This was originally supposed to be just us making the intro to all his future videos. However, this is what ended up happening (we couldn’t resist):

Bismillah,

I’m the type of person who’s always on the lookout for the next project I want to complete. I find something I believe to be beneficial, fun and challenging all at the same time.

So what’s my next big project? Producing an Islamic kids show.

After doing research, I decided to see where I could cut costs for production. After seeing where all the costs would be coming from, I determined the best way to save money would be to make the puppets for my show myself. Typically, a custom-made puppet professionally done cost around $1,000.

I went to an arts and craft store yesterday to pick out my supplies and while my husband was asleep, I spent a good three hours working so hard and so diligently.

I had to figure out how to make the mouth part to move and somehow put it all together into the puppet. And after all the gluing, cutting and planning I take a good look at my final product and…. I BUST out laughing.

I couldn’t help it. The puppet was just so pathetic. My husband had awoken to my laughing and I showed him what I made — only for him to cover his eyes and tell me how scary it looked.

I asked him to take a picture of it and put it on his Facebook and his reply was, “I don’t want to for the safety of the people.”

Anyway, after much convincing he reluctantly decides to make a video for fun of my masterpiece and this was the result:

We decided to use this as a means to raising funds for our REAL kids show (which I’m happy to say will NOT have beat boxing, and will not feature a character such as Ghetto Abdullah).

Find out how you can invest in our project soon.

Let us know what your thoughts are.

1. The Project:

I have an awesome team — hands-down. MashaAllah the sisters and brothers I work with are amazing. Everyone from my marketing group to the coordinators in each of the locations I work with, are awesome.

Lately, between scheduling, confirming venues and guiding people through how to promote the classes, we’ve come up with a brand-new site called bayyinahexperience.com. If you’ve ever taken a Bayyinah class it’s kind of hard to explain. You can’t really explain the feeling you get while you’re in class learning, nor can you really explain in detail what it’s all about; it’s one of those “you just have to be there” moments. Well we can’t guarantee that this site will give you the full “Bayyinah Experience” but it will sure attempt to give you a glimpse. We decided that video blogging was the way to go. Have the students video tape the fun, random, and intriguing moments that happen during class and even during the breaks. They can share their reflections, a story that happened to them on the way to the class, or anything related to what would normally be talked about or shown at a Bayyinah class.

Each location we conduct seminars in, we ask the coordinators to get someone to be in charge of getting footage. And the result is a student-run video blog dedicated to Bayyinah — otherwise known as bayyinahexperience.com.

I’m excited to see how this site is going to catch on as we go to more and more locations and add more and more classes to our curriculum. It should be pretty fun to come back to on a regular basis, inshaAllah.

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I have had such little time to post thoughts, reflections, media content on Egyptian Gumbo lately because I’ve been busy with other (greater, inshaAllah) things. I want to keep EG alive inshaAllah, and inshaAllah I will be able to do so once I graduate from LSU this May.

Between school and my work, I’m trying hard to keep with setting aside some time for my own personal development. Make dua for me!
EG