So to start myself off, I thought I’d pick a funny story, to make myself laugh as I think back to Hajj.

On the 11th of Dhul Hijjah, Saqib and I set out from our tents in Mina to make Tawaf Ifadah and Sa’ee.  It took us almost one hour to walk out of Mina, one hour on a school bus to get to the Haram, one hour to find something to eat and pray dhuhr, and then finally start.  I was exhausted before tawaf had even started!

We were making our laps around on the top floor.  It was midday, the time between dhuhr and asr.  We had chosen the top floor because the first floor was packed “from the windows to the wall.”  There were people all the way from the edge of the Kaabah, out to the edges of the main floor.  We had originally tried to make tawaf on the second floor, because we’d be covered from the midday sun and plus because certain parts of the second floor are air conditioned.  But that was serving to be difficult because of all the pillars inside, bookshelves, wheel chairs, and taped off areas from construction.  With no other choice we went to the third floor.

I like the third floor of the Haram, especially at Fajr.  It’s a pretty peaceful place.  Most of the other floors are jam packed all the time, with a pretty chaotic crowd.  But there’s something about tawaf and prayer in the open air with sun and clouds above you that makes it more… peaceful.  It’s also generally more quiet up on the roof.  Typically the crowd consists of elderly Hajjis that are wheelchairs, so you’ll just hear the softest humm of their wheels, mixed with other people’s feet shuffling past you.  The only time it’s ever “loud” on the 3rd floor is when someone is in a wheelchair behind you and they want you to move out of the way.  They usually hiss at you…like a snake.  And you’re supposed to get the clue, and move to the side.  It’s kinda nice, because it doesn’t distract you too much as you make tawaf and are concentrating on making du’a and dhikr.

So imagine my surprise, while making tawaf on the third floor, I heard a Saudi guard yelling at everyone to “Shway-ya!”  I was focused on making du’a, and I looked up startled.  What was the big deal?  What was going on?  Why was everyone slowly shifting to the left?  Was there a wheelchair coming up behind us with someone really important?

Nope.  I looked around, trying to see what all the fuss was about, and then I saw it.

There, on the white marble floor, that was sparkling in the midday sun lay a giant pile of brown poop.  And a few feet in front of it, another pile of poop.  And yet another few feet in front of that, another pile of poop.  Someone had gone to the bathroom while making tawaf!

My initial reaction was to laugh, hysterically!  Who poohs in the HARAM!  Did the person make wudu?  Had anyone stepped in it?  Who discovered it there?

But then I felt bad, because I realized that it was probably an elderly man who was sick and couldn’t control his bowels.  I imagine he’d have felt pretty embarassed and a little uneasy as he dashed out of the haram to clean up and make wudu again.  Poor old chap.  Hope he’s okay.

Anyway, the Saudi gaurds took real good care of the whole situation.  On our next lap, they had taped off the area.  On the lap after that they were washing it away with some water and soap.   The lap after that they were drying off the area.  And then finally, the next time I came back to the area, they were gone and so was the poop.

The funniest part of all of this was the 2nd time Saqib and I came around past the whole area.  Some people were just seeing the poop for the first time.  We walked past an old uncle and what appeared to be his own son.  They were astonished and curious to see what had happened.  And the father very excitedly told his son, in a thick desi accent, “Look behta!  Somebody pooped!”

Saqib and I over heard them, and even though we already knew what had happened, we just wanted the uncle to say it again.  So we asked him what the whole problem was, and he announced it once more, “Somebody pooped!”

Consider my interaction with high school girls.  Now on a regular basis we have a very, “I’m the teacher, you’re the student” kind of relationship.  I give them homework, they do it, turn it in to me, I grade it and turn it back to them, we rinse and repeat if desired.  That’s our daily routine.  But every once in a while, I’m given the opportunity to hang out with the girls, away from the instruction, and be with them when they aren’t students, but just… girls.

Yesterday at work we had our Eid celebration which included the girls going bowling and then to Old Country Barf-fest.  When we first got to the bowling alley, I was pretty calm and chill, sitting with the other teachers and acting “my age.”  After a while I got kinda… I don’t want to say bored, but I guess fidgety.  So I hopped up off my seat to go mingle with my students.  I figured now was the perfect time to get to know them, outside of the classroom, away from all the homeworulerk, quizzes, tests and disciplining.

