Kilimanjaro Success 2013!

Kilimanjaro:

The Great Adventure of 2013 

For the full photo album, go here:

Kilimanjaro 2013!

Facts first: Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world and the tallest mountain in Africa at 19,341 feet or 5,895 meters. It is a dormant volcano. Almost every kind of ecological system is found on the mountain: cultivated land, rain forest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and an arctic summit. Approximately 25,000 people attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro annually. Approximately two-thirds are successful. Altitude-related problems is the most common reason climbers turn back.

I DID NOT TURN BACK!!!

Ah, yes, the story of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. What an amazing experience, it was.

You pay per how many days you want to take to climb the mountain. The most common is 6 or 7. It is good to take your time to allow for acclimatization. I had signed up for a 6 day climb, but I ended up doing it in 5 days! Everyone was impressed, including me. 

So, Day One: Hello Jungle. 

It is so lush and just dripping with layers and layers of greenery. It was also the rainy season, so pretty much every day we hiked in the rain. It ranged from misting, light rain to downright downpours with whipping wind. We got wet. Some days soaked, but being able to warm up with chai and put on dry clothes at the end of the day made it all worth it. 

End of day one! I am not sure how long we hiked. 4 hours? 5 hours?....It was not bad. I felt tired, but not exhausted. You feel the kind of exhaustion that you get from physically exerting yourself. It my favorite type of exhaustion because you feel all tingly and good and accomplished and lying down feels absolutely fantastic.  

                             

They feed you so much food. My guide said that as long as you have an appetite and are able to eat, eat as much as you can because you don't know when you might not be feeling so well. So...eat I did! They always start out with some hot chai and a snack like popcorn or nuts. 

I love popcorn!!! On a silver platter too!

After a little break, the second course is always a yummy soup. I had cream of celery soup, potato soup, carrot and ginger soup and pumpkin soup! They were all delicious. 

After soup came fried fish, potatoes and a hearty vegetable sauce. I could not finish it all, but I gave it my best shot. 

My cook and one of the porters! Always smiling. 

The one on the left is Jackson. He was a porter, but he was also my waiter. He brought me everything. The man on the right....I can't remember his name, but he was also a kind spirited fellow. 

Last but not least, my guide, Brighton!!! Such a fantastic fellow. He has been trekking Kilimanjaro for 8 years. He called me his Queen and he treated me like one too.

So after a nice sleep in a gigantic, puffy sleeping bag, we are off! The second day was very vertical with lots of rocks. The greenery was lovely.

The porters are really amazing. They carry very large loads and they practically run up the mountain.

For some reason I really like this picture. I call it my sassy umbrella pose with a huge ass crow-like bird in the background. The one thing that I found frustrating is that most of the time we were surrounded by really thick fog. I could sense that I was surrounded by such an immense, beautiful landscape, but I just couldn't see it! It was like the mountain was teasing me!

This was our path. Such moody weather. Some times I felt like I was in the Lord of the Rings! Except, without the whole evil eye of Mordor watching over me and living in fear of Orks. 

We got above the clouds! I was nieve in thinking that it would mean that it wouldn't rain anymore. Wrong. Very, very wrong. Beautiful though. That is Mount Meru in the distance, which was a bit of a trip because we would walk by Meru everyday on our way to school. 

Day 2 down and the chai is fantastic. Dry clothes and a hot beverage makes for a happy lady. 

We maybe hiked for 5 hours that day....I never really paid attention to the time. I just kept putting one foot on front of the other. One great piece of advice that my dad gave me was to always look where you put your feet. This was in regards to a construction zone setting, but pretty much applicable to all life situations. Except for sleep. I don't think you need to watch where you put your feet when you sleep. 

The peak of Kilimanjaro decided to show itself on the morning of the 3rd day. So beautiful. 

The clouds parted so that I could see Shira needle too. This was looking out the door of my tent. Pretty nice view. 

A little early morning yoga to get ready for the day's trek. 

The landscape on the third day was spectacular. On day three, they work to acclimatize you, so you hike high and sleep low. We hiked up to Lava Tower which was 4600 meters. The hiking was rough, though, on the 3 hour ascent. The weather was bad. The rain was coming down hard and the wind was coming from all directions, plus it was cold. I did my best not to complain, however, it was nice to know that I wasn't crazy or a wimp when my guide admitted that the weather was really bad. He was always 100% positive and optimistic about everything, so if he acknowledged the weather...then I knew it was real. 

