Faseelah(فسيلة): Spawn of Procrastination

I realize that I've never really shared my thoughts on Faseelah, my baby of sorts.

"Of sorts" because I've somewhat neglected it, and I wouldn't ever neglect my baby. I can't confirm this because I'm... Not... "Fond" of kids, per se, and who am I to know if I could raise a kid? I5*. But we'll get to my thoughts on kids later.

This club, put in action three months ago in Effat to replace its environmental club, is insprired by Islamic environmentalism and ecofeminism. Yay! :D

Why the name?

(pronounced "Fa-see-lah") It is known as "the part of a palm tree that is planted so another can grow from it" and was inspired by this ḥadīth (ṣaḥīḥ Al-Bukhārī Muslim):

عن أنس رضي الله عنه عن الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: إِنْ قَامَتْ السَّاعَةُ وَفي ِيَدِ أَحَدِكُمْ فَسِيلَةٌ،فَإِنْ اسْتَطَاعَ أَنْ لَا يَقُومَ حَتَّى يَغْرِسَهَا؛ فَلْيَغْرِسْها

Translation:

"If the Hour came and in one's hand was a faseelah, and if he could stay until it was planted; then he should plant it"

It had a good run. Like most things in Jeddah though, poor followup. It's disheartening how much work it takes just for permissions and awareness. But we didn't do too badly this semester.

World Water Day went awesomely. The day before it we had Abdulhakeem Jomah give this presentation at Effat about algae.

Between you and me, my marketing genius knows no bounds when it comes to getting single Saudi girls enthusiastic about saving the planet (they listend about ALGAE. Bwahaha).
On the day, we had this moving documentary given by Ziad Jarrar. African orphans. No water. Success.

Okay okay, ego aside. Kinda.
Earth Hour didn't go too badly. Granted, hardly anyone knew what happened, but we got all the lights off during the day, desktop wallpapers put up, and the dorms to do a little something something.

I learned a lot. Mostly about how things work in Jeddah. After a lot of convincing, I've decided not to shoot myself** and push through.

I'm passionate... And maybe a little insecure about how my passion is received. I like being the eco-girl at uni and among my friends, though. People use re-usable bags around me and uni girls randomly give me articls about environmental things.

Things look okay. Bigger and better after summer.


* Arabic chat speak
** Fun trivia: I typed "to shoot myself" and had to erase it.

I'm aware that this was dripping with enthusiasm and optimism. It made my cynical emo side kind of sick. Like hearing about scat.