PHOTOS!

I almost forgot!
Our group started a website to share all our photos. Check it out: http://teamtorcheskilimanjaro.shutterfly.com
It may take some time for everyone to finish their travels and actually get around to uploading photos but I'm almost finished and I saw that Kellie uploaded hers too.

Here are a few, just to snag your interest...



Adam and me at Uhuru Peak!














Group photo at the Lava Tower on Day 4










Adam and me with our first glimpse of the mountain

Kilimanjaro 2

Kili continued...

When I last left this, I think we had boarded a bus to go to Moshi again, back to the Springlands Hotel (Zara Tours accommodation for its tourists). We looked a mess and probably smelled worse, but I think the glow from our accomplishment prevented us from caring. At reception they told us there was no room at Springlands (again), so we’d be staying right in Moshi, at the Panama Hotel (again). We were psyched – this meant we could go shopping in and around Moshi the next day before our flight around 5pm. Meanwhile, they fed us. Lunch tasted great and was a never-ending buffet… the guys went back for seconds and thirds. After we were stuffed, they brought us to the Panama again and gave us an hour to clean up (first shower in a week!) and meet back in the restaurant for a little ceremony.
I cannot even describe how amazing that shower felt. It was a little strange since the hotel had no designated shower area, there was just a showerhead in one corner of the bathroom and a couple of drains on the floor. This did not matter. I cranked the hot water and watched the dirt just stream off. It took me a solid 30 minutes to clean myself. I emerged two shampoos, one very deep conditioning, gobs of facewash and nearly an entire bar of soap later, wrinkly but clean.
The group hardly recognized each other! All the guys were clean-shaven and everyone was in street clothes instead of hiking gear (and at least one layer of “tan” – dirt and grime – lighter). We each ordered a Kilimanjaro (the local beer) and got down to business. The guides gave us certificates for having succeeded, as well as a very heartfelt speech about how they thought we’d all known each other going in to the whole thing, and how our almost instantaneous friendship definitely helped us along the way. Chombo told us how he’d seen groups who didn’t talk, had no fun, and then blamed him when they didn’t reach Uhuru. It was very clear that all the guides had really enjoyed our group (which made me happy) and they were proud of us for having grown so close so quickly.
Then it was our turn. One of the British guys made a short speech about how we wouldn’t have made it up without their excellent team, and how appreciative we were. We handed over a tip and presented them with some articles of clothing. I donated my hiking boots (selfishly, I didn’t want to lug them back to the States and would rather see them on the feet of a porter or guide than someone in my village who probably won’t ever climb a mountain in their life), hiking pants (hand-me-overs from another PCV), a nice pair of socks (still clean!) and some bug repellent. Adam also gave his hiking boots. It was very sweet how appreciative they were of our donations; that just affirmed to me that it was the right decision (and I found myself wracking my brains: what else could I give?!). We then got to just relax and have a beer with the guides and talk to them on a completely non-professional level – I think they let their guards down considerably. After a while, they excused themselves, saying they wanted to get home to their families (and probably bathe too), but thanking us and giving us their email addresses.
And then there were seven. The gang went out for food and landed at a fairly touristy place (though it was a Sunday night, so not much else was open) where we chowed down on pizza and Indian food, reminiscing and laughing about the previous week together. It felt like I’d known these people forever even though it had only been 8 days. It’s really amazing to me how being in a situation like that can really draw you close to people… it also made me realize (again) how great our group was. Aww ☺
Back at the hotel we played cards until almost midnight before calling it a night. We had to say goodbye to one that night (his flight was super early the next morning and his ride was coming at 3am or something ridiculous), which was hard. The next morning, to our delight, breakfast was included in our stay in the hotel. After more showers, we headed out to explore the Moshi market and do some shopping. We lost two more then (off to spend time at the Hilton in Zanzibar, lucks!) and although it was hard to say goodbye, four was a much more manageable number for walking around as tourists. A local Tanzanian decided he would guide us around town; he took us to the stall for whatever it was we said we were interested in: jerseys, jewelry, t-shirts, paintings… After a few hours of this, we were exhausted and had to head back to the hotel just to get rid of him. It was definitely lunchtime, so we went back to the place Adam and I had found a week before for a huge plate of fish and rice.
Adam and I were on the same flight as the other American woman so we left the last group member there around 3pm to go catch our flight. Again, it was hard to say goodbye. He had become sort of a grandpa to me on the trip and I hope to reconnect once we’re all back stateside.
No problems at the airport (except I stupidly forgot to pack my nice knife in my checked bag and so I lost it to airport security). Our flight was a tiny bit late but to me, that was a good thing. It would only minimize our 13-hour layover in Addis Ababa. In Ethiopia, we wandered around a little, said goodbye to our fellow Yank, got some water, and curled up on the floor to start chipping away at the long night ahead of us. We’d been asleep maybe 30 minutes when a security guard came over and asked for our flight information. Where were we from? Where were we going? When did our flight leave? I thought we were going to be kicked out (or at least in deep trouble for not making better flight arrangements). He just told us we had to go downstairs to some desk to find out about our hotel. Adam and I were both pretty confused… we had no hotel and we sure didn’t want to have to pay for one. He insisted we go downstairs so we did.
At this desk, we found out that not only did we have a hotel room (apparently it got reserved with our tickets? maybe that’s why they were so expensive?), we also had shuttle service to and from that hotel room, as well as two meals in the hotel! Ten minutes and an Ethiopian transit visa later, we were on our way to the Panorama Hotel in downtown Addis Ababa, actually a very beautiful hotel with delicious food, hot showers and an amazing bed. I think the only thing that could’ve made that part better is if we’d realized it earlier, and not spent hours in the AA airport trying to kill time. We made it to the next flight in plenty of time and were on our way back to South Africa.
One of Adam’s teachers was at the Johannesburg airport (a very welcome sight), waiting to bring us back to Lesotho. Apart from stopping for burgers at Wimpy, I honestly don’t remember a lot from that ride either. It was cozy and warm and I fell asleep soon after we started moving. After that, it’s not too exciting. I spent much of Wednesday in the PC Office uploading photos and working on the first half of this massive blog post (so I hope you enjoy!) and then ended up back at site. I slept 17 hours the first night, was awake for about 4, took a 3 hour nap, woke up long enough to prepare tea and a bowl of cereal, and slept another 15. Needless to say, I was pretty well rested by the time water arrived the next day. Friday was laundry day… buckets and buckets of water, loads and loads of laundry. You know you’ve done too much laundry (all by hand, mind you) when by the time you’re finishing the last load, most of the stuff hanging on the line is already warm and dry. In any case, clean clothes are nice. I won’t even try to describe how dirty the laundry water was (and I haven’t even tried to wash my socks yet – ew).
I think that’s all I have for you… climbing Kilimanjaro was absolutely phenomenal. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it, though I will also advise you to be in pretty good physical shape, and ready for ridiculously high altitudes. Really, a handful of blog posts and all my photos don’t do it any justice… another incredible adventure to add to my list.