I was hovering around some 9th grade girls from Geometry and Algebra 1, and they offered to let me in on their next game.  So to be polite, I accepted their invitation.  At first it started off pretty slow.  They were acting nuts-o with one another, and I just watched, waited my turn, and missed my own friends from high school and they way we were.  But after awhile, I was bit by the teenage girl bugg.  They were all acting so goofy and cooky with one another, and then with me too, that it turned into one of those, “You wanna go nuts?! Let’s go nuts!” kinda moments.  One of them was pretending to be a sports commentator giving a play-by-play of our game, and getting reactions from everyone.  She was holding a pretend air mic.  I suggested she use a shoe   And she did!  She interviewed all of us about our feelings about the game.  Then later, one of them was bowling so slow, I called her a granny and we were all in an uproar of giggles.  It got worse because the granny-bowler squatted low to push the ball with a spin down the lane and slipped and fell on her back.  Her friends immediately grabbed their phones and cameras to capture the moment with some pictures.

After leaving the “juveniles” I went to hang out with my adult co-workers.  We decided to have our own game of bowling.  However, after being around high school girls all morning, we turned into a bunch of goofy girls ourselves.  We gave each other stupid names on the display TV including Runs with Small Feet and I don’t knw wat.  We were all taking jabs at each other for stinking up a storm on the lanes, but I was doing the worst by far.  I was bowling soo poorly, that after getting my 5th gutter ball in a row, in a fit of anger and embarassment, I did an Ayesha-collapse in the middle of the lane.  After that my friends were in a fit of giggles and chasing me with a camera phone to take pictures.   hehehehe.

It gets worse.  As I mentioned earlier we went to OCB and while we were eating together, my friends started bugging me and teasing me and taunting me with something really stupid.  I got so frustrated that I picked up a pepper shaker and dumped it over one of my friends’ brownies and cheesecake.  She flipped and got pretty jokingly upset with me.  We laughed it off and moved on.

About five minutes later I saw some high school students sitting in the booth behind us.  When one of the girls’ friends turned away from her food, the girls picked up a glass of Coke and poured it over their friend’s bowl!  I was so ticked that they were wasting food that way, that I felt the need to point it out to them.  However, after I finished, my own friend gave me this look like, “Yea right!” because I had JUST finished putting pepper all over her dessert!!

What’s my age again?  Am I a high school girl?  Or a 22 year old married teacher?

Long story short:  it is true what ibn Taymiyyah says.  If you hang out with a certain group of people (good or bad) you end up picking up their habits and acting like them.  In my case it’s a bit dangerous because I’m with teenage girls all day, and I’m 22 years old!  I shouldn’t act like I did about 7 years ago, I should act my age… right?

Has this ever happened to any of you?  Prolonged exposure to a certain group of people caused you to act like them?

After eating, the men went for tarawih, and I got to spend time with just the girls.  It was a lot of fun unwinding with Ammi, Ummy, Fahma, Hunno, my puhpo and Jenny.  We talked about purses, sales, cooking, and everything girly in between.  I felt so relaxed leaning against the coach in front of my puhpo, having her pinch my cheeks, and tell me I’m made of milai.

When the men came back, the rest of Saqib’s family left back home, but the two of us stayed behind with my family and did a half exchange of Eid gifts.  Basically, nothing was wrapped and things were being pulled out of giant Bed Bath and Beyond plastic bags   One person, who shall remain unnamed, came into the room ho-ho-hoing like it was Christmas time… haraam!  Just kidding, just kidding.

