Final Time at Kibbutz Ketura & The Arava Institute

Last night we had a tour of the Arava Institute, which is one of the two charitable beneficiaries of the ride. It is a really amazing institute. It is focused on environmental studies, and through its research also works toward coexistence amongst Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. A third of students are Israeli Jews, a third are Arabs who are either Israeli Arab, Palestinian, Jordanian or Egyptian, and a third are from abroad (Europe and U.S.). We toured their facility, and then met with many students in an informal way in the grassy courtyard by their dormitories In my small group, we met with Tamar, a Jewish girl from Jerusalem doing a year of study before undergraduate; Yussel, a Palestinan Arab from Nabulus doing graduate research on renewable resources; and Elliot from Buffalo, NY (and a Camp Ramah Canada alum!) who is getting an MA with Arava and Ben Gurion Univ. in water management. The students spoke openly with us about the tremendous skills they are gaining in their professional fields, and at the same time having a very honest interactions with others unlike themselves during a tumultuous time in the Middle East. They spoke of the fragmentation that occurred on campus during the Gaza war, as well as times of mutual support and cooperation throughout their studies. As these students make their way in the world, they are being trained to be regional environmental leaders. With such scarce resources in every area of the Mid-east, places like the Arava have the chance to be a beacon to countries like the U.S. who are just now beginning to make gestures of "going green," when in the middle of the Negev they have been "green" for decades out of necessity. Without question, the Arava institute is a small but bright light in an area of the world that usually has bad news make headlines. Though good news rarely makes news, they did have some nice coverage a couple of years ago on CNN. Click here to see the clip.

This morning I got up for a 5:15 prayer service under the palm trees on Kibbutz Keturah, and then got back in the saddle again (yeah!) for a final day of riding.