Barack Obama's win seems to have everyone smiling these days.  I've been grinning from ear to ear and want to thank all of my friends who have sent me their best wishes now that Obama is President Elect.

I have to say it was pretty exciting.  It's easy to feel out of touch living in a country where you don't know the language or the local food but early Wednesday morning sitting in the relative dark in my bathrobe I found myself gmail chatting with friends in the states and listening live to both John McCain and Barack Obama give their speeches. The election brought me together with both family and friends in a way that I didn't expect.

It was then that I realized that my little sister and old roommates was watching this speeches in Washington DC where it was slightly after 11pm while my parents are watching from their living room in Walla Walla, WA where it was something like 8pm and here I was listening to the same speeches only for me it was Wednesday morning at 6 am. We had this shared obsession: the US Elections and were able to communicate in real time about what was happening and what we thought. <em>What a small world it actually is</em>.

I had to teach on Wednesday at 8am.  My students cheered for me--well actually they were cheering for Barack Obama but as the American in the room, I was the stand in for this young black man who will be our next president.  Pretty funny if you think about it.<!--more-->

I had decided to talk about the US elections no matter what but I knew that to keep the students engaged we would then move on to talk about political issues that the students are concerned about.  I wasn't too surprised by the issues that students discussed: corruption, low salaries, dismal pensions, pollution, trash, health care (access to doctors, medicine is too expensive, and the poor state of hospitals), and the economy.  The political issues that these 13 and 14 year old Bulgarians brainstormed actually aren't that different than the United States.

What stood out to me was the list that two of articulate boys in one of my classes made:
<ol>
	<li>Sexism</li>
	<li>Homosexuals</li>
	<li>Health care</li>
	<li>Low Salaries</li>
	<li>Environment</li>
</ol>
The one that stood out to me was #2) Homosexuals.  I asked them about it and was told that Bulgaria has a problem with homosexuals.  I asked them why they thought that.  Then we talked about whether or not someone is a homosexual or if someone can choose to be homosexual.  They told me maybe some people are homosexuals but that they think others choose to become homosexuals because they want attention.  They referenced a gay pride parade that was held last spring in Sofia.  I asked them if gay people deserved the same kind of rights and protection as straight people and they said yes.

It was a strange moment.  Their list seemed to be telling me that homosexuality was a problem but in our conversation they seemed to be telling me that homosexuals deserve to be treated like everyone else.  I asked them if they knew anyone who was gay--one boy said no and the other said my mom works with a man who is a homosexual.  I don't really know him but I know that he goes to work, does what he is supposed to and doesn't make a big deal out of being a homosexual. <em>Well, that's a step.</em>

Then when we we came together to brainstorm as a whole group, the other big issue emerged--minority groups in Bulgaria specifically the Roma (but my students always call them the Gypsies) and the Turks.  The hostility that students express towards these minority groups is shocking.  One of my students said today that we should "kill them all." Another said, "you're being racist" and I stood silent in front of the class for a long time. I don't how else to deal with this kind of hate, anger and hostility. So I stood there and looked at them.

These are my babies.  They are 14 and 15 years old and the youngest kids at the high school.  For the most part, they are still slight of frame and have soft, round child-like faces.  But the things they were saying were not so child-like as they expressed a mix of racism and naivete that surprised and shocked me. In this moment, I realized, I am not trained to handle situations like this--what I know is literature and writing.

So the question I asked: If you really think this is a problem, then what can be done about the Roma situation?  My students said: Nothing can be done.  These people are not Bulgarians.   So we talked about who is a Bulgarian.  The answer I got: if you are white and born in Bulgaria then you are a Bulgarian.  <em>Wow. </em>

Now here's the thing, I don't think that all of my students believe this.  I am not even sure that my students are communicating all of this as they would in Bulgarian--English is after all their second language--so I don't want to be hasty or jump to conclusions it's just hard to know what to say to these students.  It's especially hard to know what to say when you've made a student translate a joke into English that he's just told in Bulgarian and had the entire classroom laughing and it turns out that he's said "Barack Obama is the first gypsy in the white house."  Yes he was embarrassed to tell me the joke but he wasn't embarrassed to tell the entire class the joke in Bulgarian.

So what's a girl to believe? Well I thought when they were cheering and clapping and happy about the Obama win they were also accepting the fact that he's an African American but I think now that they not color blind rather they are happy for someone who is not George W. Bush.  Okay me too. I don't think I could have handled another four years of the same kinds of Bush policies.

But, now what? Well now I am left to think about this question: How do I help my students talk about the Roma and the Turks in ways that both helpful and productive?