, the key to great success! ” says Doru
Gabor, the mayor of the locality.

Because she knows the gypsy language and because many Roma children study at the school in
Bălnaca, Ramona is also a Romanian language teacher. He also likes this job, and every Monday and
Thursday he plays, more or less, the role of teacher. She also participates in gypsy-language Olympics
with her students and strives to help them rank first. "You realize that not many schools have this in
the program ... we have and I really want them to learn our literary language, if I may call it that.

As we walked down their paved street, a gentleman asked her something in their language. She
answers exactly. He told us he asked her what Marcel was doing, and she swore. Five years ago,
when she was visiting someone who was imprisoned in the Oradea penitentiary, Mona met Marcel
who was imprisoned for petty thefts from citizens' cars. He had at least two years in prison to spare,
but too much love didn't stop them, so they got married. "I got married in prison," she recalls with a
laugh. "It simply came to our notice then. The civil status officer came, I brought my brother, who
had come home then, as a witness, my mother, because my father had already died, and we got
married ”. The years passed and Marcel was released from prison, and it didn't take Mona long to
realize that the material benefits were greater than his love for her, so they divorced after four years
of marriage.

She lightly lights a cigarette and introduces us to people who look at us like strangers. They explain
our peaceful intentions in their language, and those present begin to smile. "Are you putting us in the
newspaper ?! , asks a gentleman in astonishment, while another laughs profusely at the account of
the five-year-old who did not allow himself to be photographed by us. After introducing us all,
Ramona invites us to a natural beetroot juice made by her uncle. I couldn't turn down the offer so I
followed it. In her uncle's modest house, two children, a six-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy,
are constantly playing with a gentle look on a large bed that occupies the entire room. It was Andrei,
their brother for almost a year. Ramona takes a candy out of her pocket for each and the two jump
into her arms. She then sits on a chair, and around her the whole Mitrea family. I sit like that in the
taifas for more than an hour, she smoking incessantly like a bohemian woman, and we enjoying the
beet juice more than the children with their candies.

Suddenly, her peace is disturbed by a phone call announcing that she must be at work. He doesn't
think long. "I'm leaving because I'm busy," she tells them in a hurry. "He called me to go to the field
because he is undergoing an environmental inspection and he must be clean in the village. No bottles
and papers. I was there yesterday and it was good, now I check once again that it is good ". He greets
those who have remained on the street full of life and announces that he will come again this week.
Before getting into her car parked at the entrance to their settlement, she sees a plastic pet and does
not hesitate to rebuke her gypsies from afar: "How do you want the world to respect you if you do
not respect yourself?" Mona asks.