Turing Scheme & Arts Lab 5.0: Raphaelle Kent, UK - Month 3

In November was the final event at Petru Rareș school where we gave the students certificates and got to revisit the art works we made together. It was the harvest festival so we got involved in traditional dances and there was autumnal decoration and food. 

The most memorable moment of this month was definitely the week we spent in Moldova on the caravan. This was a very intense week where on the one hand we got to explore many new interesting places, meet new people and grow our experience, whilst on the other hand this week was very full on and tiring and it’s safe to say we came back to ACT house very glad to have a few days off!

In Moldova there were many moments where I loved being with the girls as we had fun together traveling around in the van and the situations we found ourselves in (good or bad) for sure brought us all closer together. For me, one of the most beautiful moments was visiting a monastery in a cave at nightfall. The cave was lit by candles and a single monk was reciting prayers. I really loved the atmosphere there and the nearby village where we did the workshop that day was beautiful. Set in the hills and the decoration inside all wooden and traditional. We were offered lovely food whilst in Moldova by host villages including black pizza, an apple and walnut tart, and ciorba. We did so many things during the Moldova caravan that I cannot talk about them all so I will include pictures to show the journey. 

I spent December half in Romania, half back in my home country. During the lead up to Christmas we had the Cucuteni exhibition in our house. I was proud of the outcome of my work and also of the work of my colleagues in the house. 4 of us collaborated to create a music video which was really fun to film, we went to the Cucuteni museum and the woods of Cucuteni village on a misty morning, it was cold but very liberating to dance around the woods with Aliye! I feel we arranged the space in a beautiful way for the exhibition, despite being tight on time, and the experiential activities of the others were very interesting. 

Before leaving for the UK Muhammed and I began our music residency in Moldova high school with visually impaired children. The first couple of days were enjoyable and I loved getting to know the students and their music teacher Sebi. We played instruments and sang together which broke the ice and I felt we could communicate through the music. I had the chance to show a few students some basics on the violin and this was also a great experience for me. We also went on a Caravan with the Cucuteni workshops, for this Muhammed and I collaborated again with a music workshop where the students listened to the violin piece I had composed and they wrote song lyrics. This caravan was my favorite so far as the children really engaged and I hadn’t tried a song writing workshop before.

Raphaelle Kent is from United Kingdom and she is participating in a six-month volunteering program within Arts Lab 5.0, a project co-funded by the Turing Scheme UK and by European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.