Peace and love from Africa,
-Katie

Kilimanjaro

July 20, 2011

Well, we made it. All the way up and all the way down. I’ll do my best to recount everything but it may take 2 (or ten) posts to do the trip justice.
Adam and I left two weeks ago on the 8th for Johannesburg. We lucked out big time and the taxi left Maseru as soon as we were in. It was quite a long drive, all on back bumpy roads with more potholes than Minnesota during road construction season. As PCVs, we’re told to avoid the Joburg taxi rank as much as possible, so I was sort of nervous, however other volunteers have said that it’s definitely manageable, and it was. As soon as we arrived, there was a guy outside the taxi offering to bring us anywhere in the rank. It was once we arrived at the airport taxi that he asked for money, but we’d made it safely, so I was happy to pay.
We got to O.R. Tambo around 2pm… plenty early for our 9pm flight… but there were restaurants to visit! At first, it didn’t seem like there was anything available to us in the International Departures Terminal so we had to walk around a bit but eventually found Subway and a handful of other great places. We had sandwiches first (delicious but not quite as speedy as in the States) and then sat down for bottomless coffee and the best muffins on the face of the Earth at Mugg & Bean. Four (or five?) cups and a few hours later, we were wired and walked around a bit before checking in (they let us check in way early – some people are so nice!). Once through security and immigration, we bummed around a few more hours, looking in bookshops and the Duty Free stores. One of my favorite things to do in airports is people-watch and we did a fair amount of that too.
We grabbed some food for the flight (not expecting anything) and boarded, off to Dar es Salaam. That flight landed around 1:30am. We groggily found our way to immigration to buy our Visa for Tanzania. When we got to the desk, they asked for $100 (which we didn’t have) and we offered our credit cards. No luck. The machine that took credit cards was down, they said, but there were some ATMs outside. They held our passports and we headed outside to withdraw Tanzanian shillings, which we would then need to change to USD. No luck. The ATMs we found wouldn’t take either of our cards… At this point, I was getting pretty flustered. We were in a foreign place, it was 2am, we couldn’t get our Visas, our cards didn’t work, and we had to climb Kilimanjaro the next day. Thankfully Adam was incredibly calm about the whole thing. He went back in and explained to the woman the entire situation. She accompanied us to the immigration desk and explained to the guy that we would just need to pay for the visa upon departure. He wrote in each of our passports “subject to pay visa on departure, usd100 for multiple entry visa” and we continued on our way to the next leg of the journey. I cannot even explain how relieved I was, but also how worried I was; my only means of getting cash wasn’t working – would I be able to get cash once we got to Moshi?
We crashed for a few more hours in the airport in Dar before our 6am flight to Kilimanjaro airport. That flight was absolutely spectacular. It was just starting to get light, and above the clouds, we could see the whole sunset. As we approached Moshi, I could see Kilimanjaro in the distance, the top just peeking above the clouds… stunning. Once we landed, it wasn’t too long before a car came to pick us up and bring us to check in for our climb. We were supposed to stay at this little (touristy) oasis of a place, about 15 minutes from downtown Moshi but they were overbooked, so we ended up IN Moshi, which was actually much better. We got to walk around town without having to worry about getting there or back. After not much sleep the night before, I was exhausted… Adam, however, somehow had enough energy to walk around a fair amount. As we were waiting to get a sim card for the cell phone, I fell asleep, right in the store. That was when he agreed to let me go take a nap . My nap was great… he even let me sleep longer than I wanted because he was scared to wake me up (sound familiar Mom?) We found a great local place (right next to the place we stayed) for lunch – Zanzibar rice with beans and spicy sauce and some salads. A huge portion cost the equivalent of $1. We vowed to go back for dinner.