There is no way to portray the scale of this landscape. It was incredibly immense though. This was on the descent towards camp. The whole valley opened up to these large, cascading rivers pouring over and carving through rocky caverns. 

These "trees" were gigantic also. I just felt like I was transported to another land. 

We arrived at Barafu camp after about 6 or 7 hours of hiking. I have to say that was the hardest day yet. The combination of climbing high, gaining altitude, weather and then climbing downhill on wet rocks for many hours put some exhaustion in the old body. It was still fun though. Brighton and I got along great, so we just kept the whole thing playful. He was very attentive to me. 

In this picture he is pointing to the "breakfast wall" at our camp. That is what we had to climb the next day. It sure is something to be able to see what you will literally have to conquer in the morning. I was a bit intimidated, but excited for the challenge. 

The sunset was amazing...

Brighton, my fearless leader.

I love this picture of the mountain.

And.....off we go. The breakfast wall was a piece of cake!

Woopie!!!!! I made it to the top! Well, of one giant piece of rock at least. More to come. 

I absolutely loved this...to indicate that you are going the right way, people have built little piles of stones along the path. The visual is just stunning to me. Just a silent indicator made out of the natural elements of the area, but yet a very human presence. It struck an odd feeling of comfort inside of me. Almost a sense of being taken care of and also an indicator that so many people have passed this way before. A shared experience. 

  

So this is day 4 now....This was our last camp before summit. You start the climb to summit at about 11 pm or midnight. I was not able to sleep beforehand and we had come off of a fairly brutal, 7 hour day of hiking, but I had adrenaline! You climb through the night with a headlamp, while gaining altitude. I believe that we went from about 4600 meters to 5895 meters. I was so pleased with how my body handled the altitude. I never felt nauseous. I had occasional headaches, but they weren't bad. What I did experience on the night of the summit was a bit of hallucinatory, delusional type visuals. It wasn't uncomfortable or disconcerting, just a noticeable change in my physical state.  

So there are no photos of the summit, mostly because it was dark and I was going mildly crazy...My guide was great. He helped me keep my pace and stay focused. I had never thought of myself as competitive before...but I may need to think again. Over the past few days, I was the first to arrive at camp before all the other climbers. I was also occasionally passing porters. I wasn't even trying. I was just going with what felt right. My guide was very impressed. So that got me thinking...maybe I could be the first to summit. So I decided that's what I wanted. 

When we started out around 11.30 or 12, looking up towards the mountain, all I could see was a slow, bobbing line of headlamps. So surreal. We hit the mountain. Within 30 minutes to an hour, we had passed everyone on the mountain! I kept telling myself..."this is not a competition. Listen to your body. Don't push yourself. The goal is to make it to the top..." I still really wanted to be the first though.

The climbing was hard. I think it was mostly the challenge of the altitude. Many times all I could do was cycle my breathes in time with my extremely slow foot steps and concentrate on my body. There were a lot of silent self pep-talks in my head. This was the first time I felt truly challenged. It was physically hard. However, I think that it was almost a bigger mental challenge. You just had to keep going. One foot in front of the other. Stay focused. Stay strong. 

So, after 6 hours of hiking through the night and watching the moon cross over the sky, we were the first ones to reach Uhuru peak right as the sun was coming up!!!!!

Me and Brighton!

Now for some lovely photos of the sunrise and the glaciers....

And....I'm down!

The sun is coming up....

Annnnnd......I'm back up!

Absolutely gorgeous

I feel lucky.

VICTORIOUS!!! 

Back in the states, my friends own and operate an amazing studio called Four Gates. I do kettlebells, yoga and dance there. The people are amazing and the workouts make you healthy in mind, body and spirit. I climbed the mountain with the spirit of Four Gates!

Pamoja tunaweza!

Together, we can. 

So that is about it for the photos. After summiting, we had about a 3 hour hike back to camp. That was the most exhausted I had been on the climb. Normally I didn't like stopping for breaks, but I stopped many times because I was just physically exhausted. Having had no sleep before the summit, I had essentially done 13 hours of hiking! So we got back to camp and I took a half hour nap. Then I had some chai, and some food...and we talked....about our itinerary and expectations. I was feeling better. 

