Weekly Report October 4th-9th, 2009

Another quiet week at the Arava Institute as we celebrate the week of Shavuot (the fall Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and remembering our years of wandering in the desert) and gear up for the fall semester which starts next week.

• On Monday and Tuesday this week, the Science Center hosted a "Science Festival" sponsored by the Ministry of Science. The Ministry supports local Research and Development Centers around the country including the Dead Sea Arava Science Center which has a branch located at the Arava Institute. None of us expected to see any visitors stop by the Institute as part of the festival but to our surprise, on the first day a family of five dropped by and on the second day, we had 20 visitors who came to the see the Science Center. Next year, we will try to leverage this into a larger event with more activities and hopefully more visitors.
• Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of the Arava Institute Research Programs and Dr. Shmuel Brenner, Director of the Arava Air Quality Research Program were invited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to travel to Kenya and help develop joint academic, scientific and development programs connected to the UN Millennium Villages project. We will get a full report of their trip from Shmuel and Clive when they get back but for now, I want to share the following from Clive:
• Greetings from Kisumu, western Kenya. Today Shmuel and I had a very special treat. We were taken to meet President Obama's grandmother in her village. It was a very emotional meeting. Barak Obama's grandmother lives in a very modest family compound. The only sign of Obama are some election stickers on her front door. She came out to meet us on her lawn and we sat around chatting with her. She does not speak English so one of our Kenyan colleagues translated for us. She is a very modest woman and we felt humbled to be in her presence. In her compound is the grave of Obama's father and his grandfather. Obama last visited his grandmother in 2006 and she last visited the US for his inauguration. According to the visitor's book it seemed we were the first Israelis to visit her. - Clive
• So while our FAI Staff were off in LA cavorting with the stars and while our Research Programs staff were off in Kenya meeting Barak Obama's grandmother, I had a very quite week at the institute - I got a hair cut, went to the dentist, cooked a birthday dinner for my 16 year old daughter and attended a local farmers market at Kibbutz Yahel. Next week, the excitement begins when the students arrive on Wednesday, I take a trip to Portugal to visit the Tamera Eco Village and Uri Nusinow travels to Brussels at the invitation of the EU. More next week

David