Saqib and my dad left for the masjid, and I stayed behind so I could snuggle with my ammi.  Man was I exhausted.  When I hit the pillow I was OUT.  My eyes opened again right in time for sahur.  I couldn’t stomach much, so I had some Cookie Crisp.  We prayed fajr and then Saqib and I headed back home.  On the drive back it just *felt* like it had been layltul Qadr.  It was nice to know I spent it in the company of my family

Saturday morning I pulled myself out of bed early and got started on cooking for dinner for that evening.  At night my parents and local relatives were coming over for iftar.  I didn’t make much, Ummy did most of the cooking.  I baked some penne rigate and a chocolate pie, which OMG, was soo good!  Yes, I just said OMG, but it was only to emphasize how much the pie makes me brain dead after I eat it!! It was so easy to make.

I took 6 hershey bars with almonds and melted them in a bowl over boiling water.  I add like a 1/4 cup of milk to make it alittle more fluid.  After it melted, I took it off the heat, and added enough Cool Whip to the chocolate to take it from being dark brown to light brown.  Once I added that, I realized I didn’t have enough filling to fill my pie crust, so I tried to be creative, pulled out a box of instant chocolate pudding, and mixed that up and added it to the melted chocolate.  Finally I had enough, poured it into the pie crust and stuck it into the fridge.  Later I took it out, sprinkled some cocoa on top and added some sliced almonds and then put it in the freezer.  It was sooo perfectly chocolatey.  Not too rich, not too light, not too thick either.  Sorry I don’t have a picture to show you!  There’s only a sliver left in the freezer now.

After everyone gorged themselves with food, we went to the masjid for tarawih, prayed our 8 rakaah and came back to exchange presents!  More Eid presents!! Yaaaaaay.  I was a little skeptical about the gift I got for Fahma, but she seemed to like it.  I gave her two CDs: 1) Zaid Shakir talking about what an Obama presidency will mean for us and 2) Zaid Shakir and Cornel West on the impact of Malcolm and Martin… or as I liked to say it, 2 blacks guys talking about 2 black guys.

Dr King:  I have a dream, that Zaid and Cornel will do a collabo about us.
X:  O, exciting! Let’s make that happen, by any means necessary!

Anyway!  At night all the girls slept in my room and we kicked out Saqib.  I felt kind bad… but only kinda.  It was a slumber party, afterall, and he has no business in a girls slumber party.  Am I right, or am I right?

Sunday morning the sky outside was so… everybody’s leaving today.  It kinda sucked.   My parents took off at 2:00, followed by ZZ.  I prayed zuhr and took Hunno back home, but not without first stopping at Target.  We both had to pick up one thing from the store, which meant that we passed through all sorts of departments first just to look.  I like shopping with Hunno, it’s fun.  Can’t explain it.  Just is.

Anyway, dropped her off, drove back home, and then spent the rest of the day just chilling, because I don’t have work this week.  That means: no papers to grade, no quizzes to make, no homework to check, nothing nothing nothing!  Just a lot of cooking and a lot more fun, insha’Allah.

*sigh* Man, that felt good to write.

Every period I had with my 4th graders they kept insisting we finish our lesson quickly and have free time to play.  Unfortunately for them the opportunity didn’t present itself until the end of the day during Science.  We finished early and I told them it was okay to go outside and enjoy the weather.

It is so much fun to watch them all playing together on the playground.  My three boys always go on the swings and compete to see who can jump off the furthest.   And all five girls manage to fit themselves on one tire swing and scream at the top of their lungs.

After their standard routine, one of my favorites from the class, we’ll call him Khuwaylid, got an idea to play “bumper cars” with everyone.  They got so excited and ran towards the slide.  You may be thinking, bumper cars on the playground with a slide?  What in the world.

They all stood at the top landing attached to the jungle gym and took turns sliding down with their legs over the edges.  When the first one reached the bottom he anchored himself on the edge and let the rest pile up behind him.

They were screaming with laughter as one by one their classmates came down and smushed them into one giant bumper car pile up.  It was hilarious to watch–especially when some of my “bigger” students came down the slide.  They asked me to join them, but I insisted I didn’t want to hurt anyone and sat it out on the bench and watched happily.

I really didn’t want to call them in to go to Arabic, but class was over.  They all ran in, out of breath, cheeks flush, and smiling.

I like teaching, especially for the moments I spend outside of the classroom with my students.

