Arava Ride Sunday

Second to last day of the ride.

63 miles. We’ve been resting for a whole day so maybe it won’t be so bad. The most exciting part of today is that we are riding to the Arava Institute to spend the night at Kibbutz Keturah where it is housed.

We were offered the option to get up at 6am for services at the Makhtesh, a canyon shaped by a crater across from our hotel not dissimilar from the Grand Canyon.  Chicago Boss Girls slept in until 6:15 and just managed to hit the cliffside for some last pictures before heading out to ride. Including photos from the day before, the evening before, and the morning.

Our route for the day:

Seems like it would be all downhill, huh? But that last stretch is a seemingly gentle and then a killer uphill. Especially when tired. But we did it!

Once again, Jackie smiling and me concentrating on the thousands of ideas in my head, the pain in my legs, and the time to lunch. Speaking of lunch…The first photo is the shade I was looking for from yesterday during our rest stop mirage, and that bright green tarp photo below it is from our lunch-time rest stop today. The boat is part of the shtick of the rest stop. It’s currently an event venue and the only place for miles around that can hold so many of us where we can eat, use the restroom and wash dishes. By hand. Old school Kibbutz/coop style.

And of course I had to include a photo of Jackie in the desert. (From our rest stop in the morning before lunch) Who else would find a lawn chair and a beach umbrella at our rest stop???

It was a fairly short day, 7:30-2, and we had cloud cover as well.  We were able to ride so fast!  We also knew there were some pretty big downhills, as well as two tough uphills at the end.  Neither one of us is above walking our bikes up the steep inclines, but we also look forward to the mental challenge.

We finally rolled into Kibbutz Keturah where the Arava Institute is housed around 3pm. They plied us with homemade beer and directions to the very large and very cold pool onsite. A brief respite before meeting with current students, one of the best parts of the tour.

We settled in to our guest house and one of the crew encouraged me to get over to the pool before it closed at 4:30.  It was shockingly cold and refreshing! 

Before dinner, we also had the chance to join current students in roundtable discussions.  (I’m going to summarize and include here everything we learned about Arava over the next two days]. 

I was in a group that was about half students and half riders. I love the dynamic, which was to pick a question out of a bowl and then let anyone answer it. Such as, where do your grandparents come from, and how do you feel connected to them? Here are a few stories from the conversation.

A young woman from Beer Sheba was studying hydrology at Ben Gurion and then interning with a South African professor connected to the Arava Institute.

A young man from Nigeria found out about the Arava Institute from a friend who video whatsapped him, showing him around the kibbutz while he was still in Nigeria. He then applied for and received a scholarship from Ben Gurion University and, after a year, applied to Arava and was accepted to study at Arava’s Center for Renewable Energy.

Many students say the technology is interesting and they are learning about resources they can bring back to their communities, such as off grid solar systems, but the most interesting thing is meeting other students.

They are particularly excited about the alumni network that enables them to keep connections, wrestle with problems and change the world. They did say it probably takes a special kind of person to be a student here who is already willing to talk and have hard conversations in Israel.

The student from Nigeria noted that he really wanted to come to Israel to learn about the technology for off the grid solar. He noted that the Nigerian government is committed to connecting everyone to electricity, but often they only have electricity two hours a day, and then depend on diesel fuel which is terrible for the environment.

Jackie did a 4 hour tour of the Institute the last day.  Her first report when she finished was, they have donkeys that eat the weeds!  (I guess they can’t use goats or ibex since they would eat everything).

On my own small tour, I saw technology that measures the strength of the sun throughout the day at different times and angles that may be used to create robotic technology to change the angle throughout the day to maximize energy.  I saw houses with plastic bottles incorporated into grass roofs to add natural light, solar tubes creating energy to create fuel for cooking and drying food, and a biogas machine that produces energy from organic food waste. (Pronounced Bio-Gas, not biOHgahs). That final photo is a bottle with something that attracts predators to eat pests or invasive species. Naturally! So cool! 

At the end of our day, Tareq, the Institute’s director shared with us his vision and hope for the future. They want to bring many more students to the Institute, and they also want it to be an even more comprehensive hub for environmental conservation in the region: the Middle East and North Africa. They hope to have more professors come to the Institute to study, do research, and bring what they learn back to their countries.

In terms of what dollar amounts mean to the Institute, $10,000 is a scholarship for a student for a year, which includes travel, processing visas, and living here. $70,000 pays for a professor to spend a year at the Institute.

Photos and notes from Jackie’s tour of the Institute: Donkeys used to clear weeds. Ancient date seeds and female trees for pollination. The date seeds buried for 2,000 years and now found by Arava professors and producing dates is fascinating.

Research adding shade to promote more agricultural growth in the desert. Initially used solar panels but they were stolen in the middle of the night. Constantly adjusting to the context and seeking how to thrive in the current context.

Love,

Sarah and Jackie