Kilimanjaro 2 - Berg 0

Mt. Kilimanjaro



Guides and porters for Kili



Porter carrying Craig's bag

Our new friends

Drinking giraffe

Babboons

Black and white colobus monkey

Blue monkey

Zebra crossing

Baboon butt

In January, 2006, I went to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. I had been in Kenya for 2 weeks prior to visiting Tanzania. 3 days into my climb, I started to get sick and was diagnosed with malaria and pneumonia. I figured this had to be a fluke occurrence and vowed to revisit and mountain and make it to the summit.

With my project in Kuwait coming to a close (finally), I got an opportunity to make the trip back to Kilimanjaro. My good friend, Craig Seitz, decided to make the trip with me. He was scheduled to arrive about an hour before me but I couldn’t find him once I got my bags. Our driver, Simon, seemed to know that Craig had arrived but didn’t have enough money to pay for the $100 entry visa (he claims he didn’t drink away all his money). Now, if you have ever travelled internationally, you would know once you go through customs and get your bags, it’s next to impossible to go back the way you came. Not in Tanzania. I was able to walk back through the baggage claim and past the passport control to find Craig waiting and hoping I had $100, which I did.

I wanted to make the same trip as before so I booked the hike with the same tour group using the same trail and was able to find the same guide. Everything went well the first two days of the hike. They were physically challenging but I had trained for it and was well prepared. In 2006, I started to get sick at the Day 2 camp and that’s exactly what happened this time. I coughed throughout the night and on Day 3, it was as if someone had turned off my body’s energy and took away all my stamina. The trail grade on Day 3 was not as steep as the first two days but you couldn’t tell by looking at me. It was all I could do to hike continuously for 20 minutes. Everything about it was eerily similar to my 2006 attempt. I was pretty sure I had pneumonia again and if I had been in Africa longer, I would have thought I could have malaria again too.

Well, I barely made it to the Day 3 camp but knew I wouldn’t make it any further. The next day, we began the 9 hour hike off of the mountain. I was really happy to see the truck that picked us up but we had been too slow and the doctor’s office was closed when we got to town. The next morning, I went to the doctor. After being asked a few questions and a 30 second examination, she determined that I had a lung infection. She didn’t explain the difference between a lung infection and pneumonia, but did confirm that it was impossible for me to have malaria. After the exam, I received 4 different boxes of pills and a bottle of liquid medicine. All together, the visit cost me $15. When’s the last time you paid $15 for anything at the doctor in the US?

So after a day and a half rest, I was beginning to feel better. Meanwhile, Craig was making friends with everyone in the town and was on his was to being deified. I think he learned more Swahili in a day than I learned Spanish in three years of high school classes. Needless to say, we had a lot of friends to go out with on Saturday night and shut down all the local bars.

Our last day was a day trip safari to Arusha National Park. On the way there, we saw 23 people pile out of a regular conversion van. It was like watching the clowns at the circus but I’m sure this was a regular occurrence. It was amazing to see the people keep coming. Also learned that people drive on the left in Tanzania.

Once we got into Arusha National Park, I found out you could go on walking safaris. But you could only do this because there were no big predators in the park. So there would be no lions, leopards, or cheetahs. But we did get to see giraffes, zebras, monkeys, baboons, Cape buffalo (one of the famous Big 5), wart hogs, and a couple different kinds of birds. If I hadn’t been on safari 2 years ago, this would have been an amazing trip. But after seeing big herds of elephants and crash of rhinoceri (I had to look that one up), it just wasn’t the same. Still, it was a fun day to see all of these animals in the wild. I’m probably done going to the zoo.

After returning to Kuwait, all I had to do was wrap up a few loose ends with my project, pack my belongings, and get on a plane. But I was still in Kuwait over Valentine’s Day, which Kuwait is trying to make illegal. I read that it is illegal in Saudi Arabia, and that it is illegal buy red roses on February 14. Another western holiday corrupting the youth of the desert.

My home for the next few months will be Seoul, South Korea. I arrived here about two weeks ago and will be working out of an office for a company called G-PEM that puts together the design and drawing packages for the equipment my department builds. I found a month-to-month lease on a studio apartment that has the smallest bathroom I’ve ever seen. In a 4 ft. x 4 ft. space fits the toilet, shower, sink, and medicine cabinet. I was very spoiled living in my two bedroom palace in Kuwait.

I was scheduled to go to Vietnam before Korea but the project got pushed back. I may get to visit Vietnam for a few days at the end of March but probably won't spend much time there until April or May. Keep your fingers crossed.

I haven’t been able to do much exploring in Seoul yet but will put up some pictures once I do. Some things I have observed…

-Seoul seems pretty clean. Everyday on the train, someone is picking up trash and newspapers.
-I am DEFINITELY a minority here. I am usually the only non-Korean on every bus, plane, or train.
-Every meal consists of a rice or noodle dish.
-When it snows, everyone breaks out the umbrellas just like it was raining.
-The skirts girls wear here are shorter than the ones in Kuwait.