Arts Lab 6.0: Rahaf Ghanam - Month 3

This month was full of events and activities. 

We started our first day with the Exhibition at Moldova School, as I mentioned at the end of my previous report. 

I finally had the chance to meet the wonderful and talented students of this school. We began by organizing our artworks, each of us gave a speech, and I performed my songs for the JEMOM Museum. The students performed wonderful songs. I was deeply touched by seeing these students and how creative they are despite the challenges they might face due to their differences and special abilities and conditions. I felt a lot of love and hope, I realized that nothing can stand in the way of art, creativity, and achievement. This filled me with a sense of determination and perseverance, no matter the circumstances. We had a wonderful time, and I truly hope to collaborate artistically with the professional and amazing music teacher there and with the musicians from this school in general.

As I had mentioned earlier, we started the artistic residencies for the MAF Museum, where I’m and my friend Yasser facilitated the music and theater workshop with about ten participants of different ages. We spent a week full of different moments, which varied between the difficult times represented by language barriers or difficulty in dealing with the beneficiaries due to their sensitive age group, and capturing their attention sometimes. On the other hand, there were great times filled with laughter, fun, dancing, creativity, making new friends, and gaining more experience in dealing with children and teenagers. This made me discover more about myself and find more effective ways to capture the attention of this group or even ways to convey information or teach something new.

We also attended a festival at the same school, as I had mentioned our intention to attend earlier. We enjoyed the artistic performances of the students, introduced ourselves, and I sang with the students the song “Made in Romania.” A musician accompanied me by playing the guitar, and we all danced together; it was one of the most beautiful moments.

After the workshops, we visited the Ruginoasa Cultural Centre, where we learned more about Romanian folklore. A kind lady  “the facilitator of the museum “ explained the folklore rituals in the Moldova region in general and in Ruginoasa in particular. It was fascinating. We then visited the Alexandru I. Cuza palace and learned more about this hero. We saw a hologram of him, which was an exciting experience and the first time I had such an experience. We toured the palace rooms, took a group photo, played in the snow a bit, and then returned home after a busy and beautiful day.

One of the highlights of this month was the Egyptian night by our Egyptian friends, Salma, Yasser, and Ziad, who facilitated a very special night. Especially for me, since I lived in Egypt for two years before coming to Romania and developed a special connection with this great country. We started the night by enjoying the most delicious Egyptian popular dishes, such as koshari, and others. They showed us some videos about the history and customs of Egypt, and I felt nostalgic for my days there. We played Kahoot, and our team won with pride. I performed the iconic classical song “Layali El Ons in Vienna,” a song in the Egyptian dialect by the Syrian artist Asmahan, who was one of the prominent stars of the old era in Egypt. I replaced “Vienna” with “Romania” and presented a belly dancing segment. My little friend and look-alike, Diana, from the artistic residencies in the school, joined me. I had taught her belly dancing at the school, and she impressed me during our performance. I felt overwhelming happiness from the audience’s interaction with us. At the end of the night, we danced to various Egyptian songs and had many guests, mostly from the high school, where we all danced, went crazy, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. It was an unforgettable night.

We also conducted the MAF Caravan in Iași at Asociația Justiție pentru Minori, where I also collaborated with Yasser in facilitating the music and theater workshop.  Through “Cine iubește și lasă” song performance.

The participants were initially very shy, but over time and with some techniques and training from Yasser, they became more expressive and braver. I learned a lot from Yasser about training participants to be more open and flexible, and I decided to focus on this aspect alongside academic singing training, given its necessity in facilitating their singing performance and providing them with the necessary self-confidence.

At the end of the workshops, the students performed the song, and the organizers offered us an open buffet with the most delicious Romanian dishes and desserts. I always feel grateful for this people’s hospitality and warmth. It is truly a beautiful feeling and has a positive impact.

At the end of the week, we had the Hungarian night with our friend Luca, who prepared many Hungarian dishes for us, organized a Kahoot game to introduce us to her country more, and showed us very funny videos. We had a hilarious dance, laughed, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. I decided with some friends to spend the night in Iași to celebrate together, and we had a very enjoyable time.

Unfortunately, I went through tough moments due to rapid developments in the security situation in my country, Syria, culminating in the fall of the Syrian regime after a 14-year revolution and war. My country finally gained freedom, and this was news worth celebrating and mentioning at our first exhibition for the MAF Museum the next day. I had prepared two songs for it, the first was a new rock-style version of the song “Cine iubește și lasă,” with a new musical arrangement on the melody using a background music cover by Urma band version for the same song, and the second song was the Moldovan folklore song, “Sarba de la Iași,” where I asked the audience to form a circle for folk dancing. I was amazed by the audience’s interaction and the folk screams they made during my performance. We enjoyed the artworks by my other colleagues, the entertaining show by Yasser, and had many guests. It was a beautiful and different exhibition, and we will have several more exhibitions for this museum in the upcoming days. I hope we have more fun, enjoyment, and success.

This week, we also attended a Christmas activity at the House of Culture in Târgu Frumos, where we interacted with the little children. I sang with the children, and we had a great time.

At home, we tried a new experience during one of our meetings by creating songs using random words we used to express and describe our complete experience so far. We did many funny and amusing songs.

At the end of this week, we had the Christmas market experience, which we prepared for by making handmade crafts. We roamed the streets of Târgu Frumos, trying to sell what we had made. Unfortunately, the streets were almost empty due to the holiday and the cold, and we wew already kida sick. However, we had the opportunity to try and attempt, and we didn’t give up. We will display our products in various places and events and we learned that we need to find different ways to promote ourselves and attract people’s attention and interaction with us. For now, we need to rest and recover.💓

See you in my next report.

Report written by Rahaf Ghanam, she's from Syria and she's one of the 14 volunteers participating in Arts Lab 6.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps program.