Addendum

Been home a week from Africa with nothing but time to reflect. I wanted to note a couple of things for my own reference.
-Almost all of the Tanzanians I met were at least bilingual, (Swahili and their own tribal language) and many were multilingual, with French, German, English or Spanish.
-Swahili words that I learned include Asante san,(thanks much), Jambo, (How’s it going?), Mambo, (a more formal form of jambo), and the words that I will hear in my sleep for years to come, Pole Pole, (slowly). You must use 2 “pole’s”. Saying pole once means, “I’m sorry.” There are a lot of words like that in Swahili where saying it once means something completely different than saying it twice. Oh! And I almost forgot! Hakuna matata!

Things I would do differently if I had a do- over:
Would have gone out to Colorado for a week shortly before and done some snowshoeing at altitude.

Would have done the 8 day Lemosho route to get an extra day for acclimatization.

Doubled up my dose of Diamox. The recommended dose for the Europeans was twice what it was in the US. I May have benefitted from the additional dose.

Not taken Unisom at all during the trip. I have taken one for sleep for years, but am now weaning off.

I have been comparing this adventure to walking the Camino. And I think they are polar opposites. The Camino was about spending time with myself, with God, and others- talking with them and hearing their stories. The focus was on being present to what was happening in any given moment.

This climb was almost exclusively a physical challenge. Any social aspect took a back seat to pushing your body to perform. It was a very inward endeavor. Any socializing you might be tempted to do had to be put into an equation of how much energy it would steal from your ability to complete the physical challenge. Cynthia told me that on summit night she started to cry several times but had to shut it down because of the energy it took.
I am not a person that has that singularity of focus. To be motivated there has to be fun involved and fun was in short supply the last couple days of this climb. In fact one of the most enjoyable times I spent was talking to my guide Emmanuel after failing to summit. We probably spent 2 hours just talking about his life. I love to hear peoples’ stories. It energizes me. Czytaj więcej