Amazing Negev Day by Rosalie Whitehill

Thursday, we traveled to the northwestern part of the Negev desert, where we visited the JNF Research and Development Station for the South, at Sde Nitzan, close to the Gaza border, an awesome and inspirational place.....where we saw some examples of how this part of JNF is working to improve the world production of agricultural products such as peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, wheat, and more.....and learned that all their findings are available to everyone....so impressive!!! They even had us working and contributing to their research on wheat. We pulled the wheat for the sampling, placed in bags for analysis, and then cleared the area.
Next stop… Kibbutz Gvulot, a place important in the War for Independence, where we had a delicious lunch (or we were really hungry from all that work), tour of the original kibbutz from 1943 and the War of Independence and an opportunity to plant trees.
Later we went to see one of Israel's most unusual reservoirs....in the Besor region. The Besor reservoir system is really three reservoirs. These important reservoirs were made possible by JNF and donors from South Africa, USA, Australia and Great Britain. It is good to know that Israeli technology assures that Israel will not have a water problem in 2 years.....and that over 80% of their waste water is recycled. The entire day was fascinating....and full of reasons to be proud of JNF and of Israel.
Wishing you my love,
Rosallie