A few more hours of walking around put us at about 4:30pm so we headed back for our group meeting and briefing with our guides and other group members. I had been a bit concerned about who else was going to be in our group… would they be older couples with whom we had nothing in common? Would they be cool? Would they even speak English? All these worries vanished when we met a couple of awesome British guys and another American woman… they seemed very cool. We were told there were two more guys on the way but we didn’t end up meeting them until the next morning: another British guy and another American man. We were 7 in total, 3 Brits and 4 Americans… needless to say, there was a lot of banter flying in the group. We all learned new phrases in the other “language” and got to practice our accents… even though the Brits said our accents were “rubbish” and (to us) they just sounded like hicks most of the time.
I was relieved to find out that the others in the group were just nervous as I was, if not more, about the climb. Our guide and assistant guides were very reassuring; they’d had a great summit record together and were confident we’d be great. The 7 of us bonded very quickly (as you tend to do when in a situation like that) and even our guides didn’t believe that we hadn’t known each other before coming to Tanzania.
The drive to the gate the first morning was pretty long. We were all chatty, not sure what to expect but relieved that at least the first day was said to be relatively easy. When we arrived at the gate, we had to check in with passport numbers and register all our information. They gave us a nice box lunch, we drove another hour (through some crazy brush – in a massive safari-like vehicle on a path that was maybe meant for a bicycle… it was bumpy) before disembarking, packing up our packs and hitting the trail.
The first day’s hike was indeed relatively easy, only about 3 hours, all through the rainforest. Some ups, some downs, and I think we were all on a big hiker high. We arrived at the first camp around dinner time, found our packs and dragged our belongings to the tents. The porters brought us warm water for washing and directed us to the tent where we’d have tea. It was a pretty small tent with a very small (and wobbly) table with popcorn on a big platter, as well as 7 mugs, 7 small spoons and an assortment of tea, Milo (cocoa) and coffee. Then came dinner… first a carrot soup and some bread, then later fish and potatoes and vegetables. We were all in awe – we were going to be waited on hand and foot for the next week. After dinner, our guide, a very gentle, professional Tanzanian named Chombo, came in and told us the program for the next day (which would also end up being the schedule for most of our days). We would wake up for tea at 7am, get some more warm water for washing, take breakfast at 7:30 and hit the trail by 8. We’d go about 6 hours to the next camp, and the day would be sort of difficult. With this news, we headed to the tents to get some sleep. Adam and I had no trouble falling asleep (this is where being accustomed to poor sleeping conditions comes in handy!) and staying asleep until 7am when there came a knock on the tent – they brought tea to our tents.
Breakfast was several courses as well: first uji, a porridge (not unlike lesheleshele in Lesotho) made of maize and sorghum meal. Then came pancakes (thin – no baking powder in them, almost like sweet tortillas) and bread, and finally eggs and sausages. We hadn’t realized how much food there would be so we all sort of filled up on the uji and tea. Then it was time to pack and hit the trail.
As any of my family members can attest, I’m not usually huge on hiking, and even less keen on camping, but this was an adventure. The hike was beautiful – more rainforest, and then eventually into some other ecological zones (not sure what else to call them). Plenty of up-hills and several rests… but the prospect of a good hot lunch was waiting for us. About 4 or 5 hours in to our 6-hour hike, we finally caught a glimpse of the mountain. It was spectacular… and all of a sudden the task ahead got a whole lot bigger. Camp the second night was probably my favorite. It wasn’t as crowded as the first camp, plus we could see the mountain directly out of our tent and caught a grand sunset and sunrise.

