Water in the desert

Danish and Egyptian students of geoscience went on a joint field trip in Assuit from the 4th to the 8th of April 2022 to study the history of climate change in the New Valley desert and Kharga Oasis.

By Agnete Flyger

Students were excitedly chatting on the bus as they were leaving the luscious greenery behind in the Nile valley city of Assuit and heading far into the seemingly never-ending desert on a hot April day. While half of the group on the bus was used to the dry and warm climate of Egypt, the other half had just arrived from Denmark’s cold and humid climate and although these places might sound like polar opposites, there are more similarities than one might think.

That is what this group of geoscience students from both Denmark and Egypt, among other objectives, set out to study further in the Western desert of Egypt. The group, consisting of ten students from Gladsaxe High School and ten students of the Faculty of Agriculture at Assuit University, came together last week for the first time.

Magnus Limborg, teacher of physics, geography, and geoscience at Gladsaxe High School has been responsible for the project from the Danish side. Photo: Elisabeth Vang Jørgensen // DEDI — Magnus Limborg, teacher of physics, geography, and geoscience at Gladsaxe High School has been responsible for the project from the Danish side. Photo: Agnete Flyger // DEDI

“The project is about getting to know the world and getting to know some of the mechanisms in this rather complex system of atmosphere, earth, soil, and water and to ensure that we have enough resources for the future generations,” says Magnus Limborg, teacher of physics, geography, and geoscience at Gladsaxe High School.

The history of this project goes all the way back to 2006, where professor Niels Schrøder from Roskilde University and Professor Mohsen Gamie from Assuit University embarked on a Danish-Egyptian geoscience collaboration, studying the history of rainfalls in Sahara. Two years ago, the project shifted hands on the Danish side and Magnus Limborg, who at the time was working on his master thesis under the supervision of professor Schrøder, took over the project. This culminated in the current exchange between Gladsaxe High School and Assuit University’s Faculty of Agriculture.

Included in the program in Assuit, was a visit to the experimental farm of the university’s Faculty of Agriculture, where the Egyptian students are conducting their personal experiments and research. The students gave short presentations of their projects, and among them was Martina Barzy, who gave a presentation on her experiments with growing plants without soil (hydroponic systems).

Martina Barzy showing her experiments with growing plants without soil.

Overcoming the shyness

For Martina, the joint fieldtrip provided her with new knowledge both scientifically and culturally, but, according to her, it was the personal exchange that really made an impression: “It was my first experience getting to know someone from a different country and culture than mine, so it has been a very eye-opening and important opportunity for me,” she said.

“In the beginning, I felt shy but when we arrived in Kharga, we each got a roommate from Denmark, and my roommate Laura and I got to know each other by exchanging Arabic and Danish words,” Martina explained with a smile.

It was the first time Danish student, Simone Yamakawa, visited Egypt. Photo: Elisabeth Vang Jørgensen // DEDI

One of the Danish students, Simone Yamakawa, shared similar reflections on getting to know each other during the week.

“I was a little frustrated at first because I didn’t really know how to talk to my roommate. But we quickly found common ground and one of the things that stood out to me was, that we are not that different. One night, we all played cards and UNO and we were teaching each other the different variations of games that we knew,” Simone says.

Visualizing knowledge

During the field trip, there was an unusual heatwave with temperatures above 45 degrees, making it a bit of a challenge, especially at Kharga Oasis, where the students climbed the enormous sand dunes from where the desert stretched out all around them. From here, they recorded the elevation as the focus of this trip was to visit and study different geomorphic sites to understand the geological phenomenon they have been learning in class. To Martina Barzy, this was an important aspect of the trip.

“What I have learnt in the classroom helps me understand what I am looking at in real life. Instead of my studies only being theoretical, this trip gave me an opportunity to also be practical and see what we have been studying, in reality”

Martina Barzy

The two Danish students, Kamma Høst Mellemgaard and Simone Yamakawa shared the experience of benefitting from being on a fieldtrip. “From a geoscience perspective, it is interesting to be in an oasis. We’re in the middle of the desert but because the level of groundwater is so high, plants, trees, and other greenery can grow,” Kamma said to which Simone added “also to realize that we are down in a valley because when you are here, you don’t see it but then when we measure the elevation, suddenly you realize it. It’s fun to see the bigger picture of where we are.”

Kamma Høst Mellemgaard and Simone Yamakawa looking at projects in the greenhouse at the experimental farm of Assuit University’s Faculty of Agriculture. Photo: Agnete Flyger // DEDI

Reunion in Denmark

Only a week after the Danish students have left Egypt, the group will be reuniting in Copenhagen, where the fieldtrip in Denmark will take off.

“We are going to see the foundation of the Danish agriculture, so we will see the different processes that actually made the danish soil as fertile as it is,” Magnus Limborg explains, one of the two teachers from Gladsaxe Highschool who have planned the trip.

“We are going to the morse in Central Jutland, that 200-300 years ago was facing the same problems of desertification that we have seen in the New Valley. It’s an important part of the fieldtrip to study how Egyptian and Danish farmers have had to address the same challenges regarding climate change now or in the past.”