Journeys for Knowledge

For the past few months, I had become more involved with a solar car team at a local middle school. The teacher had approached OIST asking for assistance in preparing their car for one last race in the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge, before finally retiring the car. Given my previous experience with my old solar car team in Berkeley, I felt I was in a unique position to help. OIST felt the same way, and allowed me to attend the race to assist the team as they tried to qualify.

By the time I arrived, the car was steadily being repaired, with lots of help from other teams. Fresh off of a restful 10 hour flight, I jumped in and fixed up the car so by the afternoon it could participate in the timed lap trials at Yas Marina Circuit preceding the race. To manage the timing, each team had a representative in the timing room to monitor the laps. It was encouraging to hear support from all the other teams, who were happy to see we were finally making it out onto the track.

The race itself was quite exciting, mostly taking part out in the western region of the UAE. Although we could not race the first day, we did start the second out in the desert and drove for most of the day. That evening the event organizers held a giant banquet for all the teams, and housed everyone for the night is a large tent with a carpet bottom. Not exactly a typical desert camping experience, but near enough as one can get these days.

The last day of the race was short, but with all the teams finishing we packed up and moved back into the city to pack and rest up for the awards ceremony the next day. The official awards ceremony was actually the next evening, but the organizers wanted to show off the solar cars at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit, which has illustrious guests including President el-Sisi, and Al Gore. After exploring the exhibition halls and eating a quick lunch, I took my first real nap since I arrived in Abu Dhabi. Before this I was averaging 3 hours of sleep a night, simply from all the work and how early each day we need to get up. Refreshed, I headed out to the true awards ceremony, to trade team shirts and say goodbye to all the new friends I had made. With one final effort to pack the car, I returned to my hotel room exhausted, but relieved of duty.

Waking up late for once (7 AM), I spent my final day in Abu Dhabi wandering Yas Mall, looking at the overall extravagance and collecting from small souvenirs for friends back in Japan. I tried to do as little as possible on this final day, recovering physically and mentally from the last week. Upon my return, I still felt weakened, and I do not know how much it will take t orecover from the sleep deprivation, but in time all will be well.

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