Pogrom. 

noun

1.    an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe.

With the covid-19 spreading faster than ever and killing people without any distinction. It got me staying into my house with my roommate David because of the lockdown. It’s a shame that I can’t really say a lot about my day… Today, I made a banana and dark chocolate cake. It was the best moment of my day. 

But it got me thinking. 

What was the last time I was confined in a place and made the most out of it? 

It was at an airport 2 years ago. I was going to Bulgaria for the holidays. Obviously, I had taken the cheapest ticket. And, had a 13hours long commute in an airport in Nessebar a small Bulgarian city near the beach. 

I didn’t took me long to find a way to drink free alcohol. I asked to test bottles at the duty-free and after a few attempts. Otherwise, it was pretty calm, not a lot of people. I got bored of the Irish whisky and the store was closing anyway. I try to find a new activity. 

I went to my flight gate. Nobody, expect a weird guy with a hat and a huge suitcase. I heard he was speaking French so I engage a friendly conversation. I told him what I’ve been doing.

He pulled out from his bag a bottle of vodka, we started drinking. We started chatting. He was a gipsy going to one of the community in Sofia. He asked me about my origins and try to guess it. He was really wrong but it was funny. I told him that my mother is Jewish and my father is Afro American. 

He laughed and began telling me a gipsy story from his childhood. 

« It was during the period where pogrom where happening in Russia, in a small village near St. Petersburg. The story takes place in this village just after a pogrom. Only Jewish left a life from this massacre two Rabbi. » 

We went outside. He continued his story.

« All of their possession had been taken from them. Burnt or stolen. The only things that they found to sell was some Torah. That they found, in the basement underneath the ashes of the synagogue. » 

« They were posted at the entry of the village and started to sell the paper of the Torah’s. Unfortunately for them, nobody was buying. At some point, one of the rabbis started selling the life of the other rabbi. People started to get annoyed by those guys yelling all day long and started talking about taking their life.

« Luckily, a gipsy prince was passing on his horse and saw the whole scene. He felt the injustice the rabbis were put in. He blew in his magical whistle. In an instant, a horde of insane gipsy attacked the village. In less than 5 minutes, the whole village was destroyed and every living being was killed, except the two rabbi.” 

Then he looked at me with smiled and said: “you see we are already friends”. 

Ps: make a friend.