Red Mountain Theraputic Riding Center at Kibbutz Grofit

Written and Photographed by Nahum Eisenstadt

The CAARI program began its third touring day at Kibbutz Grofit's Red Mountain Thereputic Riding Center. The first picture shows Kathy shoval in the pink fleece jacket receiving the CAARI group at the Red Mountain Thereputic riding Center. In the back the horses are being mounted by children that are t receive horseback riding therapy. We met Ellen Reisal, Rafi Osmo and Kathy Shoval. Ellen Reisal, the center's psychologist, is shown explaining the therapy and why it is so successful with the most difficult physical and emotional challenged children and adults. Rafi is standing next to her. The other photos show the children receiving therapy on the horses and how they are used.

The JNF of America has contributed generously to this site's infrastructure and provide sscholarship money to children from the surrounding communities and Eilat that otherwise would not be able to receive this vital therapy. The results speak for themselves as do the children who are treated here.

Red Mountain Theraputic Riding Center at Kibbutz Grofit

Written and Photographed by Nahum Eisenstadt

This is a picture of the CAARI participants in back of a special tree planted in honor of Neti Steinman's 90th birthday and her request to make a special donation through the JNF to the Red Mountain Theraputic Riding Center at Kibbutz Grofit. Neti was a long time CAARI participant (as was her daughter Joni) and is now one of our most trusted consultants. Her son Ralph, who passed away tragically one day before the public announcemnet was made, was one of the three recipients of the Nobel prize in medicine this past November. May his memory be a blessing for all.

Touring Kibbutz Ketura Home of the Arava Institute

Written and Photographed by Nahum Eisenstadt

In back of the statue of Ruth that CAARI is posing on is 20 acres of solar panels that became functional only a few months ago. They supply power to the Israel Electric Company power grid and proved that this method of power generation is possible and efficient. It pays for itself inside of seven years and supplies five MW of electricity, enough to power 4 Kibbutzim in the area. There are 18,600 solar panels in this field. There is another field like this one planned to be built just south of the date palm grove on the east side of the Kibbutz fields on the Jordanian border that will be eight times bigger and supply 40 MW of power. Israel generates much less electricity using solar energy than other Western countries do at the moment. The goal is to reach 15% of generated power from solar energy.

Magical Botancial Tour of Kibbutz Ketura

Written and photographed by Nahum Eisenstadt

These pictures show some of the experimental trees, herbs and plants that Dr. Elaine is domesticating and studying for their medicinal properties. The top picture shows the Medicinal herb section where research is done for Hadassah Hospital and Tufts University in Boston for molecules of various plants that have medicinal value. In the background you can see some of the over 3000 date trees of the Majole or Dekel Nur varieties that are so profitable due to their ability to be irrigated with extremely salty water. They also serve as a windbreaker for th stong winds that blow in the Arava Valley. The lower picture shows an endangered tree specie from the Ficus family called the Ficus Psuedo Sycomorous. Its bark is a known remedy for gangreen(sp) that was ground up and mixed with honey and applied to aflicted body part. The middle picture shows the tree from the Joseph story in the Book of Exodus, called "Nataf "in Hebrew or a Lalob tree in English, its Latin name is Balanides Aegypticus and it contains an antiproliforation chemical for Leukemia and will kill the bacteria in the Nile that causes Sistosimiasis.

Magical Botanical Tour on Kibbutz Ketura

Written and photographed by Nahum Eisenstadt

The highlight of our third CAARI touring day in the Eilat area was our time with Dr. Elaine Solowey on Kibbutz Ketura. She was one of the founders of this Kibbutz in the early 1970's and her experitse in medicinal plants and trees and her experience sprouting extinct tree species with very old seeds was so impressive. Here we can see the oldest sprouted seed in the world named Methusalah a Judean date palm sprouted from seeds found at Masada between 1963-5 that date back to the first century C.E.

CAARI SUNSET CRUISE

Written and photos by Nahum Eisenstadt

To end the day our brave 13 comprising CAARI 2012, boarded a double masted schooner named the Orionia, in the Eilat marina, and sailed into the setting Wednesday sun, heading south viewing the beautiful mountains of Edom, Midyan and the Eilat mountains in the setting sun. An open bar and Bar-B-Qued dinner help end another exciting day touring the many projects of JNF. Here we see some of the hardier participants posing on the Orionia deck. The setting sun halo can be seen in the backgound. The second photo shows Captain Ronen and the City of Eilat and mountains of Edom in the background as we had out to sea.