Watching water evaporate in the desert.
I did this work at Mitzpeh Ramon. This was the first time I had been in a desert. We had taken a walk through the landscape the first day we were there… It felt as if we were on the moon.
I sat on the terrace, watching a plate of water evaporate. I sat very still, just staring at it, trying to see the evaporation take place. The sun was very bright, glaring.
People sat with me. In stillness. And in silence.
I was there about 4 hours, but not all of the water was gone when it was time for us to leave. I had hoped to stay there until it was completely gone, evaporated, and I was sorry that I had to leave before finishing the work…
I still wonder how long it would really have taken.
Someone said that it didn’t evaporate quickly because it was winter.
Others were concerned that I would become dehydrated, and get sun stroke.
I wore a scarf over my head. I discovered the value of that kind of full head covering, which is something that we had seen earlier that day as a group of Bedouin women passed by, herding sheep. The covering creates a kind of micro-climate under the cloth – the air stays moist from your breath, and the water doesn’t evaporate so quickly because it is dark and the cloth holds the moisture.