Day 3 was easier, pretty flat and basic (though the sun was shining and many of us got a bit burned), a chance to rest up and acclimatize for the next day. Day 4 was rough. It was a lot of uphill, up to around 15,000 ft at a place called the Lava Tower, a beautiful rock formation on one side of the base, and then back down to about 12,000 ft. The up part wasn’t too bad and I think the down would’ve been alright if it weren’t for the fact that we’d already been hiking 4 hours up. By the end of our descent that night into Barranco camp, I felt absolutely terrible. I had a pounding headache and felt weak and worried whether or not the next day would bring any relief.
As soon as we got to camp that night, I went to the tent to lie down, but only managed to rest a few minutes before tea time. Sugary tea and salty popcorn helped a lot, but I still felt pretty terrible… I got to rest probably only 30 minutes (not quite long enough to really fall asleep but to start drifting off) before dinner. I wasn’t sure about eating dinner but figured it couldn’t hurt… and I was right. After dinner, I felt ten times better and slept really well.

Day 5 was supposed to be easy… we had to climb Barranco wall, basically a cliff, up which we “bouldered” … a.k.a. scurried up. The night before, Chombo had told us we should not bring poles because we would need to use our “crawly hands” … absolutely accurate. There were a couple places where we had to be really careful with balance and there was a very specific “left foot here, right hand there” pattern we had to follow. What amazed me the most was how quickly the porters could scurry up the side of the wall with probably 30+ pounds of stuff on their head/neck/back. Several hours later (like 5 I think) we arrived at camp. It wasn’t a super difficult hike but it was not as easy as we’d anticipated either. After lunch we got time to rest but before we could sleep, the assistant guide, Lucas, came to the tent to see if we wanted to go for a short acclimatization hike, basically a short jaunt up a ways and then back down, so we’d be camping lower than the highest elevation of the day (which wouldn’t have been a problem since the top of the wall was pretty darn high). I figured it couldn’t do any harm... I’d been alright that day and had started to get pretty nervous about the summit day and this at least would calm my nerves.
Day 6 actually lived up to expectations. It was not terribly difficult. The hike was about 4 hours, but this time we were seriously going up in elevation. This was the real deal – up to 15,000ft to camp at Barafu for a few hours before the summit hike to Uhuru. After a warm lunch, we were sent to our tents to relax, which we did willingly until our early dinner. Around 5:30pm they brought in a huge plate of pasta with some very thick vegetable sauce – carbo load! As we were taking tea, our guide and assistant guides came in to tell us how the summit would be. Everyone was very quiet but the tent was absolutely electric. We got a pep talk fit for a professional sports team from Chombo (with Lucas and Charles on his sides, nodding and adding in Swahili when he left something out). The plan was as follows:
We were to go to sleep (it was 7pm at this point) until 10pm. We would wake then, dress in warm layers, take tea and biscuits at 10:30pm and set off on the trek up the mountain at 11pm, headlamps on head. We would climb and climb and climb, take more tea about halfway up, and climb some more, all the way to the top. We’d get 10 minutes at the top to take photos and revel in the moment before beginning our descent…

So, at about 10pm, Adam and I woke up and started layering on clothes. I ended up wearing two pairs of socks, hiking boots, 3 pairs of pants (long underwear, hiking pants and water/windproof), 6 layers on top (various wicking shirts, some fleece and insulation), a neck gator, headband, hat, hood, gloves and mittens. Tea was nice and warm and again the tent was electric. Everyone was excited and nervous, anxious about what might happen if something went wrong but optimistic that nothing would.
By 11:05pm we were off up the hill, a nice little train of headlamps up a very big mountain. I think we were probably the second or third group to leave camp that night… one of the group likened it to a Christmas tree – all lit up. We went maybe an hour and a half before stopping for a break; we were all out of breath even though nobody was moving faster than a snail’s pace. At this point we split off – Bill with Chombo to go a bit slower and the rest of us with Lucas and Charles (the assistant guides). At this point, I just remember being tired and cold. Not super fatigued or sick, just tired and cold. After we’d been going a while, we had to go up some bigger rocks and I must have taken it too quickly because everything started going blurry and I felt much worse. I asked to take a break at which point Charles swiped my bag off my back and I was told to go second in line, right behind Lucas. We slowed down a little bit but kept going, trudging slowly, slowly up. The group was mostly quiet but every once in a while someone would ask how I was feeling (or how someone else was feeling). It was really incredible, feeling their support and knowing not only how badly we all wanted to summit but also how badly the guides wanted it for us.

