- The big news of course is that on Wednesday night, we opened the Fall Semester 2009 with 45 students! The largest semester in the history of the Institute. 15 Israelis, 12 North Americans, 12 Palestinians, 5 Jordanians and 1 Australian. The group looks great and the Academic Programs Department is completely prepared for a great semester. This week is orientation and next week starts classes.
- We had the third meeting of the Coordination Committee between the Institute and the Kibbutz which tries to promote a positive relationship between Kibbutz members and the Institute.
- In addition to the start of a new semester, the Fall schedule looks quite full and a lot of time was spent this week in meetings preparing for these events. Here is just a sample:
- October 23rd - Arava Challenge - One day off road ride for Israelis
- November 4th-9th - Israel Ride Fall 2009 from Tsfat to Eilat
- November 19th-20th - Food for Thought - Food Conference in Tel Aviv
- November 25th - BGU Agreement Signing Ceremony
- So you can see that it is a pretty full schedule for the next two months.
- Uri Nusinow left this week for a trip to Brussels as a guest of the EU. He managed an environmental project called Life which was funded by the EU and promoted sustainable solutions for waster water treatment in the Arava. Uri is in Brussels at a final conference of the project.
- I am travelling tonight to Portugal, to the EcoVillage Tamera to meet with their leaders about research cooperation between the Arava Institute and Tamera.
- Clive Lipchin and Shmuel Brenner are back from a very successful trip to Kenya. We hope that this trip will spawn a new initiative for a Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands.
Have a nice weekend.
David
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