Not a moment of boredom

“Challenges often make us realise that we have more courage than we think and that one person CAN make a difference in the world,” is a quote by Chelle Thompson, Editor of Inspiration Line.

I experienced this difference more than ten years ago, back in 2000, when I joined the team preparing to publish Watani International.

At the time I thought I was not sufficiently qualified for a journalist-translator with Watani International, some friends even warned me I was swimming against the tide.

I was afraid of disappointing the people who trusted I could do it: the editor-in-chief Youssef Sidhom and the managing editor Samia Sidhom. Ms Samia encouraged me a lot. Actually, she encouraged everyone of us—we were five. I did all my best to live up to my responsibility. Looking backwards, I feel that I succeeded not because of my single-handed courage, but because I was given so much encouragement.

Throughout the past ten years, I never felt bored. I work on the translations around three days a week, but then each assignment is so different, that there is something interesting every week. Together with my colleagues, who have by now become my staunch friends, we exchange experience, information, the knowledge of specific words or terms, and—more warmly—so much humour.

Going to Watani has become like going on a pleasant outing with friends or family. Even after I had a baby daughter I was happy to go back to work three months after she was born; it felt like going home to a second family. Yet both Ms Samia and Mr Youssef deeply appreciate the family and social obligations of everyone at Watani, especially us young mothers, to the point of actually asking me to stay at home to take care of my daughter if she falls sick.

I can safely say that the ten years I spent with Watani International have significantly contributed to shaping my character, language, and for sure my confidence in myself.