On another note, I went to Campo Rom last night, which always leaves me with a lot to think about. Last night, instead of venturing through the camps with Andrea I went off with another doctor, Paolo, and a few other volunteers. I was the only female in the group of five and I felt very aware of my gender throughout the night. The Rom have a more patriarchal culture then what I am used to, not that the US is not patriarchal, but within the camp I am often approached by then men in a way very different then they approach the other male volunteers However that is not the only reason gender was so prominent last night. I had already begun to think of the role of gender amongst the Rom when last week we visited three women whom all claimed to be "incinta" (pregnant) when only one really was, because of the status that pregnancy and maternity bring. In addition I noticed that even when the health issues are affecting the women most of the communicating is done through the men because the women have had no education. I now also want to learn more about how prominent violence against women is in the Rom community because one woman, who we diagnosed with scabies, told us that the reason she smokes is because her husband drinks too much and she is always nervous because of this.
In addition to my observations of gender roles I was asked by a group of Rom about the United States. They told me they wanted to go there to find work and live because there were no poor people there like them, and they would be able to find jobs easily. I corrected them and informed them that poverty is also very prevalent in the United States and that we have a very high un-employment rate, however I was amazed that they had such an optimistic and incorrect impression of the US. This was also asked to me by the only family I have seen that generate electricity just to have a television, thus I think this may have something to do with their ideas. What was interesting on top of the Rom's impression was the fact that one of the other older male volunteers interjected into the conversation that the Rom also wouldn't want to live in the US because we don't have a health care system like Italy. This is true, and Italy has a great health care system, yet I realized that although there does need to be a lost of reform within our country one of the reasons we have so many problems is because the US is huge and full of so many different kinds of people with different ideas. Therefore no solution is every found without a counter argument and there are many different lifestyles and cultures that need to be considered in every decision. This is no excuse for some of our policies, but I have noticed that American seems to have a fire in them that I haven't seen in Italy as much because we have had more to fight for and against.