We stopped again and this time I felt absolutely nauseated. I couldn’t tell if I was going to throw up or pass out or what was going to happen… One of the guys in the group offered me some glucose tables which I took and sucked on. There was no way I could’ve taken solid food at this point or I surely would have vomited, so thankfully these helped and I felt like I could continue.

Many hours of the trek are a complete blur. I know we climbed for 8 hours total and stopped several times. We stopped for tea which warmed us all a little bit, and then finally it was only 45 minutes to Stella Point, which was to be 100 vertical meters from the top, another 45 minutes up to the sign for Uhuru Peak.

Somehow, I’m still not sure how, we all made it up. Stella was an incredible site, especially knowing how close we were. The sun was beginning to rise at this point and the sky was warming from deep blue to shades of yellow and orange, and the moon was still full on the other side. Everything was absolutely breathtaking (literally and figuratively). The attitude in the group definitely lifted from Stella the rest of the way. It was almost like a magnet was pulling us up because I honestly don’t know how any of us had any energy left at that point. We just kept going…
Finally, the sign was in site and I couldn’t stop myself from crying. It was such a beautiful moment: achievement, friendship, support… natural beauty too, with the sun rising on one side and the moon still up over another (smaller) mountain on the other side… As I looked around, others in my group were crying too. Then it was a giant hug-fest as we congratulated each other and commiserated about how terrible we felt but how thrilled we were to be at the top.

Several photographs later, we were back on the way down, and as crazy as it sounds to only be at the top for 10-15 minutes, I think we were all ready to go back down and rest for a little while. As the guide told us, it’s not very good for people to be up that high (over 19,000 ft) for very long, and anything can happen at the top. Shortly after 7:15am (and a stop for a little chocolate) we were on our way, half walking and half stumbling, back down to Barafu.

We made it to camp about 3 hours later (though much of that time is also a blur to me). I remember being exhausted, having a bad headache, and being concerned about Adam feeling really sick. As soon as we got to the tent, we were both passed out.
We rested a while before taking another hike back down the mountain about 4 hours, in order to camp at a lower elevation, about 10,000ft. We all slept like babies that night… “like totos” as the Tanzanians would say. The final day was all downhill and that was when I really started getting sore. It was only 4 hours downhill, and we descended 5,000ft before exiting through the gate, boarding a bus, and heading back to Moshi.

Unfortunately, I think I need to get going now, but I will definitely post more at another point – soon!
All my love from Africa,
-Katie

Kilimanjaro, here we come!

Adam and I leave tomorrow (early) to get to Johannesburg for our flight(s) to Moshi, Tanzania.

Our climb begins on Sunday and we're scheduled to summit on the 16th (right after a full moon - it should be incredible). Our route has a pretty high summit rate (around 85% I think) so keep your fingers crossed that neither of us gets altitude sickness and that we both (along with the other 6 in our group) stay healthy and make it to Uhuru Peak!

We looked at some of the altitudes and compared them to our lives in Lesotho. The elevation where we start is roughly the elevation of the mountain near Adam's house, which we've climbed several times. It's not thaaaat much higher than where his house is and I don't honestly think that's too much higher than where my house is (but that may just be my optimism speaking). All in all, it's a lot less daunting knowing that our elevation here is going to help us out with adjusting.

Time now to repack everything so my carry-on bag isn't to big and my checked bag isn't too heavy...

I'll update again in a couple weeks after we're back!
Love from Lesotho (and eventually Tanzania and Kili!)
-Katie

