Sand flying in all directions, sweat dripping down our faces, and SMACK…only two familiar faces remain in the Gaga pit. After a few seconds, a winner is claimed and wins the title: King or Queen. Immediately after this intense moment, we jump back in for another round of Gaga Ball: new alliances form along with new friendships, thus creating the memorable trip to Walker Creek in August. That’s where it all started: the friendships, inside jokes, and most of all, the MSEL (Marin School of Environmental Leadership) community we helped create. As a class, we experience MSEL memories every week, moments that will stick in our minds and become stories to tell in the future. Through these memories, new friendships have formed connecting us to together, enabling us and creating our own MSEL vibe.
This past Thanksgiving, I was very thankful about how close the MSEL community has become. MSEL students collaborate while working on group projects without any awkwardness. This is mainly because of the friendships formed during our four day trip to Walker Creek. These connections we created became the foundation for working together on our water themed group projects. We are learning we can be equally thankful for water, because without water we would not be able to survive and experience the laughs we share!
Water is the current focus of our study in our MSEL classes, learning both about how water affects us and other countries. In Geography, we’ve talked about water distribution, which causes disagreements and violence between countries. In addition, the placing of borders near or on a water source is causing disputes between cities, states, and countries. As a result, people move where the water is but sometimes the it’s is on the other side of the border, again, causing disagreement and violence to occur. For example, Israel is pumping an unfair amount of water out of the Jordan River leaving less than 35 percent of the river’s water for Pakistan. Plus, the Jordon River is one of many water sources where the water is unsanitary, causing thousands of people to die from dirty, contaminated water every day. Water controls our lives because without it the human race would not be able to survive.
Water affects our daily lives and health because we are made up of 70 percent water, which nourishes our bodies. Without water in our bodies, we start to have dehydration headaches and our skin dries up, creating wrinkles and speeding up aging. We should all go to our doctor regularly to get a full body physical, according to Mr. Garcia, our Health teacher. He says water flushes out bad materials in our body and affects our ability to be healthy. It wouldn’t hurt to check our body’s pH level either; we wouldn’t want our body to be as dirty as Nemo’s tank filled with algae in the movie Finding Nemo, because that would be disgusting! Nemo swam in the ocean that is part of the 97.5 percent of the world’s water that is undrinkable to humans. In Geography we learned the rest of the 2.5 percent is fresh water, but of that 2.5 percent only 30.1 percent is available to humans.
Not all humans, however, have access to clean water. Students at Terra Linda High School (TLHS) drink clean groundwater. We are lucky because we go to school on a daily basis, unlike kids in many parts of Africa, where many cannot attend school because they are sick from contaminated water. On top of this, some kids are unable to go to school because they are out fetching water for their families. We are fortunate to have clean water access only a few feet away from us at home or at school. The girls at TLHS are able to attend school because we have usable toilets. Without usable toilets at school, girls in Africa drop out when they hit puberty. They start collecting water for their families instead of receiving an education. The girls walk barefoot for miles to the closest water source and on the long trek back home carry gallons of water on their heads. However, Africa is very efficient on how they use their water. We could learn a thing or two from the people in Africa because they recycle their water; for instance, they use grey water for agriculture. We have it easy because we can turn on the faucet rather than having to fetch our own water. In the end, the world is running out of clean drinkable water and yet America is treating water like there is always going to be an endless stream of it.
We’re fooling ourselves thinking we have a choice about learning to conserve water. Referring to our English class novel, Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse, we need to overcome Maya (illusions) to see the real problems occurring now, like water issues, and take part to create solutions. People don’t realize they are contaminating their own reservoirs and the oceans surrounding them. The first step along Buddhism’s Eightfold Path is Right Understanding. If everybody started to see the world as it is, with all illusions out the window, a real change could be made. I wonder how our lifestyles would be different if we had to fetch our own water on a daily basis? We pass by this thought because there is no effort when we need water: it is just there, due to thousands of underground pipes, water simply appears in our shower, sink, and garden hose. The people at MMWD (Marin Municipal Water District) designed a system so we can have clean water coming from the reservoirs on Mount Tam flowing into our house where our effort can be focused on school instead. On Thanksgiving, I hope everyone took a moment to be thankful for the wonderful workers at MMWD.
Without water, there is no life on this struggling planet and without water we would not be here today experiencing our friendships together. In some ways, water is like friendships: Ms. Leonhart made this connection when she said, “Water is to life as friendship is to happiness.” Without water, MSEL would not be here today trying to make changes in the world’s issues. As with friendship, there is drama in how water works: sometimes it’s just too hard to manage and handle. I know for some people it is hard not to litter or to conserve water, but we must try. We need to keep in mind water is essential to nature, so we should be inclined to treat it with the respect we give to our friends.
When you are unhappy, your friends make you happy just by the comfort and warmth they give you. This is similar to how water makes living life feel, like water flowing through your body quenching your dehydration, or a hot shower when you are sore. The comfort of water is never doubted, but if there is no more water there is no more life. As we, MSEL students, continue along our own Eightfold Path toward environmental leadership, we follow the Hero’s Journey to success (or failure) appreciating the importance of water and our friendships along the way.
