Saturday morning I woke up early because the day had come for my day hike on Kilimanjaro. If I haven't already told you this, I REALLY wanted to climb the whole thing on this trip. REALLY. But a combination of time constraints and too many people telling me that it was a terrible time of year to climb led me to decide against it. Now that I'm here I can see that it's a perfectly fine time to climb and I wish I had found a way to fit it in! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to come back!!
Anyway. In lieu of climbing to the top I have been planning to do a day hike up to the first campsite on the Marangu route - the Mandara huts. Some people from my group had a VERY tough time with the day hike a few weeks ago, so I was a little nervous, but I needn't have worried.
I hiked with three other girls from my group - Erin and Maya from Sitka, Alaska and Rebecca from Toronto. We had two guides - Mussa and Pascal - who had been on safari with us too, so we were already good friends with them. We had a blast! We made it to Mandara in record time - 2.5 hours. On the way up you are going through rain forest scenery, but when you get to that first camp the landscape begins to change - the Alaskans said it was just like being at home! According to our guide, the landscape is so diverse on Kili that people say climbing to the top is like traveling around the world. We saw several different rainforests and Alaska in one day, so maybe he's right!
Not only was the landscape different at the camp - so was the weather! It was feeeezing! We had all sweated through our shirts so I immediately put on a dry t-shirt and then added a long sleeved shirt and a fleece. Brrr! It was had to believe I was burning hot 10 mins before.
We had lunch and then hiked a bit more to the Maundi Crater - which was gorgeous. We walked around the exterior and got a great view of Kenya. In the distance. I can't believe I will be there in 3 short weeks! On a clear day on the way to the crater you can see Kibo - the summit of Kili - but on Saturday it was pretty cloudy and we didnt get the view. It was ok though bc we manages to not get rained on all day, which was a near miracle.
By the time we made it back down to the bottom we were exhausted and could feel the soreness already creeping in, but I was so happy and proud of what we had done. Climbing to the first camp made me realize that I can definitely climb the whole thing. It's just a matter of when!
So that was my perfect Saturday, which was followed by the PERFECT Sunday. I woke up early
again on Sunday so that I could go to English mass. The closest church to our house is the cathedral and coincidentally, it's called Christ the King! English mass is at 8am and it is also the mass that all the school girls attend. Now, even though Palm Sunday was an awesome experience, it was nice to be back at a mass where I understood all the words. But the best part was the music - 300 teen girls singing in harmony. I knew a couple of the songs (Here I Am Lord), but not all and would love to bring them home! The singing was so beautiful that I was literally crying and I am now determined to somehow record the music next week.
Anyway, after church I went home and go my things together for an day at the hot springs (which are not really hot - more warm and cool springs). There is an old CCS volunteer, Kim, who has
started a NGO to fund an orphanage called Mai tu Ameani (among other projects). Anyway, Kim organized a day trip with the 19 orphans to take them to the springs. Kim is Edward's (our safari guide) girlfriend, so he was there along with our safari/kili guides Mussa and Pascal, one of the orphanage mamas (women who care for the kids) and Ryan (another former CCSer who is travelling the world right now) so it was 7 adults and 19 kids ages 6 - 15. Of these kids three could swim.
Can we say, "thank God that I was a lifeguard/swim teacher/generally strong swimmer??The springs were gorgeous. Other people from CCS had been on their own before and it did not disappoint. In the midst of a swath of hot dry barren land the springs create an oasis of green and cool. The heavily treed area is a favorite for monkeys and there was a large family of baboons when we first arrived. The main spring area is a roundish pool surrounded by trees with one side sloping down to a few shallow rocks. Off of the rocks it gets deep and there is even a rope swing tied to one of the trees. Out at the far side of the pool was a submerged tree perfect for sitting on and the kids loved it. It took some of them a bit to warm up to the idea but before long they had all stripped down to their underwear and were splashing in the shallows. I gave
dozens of impromptu swim lessons and gave more "water taxi" rides than I can count. What I mean by that is re kids loved to ride on your back and hitch a ride back and forth to the submerged tree. A couple of times particularly scared kids would latch on and I wasn't sure we were going to make it to the otherside, but everyone survived and had a blast. We had a picnic lunch and walked around the springs, climbed trees and then jumped in again until everyone had had enough and it was time to go home. It was such a fun day. These kids have so little, so it was amazing I be able to give them a day of fun (and overcome the fear of water) in one afternoon. Most of these kids lost their parents to AIDS, but luckily (amazingly) none of the kids have the disease. I am so impressed with Kim bc she is doing incredible things for these kiddos. Makes me want to figure out how else I can help...
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