Winding Down and Gearing Up

June 28, 2011
Morning from Sekameng. I won’t say good morning because this is the most miserable cold I think I have ever experienced, possibly in my life. I know it sounds like I just like to complain (and to some extent, I’m sure I do), but it is legitimately cold. I wake up in the morning and my house is 45 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s cold, folks.
As my mom found out, I don’t generally heat water unless it’s to drink or bathe in, so each time I wash dishes, my hands freeze. I basically have an endless mug of coffee or tea or plain hot water with me wherever I go. Enough about the cold.
It’s hard for me to believe that only a week has gone by since my mom and I went our separate ways in Cape Town. I flew back to Bloemfontein and actually (surprisingly!) made it all the way home to Sekameng in one day. She had a longer journey back to the States but is now safely home and hopefully readjusted to Central Standard Time.
After I got back, I stayed home barely long enough to do laundry before taking off on another mini-trip. Some friends and I did our own version of “Christmas in July” even though it was June. We figured it was more like “Christmas and a Half” since in exactly 6 months, it would have been Christmas Eve and Day. We planned a feast (and shopped accordingly), lugging all sorts of food items up to one of the more remote places in Lesotho. On Friday, as we were in town gathering supplies, there was snow in the air. I’ve only seen snow here one other time and I just remember it being miserably cold. I had no clue what we were in for…
We made it to this friend’s house early afternoon and it was just as cold (if not colder) at his place. At least every PCV is given a heater for the duration of their service. He had no gas for said heater, but at least the shop wasn’t too far. We decided to go the next morning (“Christmas” morning) to try to get a refill so we wouldn’t freeze too solid the next day. Unfortunately, part of the joy of being at such a remote site is that there really is not much there. None of the shops (near or far) had any gas refills. So we stuck it out (not like we had much choice, ha), crowding in the kitchen, sipping tea and cooking delicious things for later.
After everyone was awake (I woke up to a fistful of snow in my face and then ran outside only to find that there was not much on the ground), we did our own little Yankee Swap gift exchange. The rule was that the gifts had to come from our houses (we’re all sort of poor and have big vacations coming up). I contributed some instant Starbucks coffee packets, clay and a Clif Bar (highly valued, given my next big vacation). Other gifts included a t-shirt, a Lego version of Dumbledore (my winning), a book and DVD that actually belonged to someone else there (shockingly enough, he ended up with that gift), stickers and pencils, and coupons for a various assortment of prizes. We had a fold-out tree complete with small wooden decorations, and a lovely garland (thanks to my father) to decorate the house – it almost felt like real Christmas.
Around noon, some of us went for a run. It was absolutely gorgeous, across the river and along some really neat rock formations that conveniently shielded us from the wind. I’d heard a lot about the various running routes my friend had (especially training for the Ultra-Marathon in Cape Town) so it was great to see his part of the country. An added bonus was that we all warmed up considerably – I think I may have even sweat a little!
We all left on Sunday and after waiting over an hour for the taxi, finally piled on to one of the longest taxi rides of my life. The road (for all but maybe 20 minutes of the ride) was dirt and rock, quite bumpy. We crossed a river at several points in the journey and were lucky because it was low – had the river been much higher, I’m fairly certain we would have all had to get out and walk across (and pray the taxi made it).
Several stops after we got on (just before the taxi was full way past capacity), a very drunk (and still drinking) man got on and sat next to Eric, who was sitting next to me. This man was loud and obnoxious, constantly talking and gesticulating wildly. Eric was a champ for dealing with him and even managed to poke fun at him for a while (telling him we were going to Lesotho but we didn’t know where it was, etc) before we realized this guy was not going to tire. Eventually, he did. Miracle of miracles, he passed out and sort of collapsed into his own little area (rather than expanding onto his neighbors as some do). Relief! After more than 2 hours, we reached town and let me tell you, KFC has never tasted so good.

Now I have just over a week before I head to Maseru to finalize some things for the Diversity Committee, then Adam and I fly to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro on the 8th. We’re both pretty excited, obviously for the climb, but also to just spend some time in airports: people-watching and restaurant-hopping (Mugg & Bean has delicious bottomless coffee and the best muffins you’ve ever tasted… I think we’ll spend a few hours and cups of coffee there before our flight). It’ll also be nice to be near the equator (WARMTH!), if only for the first couple days of our climb.
I’ll do my best to post again before Kili, but if not, you can definitely expect an update after we return. I hope all is well at home, I’m excited to be there in 6 months!
Love from Africa,
-Katie

Mom! In Africa!

Winter vacation is here!
My students completed all their exams (successfully, I believe) and have begun helping their family to harvest their crops: maize, sorghum, beans, etc. The external classes (Forms C and E) are still coming to school for winter classes. Luckily these start an hour later than school did and only go until about 1pm.
When I wrote last, I was in Maseru working on some things for Peace Corps but mostly just waiting for my mom to arrive. On Wednesday morning, I got up early, took a hot shower (!!!) and made it to the border fairly early. I met Kimiko there (she was coming with us on safari) and we found the taxi to Bloemfontein, where we’d rent the car to drive to Joburg airport and pick up Mom. The weather was pretty bad, cold and rainy with no sunshine in sight. We found our taxi and were the second and third people in a taxi that was supposed to hold 22 people. When planning, I’d built in extra time in case we had to wait for a taxi to fill or couldn’t quite get to the border early enough. When we got to the taxi before 9 and it still hadn’t filled at 11, I started getting nervous. Finally we had enough people to fill a small taxi (only 15 people needed) and we took off towards Bloemfontein just before noon. I managed to calm down, but then, naturally, we hit road construction.
Mom’s flight landed around 4:30pm and we were stuck on the road to Bloem when we were supposed to be driving to the airport. After three more delays thanks to construction, we were finally cruising. And then the kicker. After all the rain, the final stretch of road had been flooded so badly we couldn’t pass. We had to pay more money, turn around and take a long detour. This not only meant we were going to be lateR to pick up our car, but in addition, now we wouldn’t be passing the junction airport, so we’d have to take an extra (expensive) taxi to the airport.
Approximately 3:30pm we finally left the car rental place in Bloemfontein to head to Johannesburg. I was absolutely livid. We had had these grand plans of going to the Joburg airport and drinking bottomless coffee and eating delicious muffins all day long while waiting for my mom’s flight. When she arrived, we’d happily run into each others arms, smiling and crying… Instead, she was the one who had to wait in the airport for us.
We made it to Joburg several hours after she arrived and picked her up (there were indeed tears) and made our way to the place we’d be staying that night.