We had to break camp and move on. Most move on to the last camp and stay the night there. I wanted to see if I could hike all the way down the mountain in one day. So, we got on our way. I felt so good, I was practically running down the mountain at times! I think it was a combination of delirium, sleep deprivation and adrenaline running through my veins. 

So we told our crew to hold up at Mweka camp until we got there. That is where we were scheduled to camp, but we were going to see how I felt. When we got there and I gave them the thumbs up to keep going, they all got the biggest smiles on their faces. They were happy to be done. It was raining again and this meant that they didn't have to set up camp in the rain. 

The last leg was all downhill in the jungle. It took about 3 hours. We got to the bottom at about 6 or 7 p.m. We had left camp after summiting at about 11 a.m. By that time my knees hurt so bad ad my feet felt like they were bleeding--they weren't, but I had developed some gigantic blisters. So every step hurt and it was one of the first times I asked Brighton, 'how much further?'...

When I got to the bottom, my whole crew was there cheering for me: "Hongera! Hongera sana! Una simba! Nguvu sana!"

Which means, congratulations very much. You are a lion. You are very strong!

So, I summited and hiked all the way from Uhuru peak to the bottom in one day!!!

I'm still having a hard time believing that I did that. Many people, including my porters, guide and owner of the company that I climbed with were very impressed. So, I guess I feel like bragging a little. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I was able to do it. 

Sometimes it is good to push yourself to your limits. I am not sure if I reached my limit, but I definitely proved some of my own strengths to myself. 

It felt really, really good.

Now I will just have to come back and climb in the dry season so I can see what scenery was hiding behind all of those clouds!

Love,

Sadie

Goodbye TCDC and Makumira

For those who know me well, you know that I am a softy, sentimental weirdo. So, on that note, as I start the next phase of my journey, I have a writing that I think is so apt for this time and place. I hope it resonates with some of you. Mad love to you all and remember to always keep it real.

"Crossing that threshold into your uncharted future is an act of great courage and self-compassion, and it changes your relationship to life in a fundamental way. It embodies your willingness to employ a new form of risk-taking, to consciously choose growth-stimulating, soul-nourishing conflicts, to live through the accompanying anxiety, and to accept your life as open-ended and unpredictable. Passing through that door commits you to living in the present in a way you never before have. Your personal, cultural, or religious past no longer provides you with a map to your future."

The internet is only half working so I am not able to upload many pictures. My family made me a cake for my last night! Then we sat around the table and all talked about how much we would miss one another. It was so fun to feel like a part of their family. I will miss hearing their sweet voices every time I walk in the door. Always so much warmth and laughter.

My time here at MS-TCDC has come to an end and I said goodbye to my family today. I went into it knowing that it was temporary. Everything in life is temporary and if you really try to embody that concept, it makes saying goodbye a little easier. However, the connections you make in your life are forever a part of you. That is how I feel about everyone that I have come to know and love here. I carry all of you with me in my heart and so I never feel alone. It's true.

What I love about this place is that it really teaches you to roll with the punches. With that comes the ‘hamna shida’ attitude. Hamna shida, like hakuna matata, essentially means no problem. While it can get frustrating to have things pretty much never run according to plan, it is a good practice in patience and reevaluating what is really important. At home in the states, it is common to pack our schedules so full that you are yelling at the traffic light when it doesn’t turn or you become irritated if you are left more than 5 minutes waiting for someone or something. While I do like structure and routine and efficiency, having to let it all go feels good too. My time here has made me embody that reality.

Another thing that just floors me every time is how incredibly strong the women are here and in the most silent way possible. They just go about their work…gracefully. Work that requires serious physical and mental strength. It requires a resiliency of spirit on a level that most people in developed countries rarely have to call on. The mamas here are badass.

Everywhere you look, whether you are in a rural or an urban setting, you see women carrying very heavy loads of water, food, wood—anything and everything—on their heads. Last weekend I watched this woman, who was probably in her 50’s, take about a 5 gallon bucket, fill it with water from the stream and then seamlessly lift it up to her head without spilling a drop and then, in one fluid motion, she turns and walks in flip flops up this steep, muddy hill…and just continues on with her day. It is absolutely incredible the amount of physical labor that people do in this country.

