Creek Clean-up

Creek Clean-up

As odd as it may seem, the creek clean-up was an adventure. Below are stories by various participants. To the right are pictures taken at the clean-up.

Imran Quraishi

However silent and peaceful a creek seems, take my warning and keep aware. When I first started cleaning up the creek, I pompously took this creek as child's play. The creek soon taught me a lesson. Shadab and Obaid crossed the creek to pick up some trash on the other side. They crossed using the various rocks scattered in the creek. I decided to follow, but little to my knowledge, their crossing loosened one of the large rocks. I skipped to the first rock and it flipped. It took me down with it. I fell back-first into the creek. Dumbfounded by what just happened, I looked up and saw everyone's gaze upon me. After they realized I was not hurt they broke down laughing. Half soaked in bacteria ridden creek water I got up and continued cleaning up the creek.
Alhamdulillah, the creek clean-up was a worthy cause. It was disheartening to see the bags upon bags of trash collected. In this blessed month of Ramadan it is especially important to take care of our mother, the earth.

Obaid Rahman

In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate

This is the story of my experience at the Creek Cleanup. I set out for the Creek seeking to please God, fighting my self that perhaps sincerity maybe achieved. With that in mind, I put on the gloves and picked up a trash bag. Then, I joined Imran, Shadab, and Owais to pick up the trash. We picked up the remnants of those who had walked before us, some maybe long before us, but they were no longer to be found. So, we continued on this endeavor and soon became friends with the creek and its many inhabitants. Our company kept us from drifting away with the slow movement of the water. Actually I would have really drifted away if the water level wasn't too low, since there was a hand-made raft, construction of a homeless individual, which I desperately tried to float, but it kept running into rocks at the bottom of the creek. I think I am going to compare the movement of the water with the tunes of the Reed instrument for Rumi's sake. The water was crying for its origin, its original state of purity, which the carelessness of Man had stripped it away from. So, we collected some more trash until the creek looked clean. At least outwardly, it was aesthetically appealing, but its hidden state was such that no one would even dare to touch the water. LOL. How we lie to ourselves to feel better. It was indeed a brilliant expedition that served to clean the water from its impurities. Really, but I don't think its safe to drink out of. LOL.
Nevertheless, I had some experience at the creek, or rather with the creek, which will not be forgotten.

Tarek EL-Messidi

    It was early Saturday morning. I knew I couldn’t miss this early-morning event; I told so many people to come and assured them that I would NOT oversleep this time. My sister woke me up and I made sure I didn’t faint back into my pillow. I asked myself many questions: How many people will actually come? What exactly will take place at this creek clean-up? Am I going to have to shake alot of hands meeting new people? God give me gloves! I slithered out of the house, making sure not to wake my parents, and drove to the masjid.
    I arrived about 10 minutes late. Oh no, there’s Sadaf Shaukat waiting in her car...again! (last week she was the only sister who showed up to the Sunrise Halaqa). No wait a minute...there are 5 sisters in that car! I hurried into the masjid to unlock it for the 6 sisters waiting outside in cold weather and called up the brothers who I knew had overslept. I paced in the masjid for a few minutes hoping for the brother’s door to open any time now. Obaid and his brother walked in. Whew, I’m not the only one.
    We all decided to drive up to the Geology building where the S.P.E.A.K members were meeting at 9:30 AM. When we arrived, they seemed a little surprised that so many MSA members actually turned out. We were 11, one-third of the 30 or so participants in the clean-up. After driving up ‘The Hill’ we were surprised when SPEAK’s advisor said ‘Alright guys, let’s start walking’. We started walking down the whole way to a creek that ended up being right behind the masjid! OK, maybe I should have listened to Maha when she said to go straight to the creek. On the way to the creek I had a great conversation with a woman who was intrigued that we were fasting and doing this for a divine cause. May Allah accept it from all of us.
    We arrived, signed in, and paired up. I didn’t pair up with anyone but tried to stick close to my friends. I didn’t really pick up any interesting items. In the first five minutes, I heard a big splash and saw Imran lying in the stream with the facial expression of someone who had just...just fell in a cold creek. To be honest he looked like a helpless, four-legged animal who just fell backwards into the water. (Imran, you can delete this if you are offended by my statement) After making sure he wasn’t paralyzed, I laughed a bit, and laughed more when I noticed all the prickly organisms stuck to his back when he stood up.
   I went my own way along the creek, trying to make some dhikr while picking up half-filled beer cans. Eventually I went into a big tunnel and onto the other side of the creek. I climbed steep areas to pick up hard-to-reach litter but didn’t fall alhamdulillah. Eventually my bag became heavy and I went back to where I began to stack my bag with the others. I searched for the other Muslims who I left behind and found them having a great time with more exciting stories to tell. All in all, it was a great event, and S.P.E.A.K. expressed interest in working with the MSA more next semester. I was really impressed with the number of our members who came out to help; jazakallahu Kheiran to you all!

