KTGW's Earth Hour 2010: A Success Story

Last night, Kuwait joined over a hundred other countries in the fight against climate change by switching off the light on major buildings & landmarks in support of the global event known as "Earth Hour".

This is the third year Kuwait participates, & this year, in my opinion seems to be the best ever! I attended the Kuwaiti Team for Global Warming's special Earth Hour open day of this year, which was held on the Scientific Center yesterday, & had extreme fun! This year's event was the best!

The day was packed of numerous activities, fun education, & entertaining shows. I really enjoyed PK Jaguar's thrilling Parkour (.1) show, (had fun shooting pix!!), really loved the musical segment where some talented young guys played guitar (GOD, I LOOOOVE guitars... ), & had fun learning more about the hazards of Global warming & climate change by watching the comedic Play by Al-Jeel Al-Wa'ey.

But the biggest highlight of the evening, to me, (besides Earth Hour of course!), was Al-Ejairi's lecture. I finally met one of my dreams!!! You have no idea how much I wished to one day meet this amazing figure!! You have no idea how much fun I had last night!! hee hee He's such a sweet man, God bless him, & he just loved to educate & teach & keep you from getting board by telling you jokes every now & then! hee hee He's just the greatest!

True, what I wished for is far from what I got but it's still fun!! You see, I wished to "meet" him, & by "meet", I mean, sit down & have a chat with the man, not just take pics with him & not introduce myself. My biggest dream is to go to the Al-Ejairi Observatory & take pictures of the moon & Saturn (.2) ... aww, aww, awww!! My faves!

I've always loved astronomy, esp when I was a kid. I wished to study it when I grow up. But as I grew older, I found out that I was attracted to the literary & art fields more than science & related fields, (I suck at math, so that was a huge set back... lol).

So anyways, for those who don't know who Dr. Al-Ejairi is; he's the KING of astronomy in Kuwait, & in the Arab World too! He's been on my People-to-Meet list for a while. This past year, my wishes of meeting him grew stronger & stronger as a lot of of the people on my list have actually passed away before I could get the chance to meet them, (for ex: Late Baba Jaber, & yes, MJ...), so I was determined to set a date & meet with Dr. Al-Ejairi before he goes away too... (Allah ye6awel b3umrah in Sha Allah. (.3) ). But as you know how life is, (my life at least,); days just fly by so fast without me setting any dates yet.

Audience engaging in the lecture & asking questions

But luckily, Allah wanted me to finally meet up with this great teacher & I was meant to finally see him!!! Oh, it was soooo great! I loved him! He's just adorable; God bless him. His lecture was about climate change & what will happen to us if we continue our dangerous acts towards this planet. What I love about this man, is that he teaches you things, you already know about, but really didn't know, if you know what I mean. What I'm trying to say, is that you get an idea about something, but he will just teach you more & more about it. And unlike other boring lectures (& lecturers); the doctor's lectures are never out of funny stories & his old grandpa-like story telling is what makes him unique & worth tuning to.

Children love Dr. Al-Ejari! ^^

I wish I had fully listened to the lecture last night, but too bad there was echo in the area, so it was a bit hard to get. Plus I was too busy taking pictures of him! loool

But it's alright; we took videos, so I could still watch, you know. But from what I managed to hear, it wasn't really something new, (to me, I mean, cuz I like to watch his weekly segment on "Taw Ellail" (.4), so a lot of the stories (if not all) he mentioned last night & funny jokes he told every now & then, weren't new to me; still I laugh every time, regardless of how many times he'd already mentioned it. Just like any old man you encounter... They'd keep repeating the same stories over & over but you still get to enjoy them as if its the first time you listen to them. :)

Dr. Al-Ejairi surrounded by appreciative fans ^^

So, that was big to me. Another huge thing to me was that I finally got me a new Canon EOS & I used it for the first time yesterday! Yaaaaayyyy!!! (golow ma sha Allah!) It was a lot of fun!! My first professional camera... ahhhh... Felt like I was on cloud nine... mmmm.... *goes high again*

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no way claiming to be a professional; I'm still on the very first page & making my way around it. I still have VERY little knowledge of using this camera so please, if your picture got a bit blurry on the way, don't blame me. but thankfully, most of the 600+ I took last night were really great & worth selling! (I mean, publishing.. ehm, ehm... hee hee What? I will be done volunteering soon; gotta make some money! I'm nearly broke!), so thank God ^^

I just need to keep practicing... So, please, tell me what you think of my pics, okay? ;)

PK Jaguars flying up in the air

Part of Al-Jeel Al-Wa'ey's educative comic play;

this part killed me with all this "powder" used! hee hee it smelled funny! xD

Ok, so back to the event! lol, when the clock neared 8:30; Earth Hour count down began, & then the lights slowly turned down until they fully went off in like 70-80% of the area. It was FUN!! As we wooooohooooo-ed & cheered! It was like a new year party! hee hee lol xD

Too bad, I missed this on video. I was in charge on the snap shots, & my friends & cousins were in charge of taking video, but they missed it... :(

Anyways, they've managed to take some vids that I will be uploading soon, so keep checking for updates.

Musical Segment by candle lights

Speaking of videos, Chay Al-Dhaha "شاي الضحى" took amazing video of Kuwait Towers as they switched off, check it out!!!

Woohooo!!! Cool!

Thnx Chay!! L.O.V.E you!!!

*****

The hour passed in a minute! I wanted to take more pictures & I wanted to take pics of me, at the special "60" Earth Hour symbol, but when you are a reporter, you rarely take pics of yourself; you're too busy taking pics of others & by the time you want to take some pics of yourself, the moments would've already passed you by.

But it's okay, I managed to take some pics of me on the end, which are okay! ;)

The night was very successful, thank God. I can't wait to check the statistic reports! I wanna see how much energy we've saved!!

On behalf of the Team; I would like to thank each & every one who participated in this amazing event, either by coming to the event or by turning off at their own homes; everyone who helped spread awareness about this important matter is thanked from the bottom of our hearts.

Aannnnnddd....!!!

Special Thanks to a special guest that loves the environment & supports such causes who happily passed by us last night during Earth Hour & helped make a change....

Guess who????

Who's that fuzzy little creature in the middle??? ;P

*****

Don't forget to tune in on Kuwait local channels (1 & 2 just to be sure), to watch the special report about this event ;)

Thank You ALL!!

L.O.V.E!

Still Got lots of pics to share, but will mostly be posting them on the Team's Facebook group & site, (Shall share links later).

Keep it up, Team, you rock! ^^

*****

So how was your Earth Hour? Share your stories!!!

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Links:

- Please, check out previous entries (posts) for the links; I'm currently having a massive headache & I'm dying to sleep...

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1. Free Running

2. زحل

3. May God extends & elongates his life

4. Local Night Show