The next day we left for Kruger National Park to go on safari. We had quite a drive, but once we got past Nelspruit, it was beautiful. The plan was to stay in the park for three nights at two different camps, and during the days drive around the park to see as many animals as we could.
That day, we barely arrived at the gate in time. The man admitting us told us we had to go as fast as the speed limit would allow us or we might not make it into the camp. We were not to stop for any animal because otherwise we might be locked out, stuck in the park after dark. (Actually, I’m not really sure what would have happened to us if we didn’t make it into our camp, but we didn’t really want to find out.) So we drove… but within the first five minutes of being in the park, we had to stop because there were so many cars blocking the road, all looking at lions. No big deal, LIONS were the first animals we saw upon entering the park. We could only look for a short while before continuing on. Next, we saw rhinos off on the left, and after a little while more, we had to stop. There was an enormous elephant right in the road. It walked around eating for a while before we could pass it but eventually, we did make it past and made it to the camp in time.
The next two days we left our camp early to go out and see as many animals as we could. The list of animals we saw includes: lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, kudu, impala, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, vultures, monkeys and probably several more that I’ve forgotten about. After two and a half days total of driving around, my legs were stiff from lack of exercise but my camera was full and I definitely had a new appreciation for all of Africa’s animals. Safari was incredible.
After safari, we headed back to Bloem to return the car and as an intermediate stop before reaching Lesotho, the second stop on our voyage. We had lovely accommodation there and enjoyed muffins and bottomless coffee before returning to Lesotho. That day, as my mother is proud to report, we took 6 taxis in order to get back to my stop, and then had to walk 45 minutes to get home. We didn’t reach my stop until dark but several students came to pick us up and help carry luggage in to Sekameng.
Over the next few days, Mom learned what it was like to live in Sekameng. When we arrived, there was no running water, so we had to wait and hope and pray that it’d be there the next day. We cooked by candlelight and went to sleep fairly early after a busy and exhausting day.
Tuesday and Wednesday we walked around my village. She met the other teachers at my school and many of my students. We did laundry in cold water, baked bread and ate chaka-laka, motoho and papa. I think she really enjoyed it; I know I loved showing her the life I've made here.
On Thursday, we climbed the nearby mountain, Kolo. It was an all-day affair. We left around 8am and made it back to my house just before 3pm. We had to walk there, then go up, come down and walk back… by the end of the day, I think we all had blisters on our feet and our legs were definitely sore.
That night we went to stay with my Kenyan friends so Mom could meet them too, and the next day was a trip (back again) to Bloemfontein to fly to Cape Town, where we are now. I still love this place. So far, we’ve seen penguins at Boulders, climbed (the back of and hiked around) Table Mountain, shopped for gifts, eaten at Eastern Food Bazaar (honestly one of my favorite restaurants), and gotten lost driving around the city plenty of times. It’s great to be back here.
Today, we were supposed to tour Robben Island, but unfortunately the weather has not been cooperative. It has rained off and on and is just generally cold and windy. Instead, I think we’ll head over to the waterfront and shop more.
Tomorrow, we have a wine tour scheduled. We’ll visit several vineyards and taste wines, cheeses and chocolates. Tuesday is the day we split; she’ll go back to Joburg to fly home and I’ll go back to Lesotho.
It has been a whirlwind two weeks with three great mini-vacations. It’ll be sad to see Mom go but I know the rest of the family at home misses her a ton. She’ll go home with lots of good pictures and memories and it’ll be really nice for me to be able to talk with her about Lesotho and South Africa once I get home.
Time to get ready for another day – hot showers are so great!
Love from Africa,
-Katie (&mom)

