Gypsies

I'm grateful that God was a good babysitter and my 14 year old Criminal daughter came home from Eilat in one piece. She missed her date this afternoon with the probation officer. Oh well. She will have to suffer the consequences. On Thursday we're off to a group home for an interview with her. They're gonna ask her if she wants to be there. What the hell are they thinking. Sure! Every 14 year old wants to be in a place where you're automatically grounded for the first 2 weeks and they listen in to your phone conversations, etc. etc. I think she'll have a tough time getting in. I need another miracle - God. You listening?

Wonder why I feel a special affinity to Gypsies or the more politically correct Romany people? I haven't got a clue, other than we're both wandering people. Not everyone likes us - lots of people hate us, in fact. The idea of being a Gypsy - it's exotic isn't it? I'll tell about meeting Amoun, my authentic Gypsy friend who lives in the old city of Jerusalem, who refuses to adopt the more modern term "Romany". She says it's a cop out. People were ashamed of being Gypsies and thought it was a derogatory term. But she's not ashamed of it. I met her after reading an article about Gypsies in Jerusalem in the newspaper. I rang up the reporter who wrote it. She gave me her number straight away, which only goes to show you that things between people generally are safer than in other parts of the world. No reporter in the US would just hand out a number of someone. Who knows what crazies lurk. So we met at the Jerusalem YMCA - and had coffee together. After 5 minutes we decided we were long-lost sisters. Our dreams were the same, etc. She's being hounded by her mukhtar (religious leader) for being a female and having the audacity to head the Gypsy Foundation at the same time. He goes around lying about her to the community, which causes problems. So I feel bad that she has to live in that society, but she's a modern woman and is continuously fighting for her rights. It's probably just shameful for him to be one-upped by a female. Tsk tsk.