Another one of my favorite things to do is to say, “Shikamoo” to a mama or a bibi (grandma) who is tirelessly working away. Shikamoo means essentially, “I show you my respect”. The response is, “marahaba”. Their response is one of the most genuine, heartfelt, fully engaged responses you could ever hope to get from a stranger on the road. Just full body smile, followed by some high fives and some laughs. Oh. I am going to miss those exchanges. If you ever feel unsafe or unsure of your surroundings, go find yourself a mama and you will be taken care of.  

Well, this blog post is short and maybe a little disjointed, but this week has been busy and I need to go flag down a bus to Moshi, and I do literally mean 'flag down a bus'. You wait for one that looks like the one you want, wave your arms and scream "Moshi?" to the driver. If they have room...or not, they stop and shove you on. I hope that I have a seat waiting for me.

Okay, ya'll. It's been real and it's been fun and it's been real fun. 

Off to climb Kilimanjaro!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Sadie

Zanzibar Brings Relief

Nothing like a real island vacation to get the blood back in circulation again. Zanzibar is beautiful.

Zanzibar is technically part of Tanzania, but it feels completely different. Here is a little brief history:
The mainland used to be called Tanganyika. On the 26^th of April 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar gave up their autonomy to become the United Republic of Tanzania. Since the Union of 1964 the mainland has never had a separate government.  Zanzibar does hold a separate government, but the powers were not transferred to the Union government.

Zanzibar has had many cultural influences over the course of its history. The first round of outsiders were the Portugese. Zanzibar is well known for its spices. The Portugese controlled the trade routes until the mid 1700's. They were thrown out by the Omani Sultanate of Arabic descent. They help power until about the turn of the century when the Brits came in. The large white building on the far right was the Sultan's Palace. I am not sure if it is even used for anything now. 

Okay, enough history. Time for some fun!

So, we stayed at the Jambo Beach Bungalows for $20 a night. It included breakfast. It definitely is not the place to stay if you are looking for peace and quiet, but the people are so nice and friendly and have good tast in music--which is playing all the time. 

The water goes out so far during low tide. So many people come out to work on the exposed sand during that time. I watched them for hours as I lay on the beach trying to figure out what they were doing. 

This woman was digging something up from the sand for hours. I asked around and found out that they bury the fibers on the outside of the coconut. They leave it buried for a few months up to a year and then dig it back up. They dry it out and continue to work with it to make it into rope. Just fascinating.

They mark the fibers that they have buried with sticks. The sticks are only exposed at low tide. 

Women working everywhere...

These ladies were coming back in with the tide. 

We spent our first three nights on Paje beach. It wouldn't be a beach vacation if I didn't include some bikini pictures, right?!

This is me and Natalie

So much sunburn. I stayed under cover mostly. It doesn't matter how many times I put on sunscreen. I am on doxycycline for my anti-malaria pill and it makes you burn. 

Also, men here like to dance. They like to pull you off of your chair, even if you are refusing. This man, who is Maasai, did just that. So I danced with him on the beach.

He got such a kick out of the fact that I could jump repeatedly....so we did. Repeatedly. Until I couldn't jump anymore!

We also took a spice tour. Zanzibar is known for it's spices such as cardamom, turmeric, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, henna, etc. It was cool to see all of them in their natural state. They made us lovely necklaces!

After three nights of relaxing on the beach, we headed into Stone Town, which is the historic part of the larger Zanzibar town. You could really feel the Arabic and Portugese cultural influences in the architecture and carved wooden doorways.

The streets were so narrow.

The doorways were beautiful....

Here is one that is either newer or has been maintained...

We ate at this restaurant totally geared towards tourists, called Mercury's. It is named after Freddy Mercury of Queen. He was born on Zanzibar. It was such a beautiful place to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean and watch the locals go about their way of life.

Bringing the boats up on the shore is a group effort

These guys were doing repeated backflips for about an hour. It was so fun to watch. 

So, that was our trip in a nutshell. It was a really nice little get away. We were able to take Fastjet, a local plane service, roundtrip for $60. The flight took 45 minutes as opposed to 8 hours on a bus and then a two hour ferry ride, which would have also been more expensive. 

I thought it was time for a more lighthearted, pure fluff post!

See you later! Love, Sadie