SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

I have never thought about gypsies as intensely as I did that night. They are a group of free people who are, in a way, divided like the rest of us: rich and poor. It is a group of people that we often talk about these months, but most of the time in a negative sense. Many years ago, I was convinced that all gypsies were poor, but Mrs Ida Krampušek from Šmelc, a unit of the Tisje Home in Litija, surprised me with her story about gypsies and a cup of coffee.

This story literally sprang to life, bursting out of her memory. Like millet porridge that boils and boils over, she remembered the intoxicating smell of roasting coffee.

»Dear Mrs Ida, could you say it again, and a little more slowly so I can understand you?« I asked the already slightly demented lady like a child.

»I'll never forget that smell,« she said.

»I don't understand. We'll have to start from the beginning,« I told her.

»Yes. The gypsies knocked and came into the house; into the kitchen. They asked my mother if they could make coffee.«

»I don't understand. I can't believe that gypsies used to come right into the house,« I said.

»Why not? They are human - just like us - and the most important thing is the relationship you build with them. If they feel respect, they will respect you,« my mother used to say.

»You're saying the gypsies made their own coffee? Did they bring it with them?«

»Yes. We didn't have it then, we didn't even know it,« she said.

»Of course, we drank barley coffee then,« mentioned Ani and Silva.

»And acorn coffee. I remember that one,« added Mr Pavle.

»Interesting,« I said. »The gypsies drank real coffee, you drank barley and acorn coffee.«

»Yes, it was.«

»Did they roast the coffee beans or did they bring already ground coffee?«, I wondered.

»They must have roasted it because it smelled so good that Ida remembered the smell,« mused Mrs Marija.

Ida nodded and continued, »The coffee smelled so good that I remember the smell to this day, even though I was only a little girl at the time. I can still smell it.«

»And then they cooked it, didn't they?«

»Yes, then they cooked it and drank it.«

»Have they offered it to you?«

»Everything they had, they shared with us. If my dad had some heavy work to do, they liked to help him with it.«

»Until today, I thought that gypsies were so selfish and poor that they had to steal, but now I have learned that they were kind-hearted and had treats. They were not fearsome and not difficult to live with,« I marvelled. 

»Gypsies didn't steal from us and I have fond memories of them,« Ida concluded her story with sincerity.

Darinka Kobal, 8. 2. 2026