It was a steaming hot day in late July. I had been sitting on an Egged bus10 for what seemed like an eternity, watching the endless desert expanse fly by. My patience suddenly switched to excitement as the bus suddenly pulled off to the side of the road. The driver turned around and gave me a signal. This was my stop, Kibbutz Arava. I searched the bowels of the bus for my belongs—a 50 pound backpack and a guitar. After finding my stuff, I lay it on the side of the blistering hot asphalt road. An insect stopped buzzing in the near distance, startled by my movements. A nervous flash quickly hit me and then vanished as the double decker bus driver put it in first and drove away leaving me behind in the dust and dirt. I pondered for a minute, and thought to myself. "So this is Kibbutz Arava." My head nodded with disbelief. "This is the place where I would be spending the next part of my life."

     The two lane road that I stood next two divided the valley in half. To my right lay an endless stand of palm trees, offering a pleasant oasis next to the endless expanse of barren desert landscape beyond. To my left, I viewed an encampment caged in by row upon row of barbed wire fences. It was Kibbutz Arava. A blue steel gate marked the entrance to the compound. Israel had not always been peaceful with its neighbors, Egypt and Jordan. At one point, those barbed wires were a crucial barrier of protection from the outside. Peace prevails now, and those barbed wires sit, rusting, an unfriendly reminder of the past decades of struggle. I walked through the gates, unnoticed. I lay on the green grass and contemplated my next move.

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     Kibbutz Arava is located 50 km north of Eilot, Israel's southern most city, and favorite holiday spot for the country's inhabitants. The kibbutz is situated in the south eastern portion of Israel's vast Negev desert and lies in the heart of the tranquil and beautiful Arava valley. The Arava valley is a small segment of the enormous Afro-Syrian rift. Stretching from Tanzania more than one thousand north to Turkey, the Afro-Syrian rift is the largest tectonic valley in the world. Just one hundred miles north of Kibutz Arava, the valley dips more than 1000 feet below sea level, creating the lowest depression on Earth, home to the mineral rich Dead Sea.

     The kibbutz is situated off the main road in the Arava valley. Running north and south, the two lane Arava Highway connects southern Israel with Jerusalem and the North. To the west of Kibbutz Arava, beautiful Grand Canyon like mountains form a shelter from the harsh desert winds. To the east, beyond the sea of palms and fields of agriculture, lay the border to Jordan. As Israel and Jordon are currently at peace, there is little worry of border conflict between the two countries. Past the Jordanian border, and four miles beyond, the mountains of Edom offer a dramatic view as they shimmer a blue tint in the distance. Once part of the volcanic Sinai peninsula, 50 miles south, the geologic dynamics of the Afro-Syrian rift have pushed the dark, igneous Mountains of Edom north into Jordan, letting them contrast against the pale sandstone formations that prevail elsewhere in the region.

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