Arts Lab 6.0: Savanephone Riand - Month 5

We began this month by the Rroma residencies in the Ion Creangă school. It was one of the most enjoyable workshops I’ve made through this project. I worked with Ziad and it was very nice to work together with our group of kids, they were really creative and listening to what we would say to them, and discuss about the issues they, or other, can have in their lives, in school, or else. We made a super-hero workshop and all of them were really into creating their own costumes and play themselves as the super hero they want to be. The most challenging part was when we had to bring the main subject on how to make their lives better, and what they can do to change what they don’t like in their lives. Most of them wanted to end wars, stop discrimination, or bullying. We talked about all of these subjects together, but one thing I noticed, is that even if they understand the concept of discrimination or bullying, they do it themselves to other, without even noticing it, especially towards the Rroma community. 

It’s hard to make children change their opinions as they are children, even if they are smart, they stay children and they are used to the education people gave to them, and used to behave as the majority behaves. There is nothing to do to make discrimination disappear instantly in their heads, but I hope all the little things we did with them, create, talk, and more, will make them realize later when they’ll grow up, what was wrong with the behaviors of most of the kids towards the Rroma community in their school. But it’s the same as bullying, racism, and everything, nothing will disappear entirely, but we can make small things to make kids have seconds thoughts later in their lives. 

Therefore, we had great feedback from the parents, and the children, about our workshop. Ziad told me he met some of the parents of our kids, and one of them told him how her kid was so happy about this workshop, she even blamed her mother that she didn’t teach her enough English to speak with us. I enjoyed a lot to work with all of them, and making their accessories together, I felt as a kid with them too. 

Between this residency, we had the midterm in Bucharest. It was so nice to have finally a private room just for me, everything about the hotel was so great. The food was very good, I’ve never felt that much full all my life, I ate every day, every meal from the breakfast to the dinner even when I was not hungry. I felt rich for the first time of my life (even if it was for a week). The water was also great, with a lot of options, it was fresh, clear and very enjoyable to drink. The coffee machine had so many sorts of coffees and all of them were so nice. I’ve met a lot of volunteers from other projects and I enjoyed a lot getting to know them and their projects. I’ve realized through this, that we have such a unique project. I felt that every other project of volunteering here were the same, and I began to be even more grateful to our project (even if I already am). 

I also talked to people who have very bad coordinators, and I am sooooo thankful for our coordinator. I’ve became less depressed from this midterm because I had some fresh air, I think. I also preferred Bucharest to Iași, because I’ve felt like people don’t want to kill me there. I’ve also heard a lot of English people in the city, and the old town looks very similar to my city. People told me that they call Bucharest the small Paris but it doesn’t really look like it. I thought that because it is the capital of Romania, I will hate it, but I’ve felt better than Iași. 

Of course everything was not completely perfect in this midterm. The training was very exhausting, and I didn’t like it at all. I was in another group from the majority of my project, and even if everyone was so nice and I enjoyed getting to know them, I felt like I didn’t learn anything from the trainers. I was hoping it would be more interactive but it wasn’t, and I felt that the trainers didn’t care about us, they just put us in groups and made us talk. I’ve learned more things from the other volunteers than the training itself. At least, the volunteers were very nice and I’ve learned new energizers to do with the kids. 

Then we had our exhibition of the Rroma museum. I didn’t feel very proud of my artwork so I think I got a bit disappointed of me. But the exhibition itself was very great, more organized and people knew what to do with the artworks, thanks to the great work of Salma.

Now we already are on the last topic of the project, the Cucuteni museum. I got very motivated from the artworks of the former volunteers, and I want to like my artwork this time. I don’t have a lot of self-esteem and confidence in myself, and sometimes it’s a bit hard for me to be proud of what I can do. 

It’s already the last museum, so it means the project will end soon. I feel both relief and sad. I have a lot to do before this project ends and I am a bit stressed about everything. I really love this project and I am so grateful for everything it gave to me, and I will miss this productivity and creativity in my life, I’m sure. But at the same time, I feel so relief that I will finally walk Cappuccino any time I want without being scared of any human being I can cross in the streets. I feel relief that I can let her free in parks without any men beating her. And I feel sad to feel relief about this, because the men’s behavior here kind of ruined my experience in Romania, and I hate that, because I was much more motivated when I felt safe. 

I hope that by the time I will leave, I will get over everything that gives me negative emotions, and remember only the positive things that happened here. In the next months, I will try to put efforts on having more positive emotions, and get rid of everything I need to do before departure. I will try to do my best for any things we plan to do for this last period of Arts Lab.  

Report written by Savanephone Riand, she's from France 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.