Kilimanjaro

I survived the mountain! From Moshi, Tanzania to the top of Africa at 19,590 ft and back in 6 days. It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life but also probably one of the most rewarding. I left my SFS family on May 7^th with lots of tears in Arusha. I caught a bus to Moshi which was a very different bus experience than what I’m used to. The bus was crammed with people to its maximum capacity. I sat between two men with very little personal space and people stood on the bus in the aisles. The bus would pull over to the side of the road periodically and the door would swing open with people hanging out calling out our destination. Also in some areas where we stopped people would run to the bus carrying snacks, drinks, and candy that they thrust at the windows for people to buy. I arrived in Moshi sweaty and thirsty and got a cab to the hotel where I was meeting my fellow climbers and where we were departing from in the morning. The people from the other SFS group were Ashley, Riley, and Arjun and we all had dinner together at the hotel, compared our experiences in the program and prepared for our hike to begin the next morning.

We were picked up by Job, the trip organizer and a car-full of porters and equipment. We drove to the Machame gate where it promptly started to rain and everything was packed up. We donned our raincoats and gaiters and started our hike at about 4,000 ft.  Our two guides were named Simon and Laurent. As we hiked we discovered that Simon had been up the mountain more than 200 times and Laurent more than 100, definitely comforting. We began hiking in the rainforest which is the 2^nd zone of Kilimanjaro after the agricultural zone. The hike was beautiful in the rain and reminded me so much of California that I started having Big Sur flashbacks, especially with the rain. Luckily my raincoat kept me pretty dry! We passed many huge trees that were completely covered in moss as we climbed up the mountain. For most of the hike we were walking into mist and there were clouds on either side of us so we couldn’t see what was beyond the trees. It was eerie but really cool! As we walked the porters who carried the tents, food, and majority of equipment passed us. I expected that they may have big backpacks to put everything in, but no, they carried big plastic bags on their heads and necks. Their strength amazes me! We hiked into the next zone of them mountain which was moorland which also had a lot of moss but the vegetation changed a lot. The trees became more like bushes and it got a little more rocky. We reached our camp much quicker than expected because we were all in good shape (thank you Shawn-T from Insanity). Our camp was called Machame camp and it was at about 9,900 ft. We were supposed to wait while the porters set up camp which felt really weird since I've never had all that done for me. When they called us down they showed us to a dining tent where a table and chairs were set up. We were served chai and popcorn for a snack and then a really nice meal for dinner. The meal included leek soup, fish and potatoes, a vegetable sauce, and bananas. It was delicious! After more chai it started to get pretty cold so we got into our sleeping bags and slept.

The porters hiking ahead of us in the moorland zone.

The next day was short but steep. It started out clear and sunny which was a nice change from the rain. We caught our first glimpse of the distant peak we were headed for. We hiked up a slippery rocky trail passing streams, waterfalls, and caves. As we walked the clouds rolled in and we were covered in mist droplets. We reached an overlook where we could see the blanket of clouds below us covering the land. Our lunch break was at the top of a ridge where large ravens circled us eyeing our food. It was downhill to Shira camp at 12,672 ft which we reached at about 1:30. We had a chance to explore the area around our campsite where lava flows had created ridges. We walked along one ridge and sat watching the clouds moving up the mountain. They cleared from the peak again and we had a great view of Kibo (the main peak of Kili). Another yummy dinner and then bedtime!

One of the ravens at our lunch spot

Our third day was our acclimatization day and it was a long hike. We hiked up into the alpine desert zone of the mountain. Our highest point of the day was called Lava Tower at 15,180 ft, the highest I’ve ever been! I could definitely feel the altitude up there! The lava formations were huge and we descended among them into the moorland again. Our camp was in a beautiful valley which many rivers ran through. This was Barranco camp at 13,035 ft.

Our campsite in front of Barranco wall

The next morning we had to climb the Barranco wall which required some scrambling up rocks. It was a lot of fun for us but I don’t know how the porters did it! We kept hiking up to Barafu camp which was our base camp to reach the summit. This was at 15,180 ft. We had a partially sunny day which was nice because it started to get pretty cold up there. We ate dinner and went to sleep as soon as we could because we were exhausted from the day and we had to wake up at 11:00 pm to start our ascent to the summit.

