Zion National Park

– Jacob Law

On day 13 of Etgar 36, we started by leaving the hotel in Salt Lake City, where we stayed for our four-ish hour drive to Zion National Park in Utah.  The scenery at Zion was jaw-droppingly beautiful. There were mountains around you on every side and cliffs towering over you. While we hiked around the park, we talked with Counselor Jacob beside a river. He brought to our attention that the water in these rivers flowing through national parks for millions of years was drying up. We also learned that around 90% of the water is wasted by major corporations, not individual users. While taking shorter showers and using up less water, you will help; talking about said companies wasting water will help even more when trying to save water. Even in a beautiful place such as Zion National Park, global issues still occur, and we need to speak and act out in an attempt to delay or even stop water waste and other global problems. After going to Zion, we went to dinner and then Friday night Shabbat services. Our counselors taught us about the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism and led us in their style of services.

 

As the only non-Jewish person on the Etgar 36 and one of the few individuals who had never previously attended Jewish services, I still found the service very powerful and meaningful. We sang songs and prayed in the service while Joshua played the guitar. Even though I am not Jewish, I still felt very accepted, and I hope to attend more of them in the future. Overall, this day has been very enjoyable and eventful, and I learned so much today about the topic of water waste and using your voice to speak out on global issues. I hope the rest of the trip is this much fun!