04.05- 11.05.2007
Despite that the Roma campsite is nearby the city centre most Novi Sad inhabitants do not know about it. They have heard that some “gypsies are living over there”- but only a few knew how to indicate the exact place where the camp is situated.
Still, none of them have ever been there. This is why we decided to move our workshops there and invite all our non-Roma teenagers to come and be a part.
Not all of the non-Roma teenagers came to our first meeting. Some were scared of going there and others were intimidated by their parents. However, a core group of 6 pupils left the “black house” on Thursday morning.
Their first impression with our friends at the Roma campsite from people we already knew well was overwhelming. Pupils from Novi Sad had for the first time in their lives saw what life was really like for their Roma neighbours who are situated just a couple of kilometres away from the very city centre, yet without electricity, sewage, running water and basic sanitary needs. Dirt was everywhere while Ivana, Juliana, Dino, Jelena, Igor were standing there in the middle of Roma campsite, totally shocked, speechless.
Our intention was to continue on with our workshops, but at this point it was impossible. They all needed some time to get used to the new surrounding. After some time, they started to walk around meeting the people, parents and families of their Roma friends. Step-by-step our first day in Bangladesh has turned into a very warm occasion.
They all wanted to come back again with other non-Roma teenagers. These newcomers also expressed the same desire. So for the entire next week we are transferring our activities to the Roma campsite. 
26.04.07
It started with Roma and non-Roma teenagers discussing about their different life conditions and school realities. It appears that most of the Roma teenagers had never been to Petrovaradin, (a neighbouring castle that overlooks Novi Sad from above the Danube) which is truly a symbol of Novi Sad.
Therefore, we decided to substitute one day of our usual workshop activities with another plan. We hired a city tour guide and organized a visit to their own town and it’s historical places.
Our walking tour included the streets of Novi Sad and the fortress of Petrovaradin with an emphasis of it’s historical background. There we discovered that our Roma pupils had never seen the main catholic cathedral or the orthodox church. They also had never heard some important historical facts that shaped today’s structure of their hometown. They did not realize that as a Roma people they were part of town life over the ages. Our participants from NS Gymnasium Isidora Sekulic were actually their first ever non-Roma acquaintances.
We stopped our tour on the top of the Petrovaradin fortress and sat in the grass to talk about the causes of exclusion and their acceptance of the disadvantages that led them to self-exclusion.
On our way back to the workshops, we gave them a simple test. We have asked our Roma participants to bring us back to the “black house”- a space where we hold our workshops, a place we meet every day. Nobody knew how to get us back there!
Lighthouse Centre for Culture and Education is proud to announce the start of the project Culture_on_Tour. On Monday 23rd of April 2007 groups of Roma and non-Roma young adults have started their activities together in the brand new space offered by the KUDA.org.
During these first few days a group of 40 young adults, from the city of Novi Sad, have been participating in our four workshops. These young people, part of whom are coming from the poor Roma village and part from the Novi Sad secondary school, are meeting each other for the first time. It is here, in our project, that they have the opportunity to talk to each other, to listen to each other and to learn something together.
