Sadiya's Story

Commitment:

My commitment as an earth camp team member is to recycle this year. By recycling, I think my family could lower their trash impact. Usually, my family just puts all the trash, recycling, compost and etc in one bin. But from now on I will start a recycling bin aside from the trash can, so that way I will do my part to recycle and be a leader for a shared planet. When I calculated my eco footprint before coming to earth camp again this year; I didn’t think I will have that many impact on the planet, but now I know I could do so many things to reduce and live a sustainable life. I was inspired by how we could be a leader for a shared planet. By that I mean taking an action and lowering your food, transportation impacts. Here are some facts about recycling: Did you know that? 1)  The average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled. 2) Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. 3) We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.


Journal Entry : (July 14 10, Day 8):

Today was our last day on the river. It was a bit depressing because last day on the river always means saying good bye to our guides. Even though we met the guides a few days back, it seems like I have known them forever. Other than that, it was a stupendous day. We had some amazing water fights, which made the day even more outstanding.
As we came close to the end of our journey, our melancholy began. We had our last water fight, last rapid, last lunch and our second to last farewells.
          It has been a pleasure to have such awe-inspiring guides like the guides we had. Danny, Sarah, Hailey, Andrew and Sam are the best river guides in the world. They have taken care and dealt with us for five days. Just like us, they had qualities that leaders for a shared planet would. For instance, our safety in the water was their first priority and they always told us to put sunscreen on. They have shown us some secret and sacred places of the green river. Not everyone gets the chance to see those sacred places. They trusted us and they told us that we were the best teenager kids they ever had. We have connected and became “one for all and all for one”.    
We took a short hike to get a look at some petro glyphs and one special place that they don’t show to everyone; the Indian burial. After having to spend such a five remarkable days on the river, we hopped on to our bus and headed to the John Wesley Powell museum.
             The river guides were nice enough to have dinner with us after finishing their task of washing their boats and etc. Who will want to have dinner with people they just barely met and deal with them after their trip; especially some teenage kids? Well the guides were willing to. They knew that we are some real nice folks. And not only did they teach us something but we did as well in a way.
             I was inspired in very different angles by all these great leaders, the staff members and some of my peers. For example, Jesus; one of our staff members taught us about plants, nature and how to even make things like rope and spoon. It definitely was another great year of experience at Earth Camp.