400 kids + crazy parents + 4 hrs sleep + Skydome Hotel room shared with 6 girls + RIS = crazyyyyy weekend

Well I dunno bout you guys... but my weekend was crazy!! It was the weekend of the much anticipated Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) Conference.... and alhumdalillah it went well... didn't get much sleep or much shopping or lectures in... but got done what we were supposed to: the children's program!

So let's start from Friday... got there right in time for my shift :D thanks to my Dad (Papa ur the best!) and I went to the wrong gate :( and the doors were locked... but luckily i was only off by one gate... there I met up with Shaz, Khadeeja and Roohi. Then me and Roohi ran to the Children's program... and then the madness began.

The children began pouring in... nonstop for about an hour... and before we knew it there were kids of all ages in every inch of the place... we tried splitting the kids up into groups of ten but then there just weren't enough volunteers per ten kids... so the group sizes just got larger and larger... I rem we played a huuuuge game of Duck Duck Goose... and the kids would get tired tryin to run around the circle... it was kinda funny. But we just kept running outta ideas because some of the kids were only fluent in French or Arabic... was a tough day... and then finding the kids when their parents came to pick them up was a mission and a half... half the kids were named Muhammad or Aisha! But it worked out... by 6:00 all the kids were gone. By 8:00 we were done cleaning the place and ready for the next day.. then me, Naila and Sahar dropped by the hotel room to drop some stuff off and ended up hanging out there for like an hour... then we finally hit the bazaar! Man in retrospect, I wish I'd done wayy more shopping... but ahh its all good... can't complain got some really nice hijabs and jewelry (thanks Roohi!) Hung out with some of the girls @ Gate 11 for a bit.. then i finally checked out Kashif and the guys' I-Slam booth, they eventually convinced me to sign up for the girl's league stuff... hope they didnt think i was serious lol... after checking out the bazaar... finally ran into the girls again and we headed back to the hotel. One of the highlights of the weekend was definitely staying with girls at the hotel!! We had so much fun... ordered lots of food... made up songs bout Bengalis... had some surprise guests drop by at like midnight... watched a cheesy christmas Nicholas Cage movie...slept in ofcourse (well i dunno if u call sleeping until 8:30 sleeping in...) ...was definitely a memorable weekend. Love you guys! Oh yeah.. and how could my sleepover weekend be complete without taking pics of people while they are sleeping or whatever state Madihahaha and Roohi were in... And ALL i hafta say is, Roohi is one funnny girl.. Saturday night she was dead tired... so she comes and crashes in our room... falls asleep by 1:00... the kababs and chicken arrive at 2 ... Naila opens one box.. all of a sudden Roohi was WIDE awake!! She didn't even say a word.. no one woke her up...she started eating away. Then when she was done...without a word fell right back asleep!

We were all late for the meeting on Saturday morning... but on the way we heard Sami Yusuf's soundcheck... sorta exciting... then it was back into the chaos of a full day of children's program. This time i took care of registration and signout... which turned out to be just as crazy... as i took care of the registration of kids A-H... WHO knew that majority Arabs and Pakis have last names starting A-H... and i had to hear the complaints of the parents. But it was great seeing the kids excited about coming to the program everyday... and then there were the kids that just wouldn't stop crying or acting up... The funniest thing was seeing the guys who were looking after the older boys complaining about how they don't want kids... There was this cute little boy... he must've been about 4 yrs old.. his name was Yusuf I think... this kid just didn't get tired... even after Sr. Yonette took him on this longgg walk thru the bazaar. Later he looked like he had to go to the washroom.. lets jus say he just couldn't sit still... but he wouldn't go...after 15 minutes of trying to convince him to go by bribing him with toys and candy... Sahar jus picked him up and gave him to one of the guys and it looked like the job was finally done. The kid comes back... and the brother was like he just wouldn't do his business... so whatever we tried. There must've been about 300 kids that day... it was madness... but all in all, I had an amazing time, met some incredible people. Can't wait till next year!