The view of the top from base camp

So after about 4 hours of sleep we got up and began to hardest hike of my life. The first part was all rocks but we soon reached snow that we had to trek over. The wind whipped at our faces and when we stopped for water our bodies quickly got cold. We slowly went up and up and the altitude made everyone feel a little sick. The sunrise began at 5:30 in the morning and we all couldn’t wait to feel the warm sun on our bodies. It was a beautiful deep red sunrise above the sea of clouds that stretched below. We could see Mawenzi peak, the smaller peak of Kili as we watched the sun come up. Finally we made it to Stella Point at 18,938 ft where we rested in the sun before our final climb to the summit. The last climb was very slow completely on snow and I stepped slowly one pole at a time feeling pretty dizzy. There were huge glaciers on either side of the trail. I made it to the very top at 8:10 am and got pretty emotional up there looking out across everything. It was amazing and I was in disbelief that I actually made it. We took pictures at the top and then headed down to base camp.

Sunrise as we climbed

At the top of Uhuru Peak!

Walking down felt great on the lungs but was hard on the knees on the slippery scree. We were SO tired too since by the time we reached base camp again we had hiked for 11 hours! We took an hour nap, ate lunch and then had to leave for the next camp. As we napped it snowed and hailed outside but when we left it was only raining a bit. We hiked 4 hours through more rain to Mweka Camp at 10,230 ft. Descending to that altitude felt so good even on my exhausted body! We ate dinner and immediately passed out. Our last day we woke up early to try to beat the rain but it was still there. We heard that there was a lot of snow on the peak so we were grateful to have done it when we did. It was a 3.5 hour hike down, down, down through the rainforest. My legs and especially knees were very sore but my lungs felt great. We made it to the bottom, signed ourselves off of the mountain, and piled in the van to go back to the hotel. At the hotel we organized the tip for our crew who were wonderful! When we gave out the money there was a huge celebration with all the porters yelling, doing handstands, forming a dance circle, and hugging us. It was hilarious and a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget. We must have given them too much but they deserved it and we had gone with the cheapest tour company so I felt good about it. We jumped in hot showers, ate fries, pizza, and milkshakes, and tried to dry all of our wet clothes. The next day Arjun, Ashley, and Riley would leave for Nairobi early in the morning and I would take a bus to Same (a town outside of Moshi) to meet my WWOOFing family.

Goodbye SFS

There are three days left of my program here in Tanzania so things are really starting to wrap up. It’s amazing how fast the time went by! The last two and a half weeks have been spent researching, analyzing data, and writing a paper for our directed research projects. We were all split into groups based on the three main subjects Wildlife Ecology, Wildlife Management, and Environmental Policy. We were able to request the project we wanted to work on but there had to be an even number of students working on each project. My first choice was Wildlife Ecology because the professor is really interesting and he was working on two projects involving elephants. One was about the Maasai use of and beliefs about elephants and the other was about elephant demography. I ended up getting my second choice which was the Environmental Policy project involving interviewing the local people about their knowledge of climate change and the effects its had on their lives. I’m so glad that I ended up working on this project because I think it was truly a unique experience to meet and talk with so many of the local people. Within the group we all decided to look at different aspects of the local peoples’ knowledge. I focused on their knowledge of changes in water availability in their area, changes in agricultural production, and any strategies they used to increase productivity. Others were looking at knowledge about environmental conservation, climate change, effects of climate change on pastoralists, and on gender roles. The 8 days of research we did were full days out in three different villages with a partner and a local guide. We would go from house to house and interview whoever was there as long as they were older than 18. One of the first things that struck me was that this technique would NEVER work in the US. It really exemplified some of the cultural differences. First, there was usually someone home at every house we went to and second, most everyone was welcoming and willing to be interviewed for about half an hour. I think if anyone tried this in the US the majority of the time doors would be slammed in your face and if you were able to ask questions they would have to last no longer than 5 minutes. The hustle and bustle does not exist in daily life here, people are laid back and don’t always have somewhere they have to be. We interviewed such a variety of people from different tribes, some mothers who were our age, some ancient men and women, young Maasai moran, and there were always adorable children. I was able to photograph everyone who would let me as part of the research too!

