U Daruvaru već gotovo godinu dana živi amerikanac Robert Black. Ovdje je boravio već i prije i održavao ljetne kampove engleskog jezika, dopalo mu se pa je odlučio ostati duže i pomoći pastoru baptističke crkve u njegovim pastorskim dužnostima. Nastavnica Ivana Grabar pozvala je Boba, kako ga svi uz njegovo dopuštenje zovemo, da održi nekoliko sati u našoj školi. Djeci se svidjelo tako da je Bob održao po jedan školski sat u većini razreda naše škole. Pričao nam je o životu u Americi, o svom odrastanju i rasizmu koji je bio vrlo raširena pojava u vrijeme njegova djetinjstva. Učenici 7.c razreda Bartol Budinjaš i Neven Vukašinović porazvarali s s Bobom. Ovo je njihova priča i intervju.
Draženka Kešić, prof.
Mr. Black is not racist, his son in law is black. When his son in law first came to his house and asked if he can take his daughter out, Mr. Black had to think about it. At first he didn’t want his daughter to go out with an African American because he knew that she would have problems at school because of that. But after all, he is Presbyterian, and he says that we all need to care about each other and love each other. Now, his daughter and her husband are married for 13 years, and they have mixed children. Bob says that his son in law is one of the finest people he had ever met. He thinks that he needs to pray for racist people and that the only cure for that is a relationship with God. Bob is a very big believer in God and Jesus, he says that his father in law was racist and that he didn’t want to see Bob’s daughter for a very long time after she married an African American guy, but now they go fishing together and he says that something changed in his heart. Bob thinks that racism is something people can overcome.
Bob lived in Washington for 25 years and then he joined the army and moved to Oklahoma. Germany was his first assignment as a soldier. Bob says that it was hard to live in Washington for 25 years because he was a bad student and he didn’t go to college. He lived in Oklahoma for 9 years, while he was in the army. Bob enjoyed the army, as a young man he didn’t have much discipline and he got in to trouble a lot, so when he joined the army they did not allow him to behave like that, the army changed him, it made him a grown up. After the army he got all As at school. Bob quit the army in 1997. We asked him what does he think about the relationship between Russia and the USA, he replied that he thought it was calming down and now when Donald Tramp is the president he is concerned again. On the scale of the best USA presidents Bob placed Obama somewhere in the middle.
Bartol & Neven: Can you tell us your full name?
Bob: Sure, my name is Robert Harry Black from Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I was born in Washington D.C. in October 1955.
Bartol & Neven: Can you tell us, once more, what do you think about Donald Trump as a president?
Bob: Well, I don’t know if we have enough time (chuckles), I think we aren’t sure what the future brings. For the most presidents that we had before we could always kind of predicted what they wanted to do because they always kind of had the same ideas all the time and they were talking about the same things all the time, but Trump comes back and forth with his ideas. He changes his mind all the time, like last week… bombing in Syria… just a week before he said he didn’t care what the leader of Syria did, he wasn’t really worried about him, but the next week the leader of Syria did something and we bombed them, so it’s very unpredictable what he will do next. So, it’s too soon to tell what we think of him as a president, him as a person… I probably wouldn’t have coffee with him, we don’t get along that good to have coffee, but I do respect him for being the president.
Bartol & Neven: What do you like here in Croatia?
Bob: Honesty of the people. People are very honest and I love the natural beauty of your country, I like the farm beauty of your country, maybe because it reminds me of my home, but people are just kind and decent.
Bartol & Neven: What is the difference between American people and Croatian people?
Bob: I think American people are more violent by nature, we grew up with guns, we saw violent shows on the TV 24h a day… When I was a kid you could not show a dead body on TV, now every show you see has at least one. When I was a kid you could not see blood, they had to grab themselves on the wound and fall down with no blood, now, the more blood, more people will watch, now we have shows about walking dead people… It is very different here, the people have been through enough, a real war, real death, real destruction and I don’t think they like it too much, and they want their kids to have peaceful life.
Bartol & Neven: What is your favourite food here in Croatia?
Bob: Great question, probably the pork, in America you don’t get the opportunity to eat fresh pork straight from the farm, in America food has to be approved, but here everything is more organic, things that look the same taste the different, but I think that pork is probably my favourite thing here.
Bartol Budinjaš i Neven Vukašinović, 7.c