World on Fire

School is almost out and winter is definitely here.
My house is consistently 45 degrees at night and in addition to sleeping in long pants, wool socks, several layers on top plus gloves and a hat, I have 4 very warm blankets on my bed at all times. It. Is. Cold. Last winter was never this bad (or my memory has just faded with the heat of summer). I've used my heater. Multiple times. I admit it. Last year I hesitated (we were having a contest to see who could last the longest without using their heater and in my mind, I won) but this year I've come around. Plus, the previous volunteer left me several partially full tanks of gas. Plus, it's just not worth it. Cold is miserable. Everyone turns into monsters and my students hate it even more. Imagine sitting in a freezing cold classroom with no heat and broken windows. It's basically sitting outside (in the shade)... you wouldn't like it either.
Enough complaining about the cold. We have one more week of exams at school... I cannot believe the first semester is already almost finished! I actually finished my exams (and grading and reporting!) yesterday because my MOM IS COMING ON WEDNESDAY!!! We have quite the vacation planned: safaris, my school, climbing some mountains, and then we'll end our time together in Cape Town (probably my new favorite place). I am so thrilled to be able to share my new life here with someone from home. I put plenty of blankets on her bed too, and will graciously share my heater :)
As always, I have many stories from the past month to share and I'll do my best with the time I still have in town before Vodacom closes for the day. First and most recent...
The other week I made a batch of chili. I started with dry beans, cooked them, let them soak, added spices, cooked them some more (dry beans take FOREVER to cook), and worked on the other ingredients too. I was so excited. I'd inherited chili powder and cumin from other volunteers when they left so I had the fixins for a really delicious pot of chili. It turned out really well. Not so spicy that I couldn't taste everything, but it packed enough heat to warm me up. I've also almost perfected bread-making, so I had some tasty bread to go with my chili. The first batch was so good that when it was finished, I decided to make another batch. Now, I decided this late in the evening. Ok, it was actually only about 6:30 but I usually crawl into bed to read or watch a movie on my iPod around 7. It was getting late. I put the beans on to boil and got ready for bed. I crawled into bed and watched a movie, blew out my lamp, rolled over and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to one of the most foul smells I have ever encountered. I had left my burner on. All night. The beans had hydrated, cooked, and completely dehydrated to tiny little shriveled black nuggets of burn. To make matters worse, I had unplugged my carbon monoxide detector because it goes off whenever I bake bread or have my heater on, both of which I had done. Before you scold me, please understand I completely realize all the dangers of this. I could have burned my house down. I could have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. I could have... and the list goes on. I am alive and completely fine (I sleep with my bedroom door closed which helped a lot), though my house still smells terribly of burned beans. This was on Tuesday night. It is now Saturday and my house STILL gives off the odor of burn. My students tell me I smell like tobacco. Gross. Lesson learned. I will not cook dry beans overnight ever again.

In better news, the alternator for the school's main generator has been fixed. I finally got all the money from Hilbert Middle and High Schools and my principal will go and pick it up hopefully sometime this week! One more step on the long way to electricity! Thanks again, Hilbert - we could not have done it without you!

Last week we decided to take the students out to the dirt road from the main road to my village and do some road work. They had shovels, pick axes, wheelbarrows and a lot of patience. We split the students by class, so my group, the Form B students, were second farthest from school. In all modesty, I worked harder than most of my students, but it was great fun. We picked up rocks and put them into the big crevices in the road to try to even it out. Some of the boys would go and chop up termite mounds and bring big chunks of them to smash into the smaller cracks that wouldn't hold rocks. We had it down to a system.
It was interesting though, trying to explain to students why exactly we were out doing work on the road. "It's just the right thing to do" didn't quite cut it, so I took a different approach. I asked them where they ate lunch each day and how they thought the food magically appeared in the kitchen. That seemed to work a bit better... Ultimately, I'm not sure if they really understood the significance or the reason we were out there, but I was so proud of all the students. Plus it gave me an excuse to throw some big rocks around and impress them with how strong I am. Ha.

As I was walking out of my village this morning (before I got a lift - all the way to town!), I walked past some funeral tents. Apparently the former chief of a neighboring village passed away. Men were out working on the tent and manly things while the women were bustling around making preparations involving food and hospitality things. At that same moment, Sarah McLachlan's song "World on Fire" shuffled onto my iPod. If you haven't heard the song, give it a listen. Actually, even better, go to youtube and look up the music video. Homework for the weekend - ponder that song.
I've been reading a book called "Dead Aid" ... about how aid in Africa is not only not helping, but actually hindering African development. It's an interesting concept - check it out if you get a chance. It's really an interesting combination. The song and the book... it really struck me this morning.

The rest of the weekend will hopefully be relaxing. I have some laundry to do before Mom comes, but depending on the water situation I may have to postpone that. Too bad. A teacher friend and I are planning on baking apple pie tomorrow, even though I have never in my life successfully made a pie crust. I can make graham cracker crusts like it's my job, but pie crust will be interesting. (Brian - I'll let you know how it goes!) I am, thankfully, an apple expert, so that part is well taken care of.

Well, my computer is about charged and actually my fingers are getting a little chilly. Hope all is well at home in the great US of A. Enjoy the summer (and being done with school)... congrats to the graduates (my brother and several friends :) !!)
Love from Africa,
Katie