Day Five - Desert, Desert, Everywhere! (Judy Young)


We began the day at Mitzpe Ramon, driving north to Sde Boker, a famous Negev kibbutz. At Sde Boker, we walked to the edge of the valley where Abraham and Moses wandered, and where Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and his wife, Paula, are buried. He was a visionary, (along with Jacob Blaustein) who saw the Negev desert as a place for growth for the Israeli people. Ben Gurion expressed his desire to be buried where his heart was, in his beloved kibbutz community, rather than where all Prime Ministers are buried, on Har (Mount) Hertzel in Jerusalem.

We then visited the village of Midreshet Ben Gurion . Friends of Shari and Allan Baron, named Ofra and David, shared their story and home with us. David had been head of the Education, Research and Science Institute there. The Institute, dedicated to the study of all aspects of desert living, ie: solar energy, and the best forms of creating shade in one of the hottest areas in Israel. Their home is an example of “passive solar energy”. Students from all over the world come to this modern advanced village to learn and participate in experiments and new developments for living in the Negev.

Next, into the Valley of Tzin, where most of us took an exhilarating, bumpy and fun jeep ride to an aquifer, where a natural water spring was found in the Wadi Tzin wilderness, undoubtedly used for centuries by our ancestors, and all those who traveled the desert...

  
Lunch! We were hosted by Bedouins who are known for their hospitality. Sitting on cushions, on the floor of the tent, what a feast we had, and most delicious!
Lastly, we visited the Kibbutz Neot Smadar in the Aravah Valley. The kibbutz was started by just 90 people in 1989. This kibbutz is dedicated to self examination and nature. Every morning, they meet for silent meditation, and then a quiet breakfast to start the day. They do share dinner together like typical kibbutzim used to do. In this kibbutz they do organic farming of dates, grapes, and apricots, and they make organic wine.

The architecture of their artist center is fascinating (see pictures above and on the right), and in it they have a cooling water tower, which keeps the air cool throughout the center. This gorgeous building is the place to teach music, art, and woodworking, as well as many other crafts and skills.

Our planned visit to Kibbutz Yotvata would have to wait for another day, as we were all too exhausted from a full wonderful day as described above!

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