'Be vigilant about this Earth for she is your mother, and she will testify against all who oppressed her on the Day of Judgment' - A hadeeth of the Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). [I'm quoting this hadeeth from memory so it may not be the exact wording of the translation]

MORE STORIES FROM, SHADAB, OWAIS, TAYABBA, AND SAFIYA COMING SOON.

Pictures

MSA brothers deceivingly take a picture behind of all the garbage collected.

A SPEAK member realizes the slyness of our idea and joins in.

Tarek surveys Obaid's, Imran's, and Owais' sector.

Imran half drenched and half covered with piths

Obaid poses while in a tight spot.

Owais and Obaid hard at work.

An artistic picture taken by Shadab

Tarek, are you stuck?

Maha surprised while engrossed in the creek clean-up.

Imran and Owais getting down and dirty with the creek clean-up.

Owais and Obaid scavenge for trash.

Shadab and Tarek smile to a job well done.

Sadaf Sh.helps Maha across the creek.

Random Chaos?

Farah giving Shabnum a hand.

Shabnum taking a leap of faith.

Tarek, tired and exhausted, gets a lift from Shadab.

The site of the creek clean-up.

An article in the Daily Beacon on the front page about the creek clean-up.

The aforementioned article continued.

Farah Husain

After a brisk hike from the geology building to the creek site, we all paired up with our partners. Then after waiting for my very fashion-conscious sisters who insisted on finding the "cutest" gloves, we ventured bravely into the creek. A prickly thorn bush seized my leg, almost in vengeance for the havoc that we humans had created to mother nature. Our first trial lay in hopping across stones in perilous and smelly waters that were <gasp> a whole two inches deep. My very brave and dear friend Shabnum very gingerly picked her way across, insisting that the stones were not 'stable'. Me and her somehow
always managed to get stuck on the wrong side of the creek, and had to hop our way back across. At some points to move across the bank of the creek, we had
to crawl and yes, even limbo under branches while dragging our heavy and smelly bags. At last when we were finished, we searched for our fellow MSA
brothers and sisters, but they were nowhere to be seen. I was thirsty for more adventure and insisted that we head back to explore, and finally my sisters and Shabnum agreed. We crossed under the bridge, which we discovered is great for echoes. And my sister Tayyaba found a great stick which resembled a staff. We used it to pull out an old rusted tire rim from the deeper part of the stream. Tayyaba then also very intelligently thrusted the big stick into the water, splashing it all over us and into our mouths. Overall, it was a great experience, but the need of such efforts is disheartening in itself because of people who think that remote and beautiful parts of nature are the perfect spots for them to dispose of coke cans and old clothes and other sorts of garbage. May Allah give us the tawfiq to take care of the Earth and teach others to do the same