It’s fun talking about Ramadan with my students.  Their perception of Eid in school is so different from how I felt about it when I was their age.  In my elementary school days I looked forward to Christmas parties, and Valentine’s chocolates, and Halloween candy.  In their elementary school days, they’re excited to decorate the classroom for Eid, exchange gifts, and have extra time during recess to play with eachother.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved Ramadan when I was little (and still do), but it wasn’t a love that I could take with me to school and talk about with my peers.

 The point is… I gave my students an assignment to write about their favorite Eid they could remember.  The stories were *wonderful*.  And now I will share my favorites with you with the original spelling and grammar, of course

The night before eid I got into my bed and went to sleep.  The next morning my dad woke me up.  I got out of bed and dressed up.  And then we went to the Eid place.  We made ower sallah and went with my cousin (which I allways go with).  Then I went to wallmart and byed my Nintendo DS.  Then we played with Omer and Ommar.  Then I played with my Nintendo DS.  Then we went to chaky chies.  Than I went to sleep warmly. – Abdulaziz

Warmly!

On the night before my favorite Eid, I went to the Masjid and got locked in the babysitting room.  Luckily, Khaled was with me.  The movie that they had was boring so Khaled and I devised a plan.  Khaled was going to unplug the TV after I turned off the lights.   Then we would run out.  It worked completely!    When I got home, I was so exhausted from running so much, that the minute I got on my bed, I fell asleep.  On the morning of Eid, my mom made a huge breakfast.  She made pancakes, bacon, waffles, eggs, omlets, and even French toast!  I was so full.  In the car, my family recited the takbeer.  After the sallah, six 5th graders tried to beat me up, but they couldn’t!  I don’t know why though.  Anayway, after that, we went to Paradise Park.  That place was awsome!  It had go-carts, laser tag, a trampoline, rock climbing and a huge arcade!  But before we went there, we went to GameStop.  There I bought Star Fox Assult and Super Mario Duluxe.  After all that, I fell asleep in the car home.  that was my Eid. –Amer

One morning I got up very madly forgetting it was Eid.  When my mom reminded me that it was Eid I got so happy, got dressed, woke up my sisters, ate breakfast, jumped in the car and drove to Zaynabs house.  When we got there Hafsah opened the door.  Hafsah and Maaria were already there.  My mom and I blew balloons.  Some other Muslims arrived.  After that Noor and her friend Sarah arrived.  Then my mom left and said Eid Mubarak to everyone.  Then we ate some delicious food that Sr. Rizwana made.  Then Sarah, Noor, Zaynab and I played alot of fun games in the basement. –Muneerah

Take for example one day in Social Studies.  I was reviewing vocabulary words with them from the chapter.  I asked them, “Who can tell me what metropolitan means?”  One of them leapt up from his seat, and stuck his hand straight out frantically and said, “Sister!! Sister!! I know!! I know!!”  I asked him what it meant, and he said so confidently,

“It’s place where you sell a lot of poultry.”

So close, yet so far away.

Just yesterday I was testing them in the computer labs on some of the skills we had practiced throughout the semester.  I asked them all to find me a synonym for the word “smelly” hoping they would use thesaurus.com/  They were all so lost and confused, without an idea of how to even spell synonym.  Finally one of them asked me, “Sister, how do you spell thesaurus?”  Yes!, I thought, a student who is going in the right direction.  “T-H-E-S-A-U-R-U-S” I waited for him to type, a page loaded, and he called me over to show me what he had found.

No! No! No!  He looked up the synonyms for ‘synonym’.  I tried not to laugh, and told him his mistake.  I asked him once more, “Find a synonym for smelly.”  He went back to work.  He called me over again and this time he was closer;  he searched for ‘synonym of smelly’.  hehehehe.  I gave him his points.  Clearly he was trying.

And finally, today in Social Studies we were discussing the 13 colonies and the crops that they grew.  They didn’t know how to pronounce tobacco, or what it was for that matter.  So I explained to them it was plant whose leaves you could dry and put in cigarettes.  One of them raised her hand and said, “Oh, I know!  You can put it in a pipe and smoke it; then you’ll get cancer!”  Very well said.

I don’t know.  Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I know them so I find it amusing.  But I definitely think, my students are cute.