Jambo Bwana

One of the coolest things that I've done during this semester is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, which is a country in central east Africa. I was chatting with a friend last night after I got off the mountain who asked me where I was. I responded that I was still in Tanzania. She responded "Oh is that near Kilimanjaro?" Nope, Tanzania is a beautiful country, full of friendly people. It has about 120 tribes and is about 60% Christian, 30% Muslim, and 10% tribal religion, but all different cultural groups get along great, which is a total contrast to South Africa. There is very little conflict or racial tension, which I love, and everyone seems to embrace the "hakuna matata" (no worries) attitude. The people are so relaxed and friendly, and I felt so welcomed by everyone here. It is relatively unknown to Americans, but Tanzania is actually a huge tourist destination. Tanzania is home to mountains, the Serengeti, the Ngorogoro crater, and Zanzibar, which is blessed with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. After visiting Tanzania, it is probably the place I would most recommend to friends to visit of all the 20 something countries that I've been to. Not only is the landscape beautiful, there is so much to do, but the people are some of the most welcoming and friendly people that I that I have ever met. 

In order to blog about my experience here, I'm going to have a post a day, but then at the end a summary post about the mountain and Tanzania in general. The day by day posts are going to be a bit skimpy, but I know that not everyone would like to see every detail of my hike. I would've liked to see something like this before I went, however. It will help people to understand what they are headed towards, and whether or not Kilimanjaro is something that they want to accomplish as well. 

Kilimanjaro Day One

The spectacular company that hosted us during our stay in Tanzania, World Wide Trekking, picked us up at the Rivertrees inn outside of Arusha and brought us to the main gate, where we signed in with the park rangers and met our remarkable guides and porters. For just the two of us, we had two guides and 11 porters. When I heard this, I was so upset. I hate being waited on, and I didn't want to feel like I was dependent on so many people. I felt like such a spoiled American, hiring so many people to take care of me. If you look at it another way, though, by doing the climb you're providing jobs for that many people. The porters ended up being great friends and were so much fun. They made the experience for me, and without them Kilimanjaro wouldn't have been half as fun. 

Dad and I at Machame Gate

All the vans dropping off hikers at Machame Gate.

The trail on Day One was the only one this green. 

The nicest toilet I saw on the entire hike. Fancy stuff. We usually just used the woods, which smelled a whole lot nicer anyways. 

Dad and Erick, one of our guides who made the hikes so much fun.  Erick and Epa, our other guide along with our 11 porters, taught me so much Swahili. I constantly had questions and wanted to learn more, and they put up with everything and did a great job teaching me. The heading of this blog post, "Jambo Bwana", means "Hey man" or "Hey sir."

The ecosystems changed as we climbed, but on our first day we were mainly hiking through forest. 

First camp site, Machame. 

View from our tent. It is so cool that each site is literally a city of tents. There are tents for porters, clients, and guides, and all are separate.

Our first meal on the mountain. Our cook, Dickson, was incredible. We had a multiple course meal every night, and it tasted magical. He was also so much fun to hang around, and taught me a lot of Swahili. My favorite phase that he taught me: "Nina nguvu kama simba"- I'm strong like a lion.