Arts Lab 6.0: Yasser Abbas - Month 3 | The fastest month since I arrived

When the project deadline approaches, time speeds up and I ask myself, is it because it is a good time that is why it passes quickly? Questions remain about what is next, but from my plans for the next month, I do not think about things too much because thinking is exhausting and spoils many enjoyable moments.

This month started with a workshop on singing and acting with Rahaf in high school. Here I faced some difficulties at the beginning in dealing with teenagers and finding ways to communicate with them in a friendly way until some of them have now become my friends. During this workshop we worked on singing a Romanian folk song.

Then each of us started preparing to make the box for Secret Santa. This was a great activity to know each other's thinking through the questions that Mihaela asked.

Then we went to Ruginoasa, and saw the snow. At that moment, I was completely a child. I started playing, screaming, and enjoying this moment as much as possible. On that day, we also visited a museum and a palace related to Romanian folklore. It was a very enjoyable day.

Then organizing the Egyptian night, this was one of the things that Ziad, Salma and I were thinking about and what we could offer on this night, but it was a wonderful night that made me feel nostalgic for my homeland, so I was responsible for the music throughout this day, and Salma and Ziad provided very delicious food, and it was a wonderful night, according to those who attended it.

I attended a theatrical performance in a theatre in Iasi. It was a wonderful experience and made me remember when I used to act on stage in Egypt. It also made me imagine the day I would act on this theater if this was my destiny. Who knows?

Then I prepared to do a personal artistic project about folklore, which was a show about the legend of Dragobete, the guardian of love in Romania. I acted it at the exhibition, as I always like to do this, and it was admired by the audience.

Finally, playing the role of Grinch and Santa with the children on the stage of the House of Culture. Many children liked the matter and they may join me in the theater. It was an enjoyable moment for the children, and I think this is the most important part of our work.

This is about what happened regarding the feeling, it is always mixed between different feelings, which are pride, happiness, pressure, exhaustion, sadness, and continuous attempts to make me satisfied with myself, so this is not an easy thing at all, and I always work on it to improve my personality as much as possible... So here I learn something new about myself every day and I try to develop it so that I can learn many things, such as learning the Romanian language. I must first learn how to think from a different perspective on everything so that I can reach the best possible result, and these are simply my plans for the new month, learning to develop things in my personality that make me open to learning more things in my journey here... I have already started this psychological work, and it may take time, but my attempts will never end.

Report by Yasser Abbas, a volunteer from Egypt and one of the 14 participants in Arts Lab 6.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps program.