Life in Colonia Nuci

First of all, I want to be grateful to Alex, a rroma boy that study in the school where we did your activities. He was so really nice for us! He offered himself to show us his village. Also he tried to explain the way that the people live there, what they do, what are their costumers, everything!!

Well, Colonia Nuci  is situated on the bank of the Ramnicu Valcea and its inhabitants are mostly rroma, but we can find also Hungarian and Romanians. Someone told us that there are almost 350 rroma families and 200 romanian families.

 The people established here in the middle of the 1960’s when the local authorities built houses for the new workers settled once the chemical factory started. The temporary residences of the workers where occupied after by the nomadic gipsies, that found here a good place to stay and raise their children.

The main occupation of their villagers is production of materials made by wood and metal. As an example, the ladies craft spoons and axes using their skills in “cutting” the wood. Otherwise, men are well known for craftsmanship in metal works, for example they do the materials to distillated palinca.  Some of the villares are field-workers. They cultivate all kinds of seasonal vegetables and fruits: apples, tomatos, eggplants, potatoes… 

Village life is plain and simple. In the roads we saw some horses carriages bags. Part of the villagers use it as a way of transport.  Energetic puppies were playing each other. A flock of birds were chirping. Children with broken teeth smiled at us! They are playing together day by day, they never get tired! They are a lot! Usually a family has 3 or 4 children!

At the nearby supermarket we could see old people drinking beer and palinca. They were laughing and talking a lot, while old women smoked their short cigarette studs. Everyone seemed happy and satisfied with their life!

Typical house with own garden were built, raised about a foot or two off the ground. Some houses still unfinished like the orthodox church. The majority of the community are orthodox but some of them are also protestants.

After that week, I toke with me a noticeable experience, now I can understand better how the rroma people lives in Colonia Nuci! Thank you a lot to everyone to provide me these moments in my life!

By: Joao & Bilgi