the desert

I went to visit a good friend over the weekend. She went to college here, but after graduation moved out to a village near the desert. I spent 6 hours traveling there and 5 hours to travel home just to be there for about 16 hours, but it was well worth it.
We had so much fun! We got to go boating on a lake in the desert, ride 4-wheelers, slide down the sand hills on a sled, go to an ostrich/exotic bird farm, and walk around a beautiful resort while we chatted about life. (sidenote: one of the nicest tennis courts I've seen in my life...just hanging out in the middle of nowhere at this random resort).
My friend is there because this area has some of the best de-desertification projects going on and that's an area she's interested in. Large numbers of folks come from Japan to plant trees in the area. Apparently it all started with an elderly Japanese man who moved there in 1990 and literally started bulldozing sand in order to start planting trees. He passed away in 2004 at the age of 99 but had created some foundation that continues his work. His story was really inspirational. One old man with this big dream and it's actually being fulfilled. They have a small museum about him with the pictures of the landscape when he arrived in 1990 and they in 2004 and you would never know it's the same place. I'm typically not the kind of person who can look at a desert and see the forest just waiting to waiting to happen, so I'm challenged and encouraged by the folks who can. I hope to go back in September and I'll take more (and hopefully better) pictures then.