Sadaf Shaukat

     So, I thought we might have a halaqa that morning...(i summarized my article!), we ended up not having one but I got to the masjid right around 9:10 and subhanAllah...it was sooo cold, I already had the sniffles, and I was afraid I might get even more sick, but Tarek's ever so strong email about it being a COMMITMENT to come made me forget about my condition. No, but really, I wanted to do this for the sake of Allah ('azza wa jal) and I knew it would only improve my weak condition...(the other kind of condition).
     I was afraid I might be the only sister there, so I called up Reem...no one picked up...so then I call Maha, she picks up bewildered, her first question being, "what time is it??!!" i say 8:30...she was grateful that I woke her up, Alhamdhulillah! another sister coming! Satisfied, I left my house telling my parents I was going to an environmental club meeting...(they knew i was kinda sick...).
     When we got to the site, we picked buddies, mine was Maha. Maha and I experienced several adventures together like contemplating on the best strategy to get across to the other side...we ended up dodging thorny branches, slipping on wet rocks, and getting our hijabs caught on thorns--much of the time finding our trying efforts useless because the area was trashless! Someone had beat us there.
     We did come upon this one area with a mattress, suitcases, clothes, and hundreds of packets of iodized salt...we decided to leave the site alone thinking it might be someone's home.   After crossing the tunnel, I found a nice little niche where I decided I would rest and try to yank this coke can stuck between rocks. Well, every time a rock would fall from my efforts to release the can, my ever-protecting friend Maha, would yell "oh no!" thinking I was falling down the rocks into the deep lake of 5 inches.
     Alhamdhulillah, I have no regrets about going to the clean up. It was cold, we were wet, it was jihad. (I should've kept my jacket!)
     Alhamdhulilah, that other organizations are coming to the MSA for assistance, May Allah ('azza wa jal) draw those who have worked for strenghthening our MSA closer to Him as He is the One we long for.

Maha Ayesh

A creek-cleanup sounds innocent enough. I mean, what does that really entail? Just picking up a little garbage right? Well...cleaning up Second Creek apparently entails a lot more than just that--try a little mountain climbing, daredevil rock jumping over toxic waters, fierce battling, and handling hazardous wastes. Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit extreme...but not much. We did in fact have to climb up and down steep hills and make our slippery way across the creek, whose water was not exactly fit for human contact. The fierce battling? Me versus thorny bushes and tree limbs who were not very pleased that I had invaded their territory. (But, as a Palestinian, I totally understand what that feels like.) Although I somehow managed to make my way through the battleground, the plants left their mark--I was left covered in thorns. One thing I'm not exaggerating about though is the hazardous waste. If a package of age-old ground beef that has been floating around in toxic waters is not hazardous, then I don't know what is. A large trail of garbage including milk jugs and cereal boxes, led us to what seemed to be someone's makeshift home. There was a mattress laid out with piles of clothes around it. Here, I picked up other trash that can be considered largely hazardous. But I won't describe in further detail.

Yet, strangely, despite all these perils, and probably because of them, and despite even the rank stench of the beef et all, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. And of course, just the fact that I was cleaning up the land Allah has entrusted us with made the hour and a half I spent that Saturday morning well worth it.

Shabnum Quraishi

BismillahiRahmaaniRaheem

As-salaamu `alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuhu,

Okay by now you probably have read at least five supposedly brief "summary's" about our creek adventure. So why not just one more?? Actually the only reason I'm typing one up is because my sweet innocent 'websheikh' brother wont let me check my mail unless I type one up. So for your pleasure, ... and mine, enjoy.
I woke up dead tired early Saturday morning, and instinctively thought that I'll just call Tarek and bail out of the creek cleanup, but then I heard his voice, "Once you say your coming then your committed, ... you cannot back out" (In a deep scary voice of course ... I think I forgot to say bismillah when I woke up). Feeling guilty, but sleeping another hour or so, I finally got up and took off to pick up Farah and her sisters. As usual we saw only one car at the mosque, Maha Ayesh's. Miss 'early bird' was reclined in her car seat listening to Saturday morning cartoons while waiting patiently for someone to show up. Once almost everyone showed up we headed off to the geology building where we ended up hiking all the way back behind the mosque. To my astonishment it was a great turnout, Alhamdulillah. We all got geared up and dived right into the creek,...actually one brother, literally did. As you may have read already we all encountered many funny adventures, but the ones that stick out the most was Safiyya's first piece of trash,... a suitcase. Tayyiba finding a huge cane-like branch and acting as Musa (as) as she strikes it in the creek splashing me and her sisters. Maha picking up a bag of nasty rotten raw meat. (at one point I found myself behind Maha climbing what seemed like a cliff and her lovely bag was in my face, reeking with rotting meat. I was gasping for air and on the verge of vomiting). Alhamdulillah this was an experience I will never forget.