Our guide Julius and I walking to the next boma for interviews

One of my favorite pictures of an 84 year old woman we interviewed named Elizabeth

The most interesting responses to our questions were about what climate change was and what caused it. There were very few people who understood climate change on a global scale. However, the majority of people understood it to be the changes in rainfall and temperature that they had experienced. Some knew that it was due to environmental destruction, a few mentioned the industries of developed countries, many believed that it was the work of God and we had a few responses that in order to reduce the effects of climate change, a goat should be slaughtered as a sacrifice. The younger people we interviewed who had attended secondary school generally seemed to have been educated about the environment more. However, the majority of people we interviewed had only completed primary school, the equivalent of elementary and middle school. This experience impressed upon me one of the most powerful things I think I’ve learned so far here, that climate change has real effects. Hearing person after person talk about how the lack of rainfall was affecting their agricultural production and therefore leaving their family hungry really began to make me angry. So many people in the US deny climate change or even if they believe it they won’t make conscious decisions to change their lifestyle to be more sustainable. We Americans don’t care enough because we don’t feel any of the effects. Maybe there are a few more natural disasters these days but it obviously hasn’t made enough of an impact for people to change or demanding the government to make changes. The Tanzanians that we interviewed here may not all know what climate change is, but they see its effects daily. The people here live very sustainably compared to us. They walk or bike everywhere and eat food from their own farm so when our interviewees would ask us what they should do to reduce the effects of climate change, all we could really say was plant trees. It's frustrating that they are not the cause of the problem but feel all of the effects.I could probably rant for a while about it, but I'll leave it at that.

The interviews were always interesting but definitely tiring since we were out in the sun all day walking around. For my project we also mapped some water sources using GIS, so I learned a tiny bit about using the program. Our last day of research was especially fun because we were mapping a spring at the bottom of the escarpment. It was an hour long hike to the spring through a palm forest, a banana farm where we saw marijuana growing, and along the rocky banks of a river. We had to wade up a small creek and scramble over some boulders. It felt so great to be hiking and the spring was beautiful. There were streams flowing down a rock face and big fig trees on the banks. A wonderful way to end the research before beginning the analysis and writing!

Chrissy and I with our guides Cecilia, Harry, and Emmanuel from left to right at Miwaleni spring

The rift valley escarpment, a view from our hike

We’ve had a few non program days in the last couple weeks as well where we’ve explored Mto wa Mbu and Karatu more. Becca and I visited the same guy (Steve) who had made us a CD before and spent most of the afternoon trading music with him. I traded songs from De la Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, and more that he had never heard for Tanzanian hip-hop. It was a great way to spend our time since we weren’t trying to spend more money shopping in Karatu. We learned that he was actually a local DJ as well and his DJ name was Blackzungu, combining his skin color with the Swahili word for white person (mzungu). Earlier that day we had visited an organic coffee plantation where we were finally able to try some real Tanzanian coffee. It was delicious, especially compared to the instant coffee that is available in camp! On the most recent non program day we were able to go on a bike ride through Mto wa Mbu and out to Lake Manyara. It was a beautiful ride but a somewhat painful experience because the bike frames were all too small and the seats were really hard. We rode close to zebras, Thomson’s gazelle, and wildebeest. Then we were able to walk up to the lakeshore and watch the flamingos feeding in the lake. The tour also included visiting a place where people from the Makonde tribe were making the wooden carvings that are popular throughout the shops of Mto wa Mbu. It really was impressive to see the people actually carving such intricate pieces. We also stopped to see artists painting and to learn about how the local banana beer was made. Definitely worth the sore butts to see everything! I spent the rest of that afternoon with Becca playing Cardi Moja outside of a store with some of the guys that show us around the town and try to sell us stuff. They were really good at the game and definitely gave us some competition.

Becca and I with DJ Blackzungu in his shop 



Our bike ride by Lake Manyara

It’s been a great end of the semester and now we just have the group presentations to the community left. Then everyone will fly home and I will travel to Moshi to climb Kilimanjaro! Since no one was interested in climbing in my group I asked people from the other group of students who switched with us to go from Tanzania to Kenya. There were 3 of them who were already planning on climbing so I was able to join their trek. We are doing the Machame route which is a little more difficult than the most popular route up the mountain. I’m very excited and hope that I’ll be in good enough shape for the hike! After the 6 days it takes to get up and down the mountain, I’ll be meeting up with the family I will be WWOOFing with in Moshi. Their farm is 150 km from the town and I will be helping them start a tree nursery and set up an irrigation system. From email correspondence with the owner of the farm, the family sounds very welcoming. I am very excited to live in an African household and try to speak only Swahili, although it’s also a little nerve-wracking. After WWOOFing for about 12 days I will bus to Nairobi to meet with some of the Save the Elephants administration to learn about the research going on in Samburu. The next day I fly to Samburu to begin my month long internship! So many things to look forward to, but it will still be so hard to leave the family that my group has become here. Now it’s time to begin packing and hoping that all my stuff will fit in two manageable bags for travel..