Arts Lab 4.0: Month I, Wasan Abusummaqah - Learning about myself

It’s been a month since I’ve began my volunteering journey here in Târgu Frumos, Romania. I have a lot of emotions and new feelings that I experienced here. Being in a new country with a new culture and new people is always challenging and overwhelming, especially if you are not used of getting out of your comfort zone, but for me it is something I love to do. Since I came here, I knew there is still good in life, no matter how much bad days and bad moments life shows you, there will always be better days. Romanian people know the meaning of hospitality and kindness, and they act upon it. There wasn’t a moment where I felt like an exile, in fact I always feel like I’m at home. 

Since I applied to be a part of this project, I had a lot of expectations and goals, other than it being about something I love and enjoy doing, which is art, I had in mind that I want to create new connections and new friendships, and it indeed happened! I never imagined that I could relate to people in such little period, and by that, I’m talking about the other international volunteers here with me, my flatmates, and my new friends. At first, we were five, then six, and now we are a big whole art team of eight different experiences, and talents, but of course, the same passion. 

The local volunteers here are amazing people too, they have a lot of good in them to make them spend a lot of their time working for their small villages. I like what we do, we learn, search, and get involved in subjects I never expected to learn and do projects and workshops about, it can be stressful sometimes to have to come up with an alternative way to showcase these topics so all people can enjoy learning about, but at the end, you know that you can manage to do it. 

What amazes me the most, is the number of traditions and folklore Romania has, it is absolutely fascinating to get to know about all that from the people and in the land of all these stories. The challenges that this project puts me in, I know that it’s giving me a lot of new work skills and enriching what I already have, for my future work or for my life in general, because as I said, being always in your comfort zone won’t ever take you places. 

My future aspirations for this project, are to continue growing, learning, and developing, mentally and working-wise. Furthermore, to have a lot more memories and moments where I learn something new about myself and about others is really important because till now, I know that the feelings, the experiences, and the memories, will always remain in my mind to tell. 

Wasan Abusummaqah is from Jordan and she is doing a long-term volunteering project in our organisation, under Arts Lab 4.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps @suntsolidar.eu, a programme of the European Union.