After the euphoria of the incredibly successful Trivia Night we held at the Russell House, I now had to concentrate my efforts to ensure an equally successful climb of Kilimanjaro. My late nights of anxiety after combing the Internet and reading of other climbing failures had me wondering.
The seemingly interminable flight to Africa culminated in a late night landing at JRO – Kilimanjaro International Airport. The air was tropically warm and the terminal building sticky and hot as we crowded to obtain a landing visa. $50US, thank you! Our guide company, Tusker Trail, had arranged our pickup by an affable driver named Peter who whisked us through customs and quickly on the road to our hotel in Moshi. Through the shadowy moonlight he pointed our goal to the left. Just barely visible were the snowy white peaks I had seen in so many photographs. Travelling in the van with me were CARE climbing team members Jo Ann MacMillan, an Ottawa civil servant who had been on several training climbs with me in the Gatineau Hills, and Martin Coulombe, a francophone Quebec National Assembly guard. We really didn’t see much of our new home at the Keys Hotel that evening. Just time to grab a few bottles of water and then ‘hit the rack’.
I awoke at 5:00 am and went out for a walk. In the distance, the mountain loomed over everything. Its peak sparkled white in the morning sunshine. Wow! It is really, really big! Can I really climb to the top of that thing?
Back at the hotel, the rest of our crew slowly ambled in for breakfast. Amélie Babcock is the youngest member of our group at just 21-years. She works two jobs: one for an NGO at a Hull school and also at the Nordik Spa in Chelsea. Stephen Maine, the most successful of our fund raisers (he raised over twice as much as anyone else!) works for Trend Micro, an Ottawa Internet security company. Ramona Braganza joined us from her home in Vancouver. She is a personal trainer, for the likes of Halle Berry, Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba. Ramona had just finished working with Jess Biel on the new ‘A-Team’ film before she joined us. Finally, a late arrival was Kevin McCort, the President of CARE Canada. He was arriving from Kenya, where he was attending to CARE business.
We were such an odd assortment of people from such varied walks of life yet we all got on so well. We were instantly a very happy and cooperative family about to meet our new father. After breakfast we had our first meeting with the Tusker crew. Introduced by Faheem, the local company organiser and trouble shooter, we met Eliakim Mashanga. Our new ‘father’ or ‘Baba’ in Swahili. As ‘Baba’ he would be the one to watch over us and have the absolute final decision on everything in our expedition. At his side would be Stephen Malya and Shabani. All three were highly skilled, medically trained guides with extensive experience in Kilimanjaro. They explained their roll, some of the equipment they would be bringing along (such as Oxygen cylinders!), showed us our sleeping pads (which turned out to be incredibly comfortable) and delved out our duffle bags – uniquely designed for our upcoming environment. They then took the first baseline of our medical condition, measuring our resting pulse rate and O2 levels. We were then asked to return to our rooms and lay all of our equipment out on our beds for an inspection. This was to determine that we were all adequately prepared for the ordeal!
For the afternoon, CARE had arranged for us to visit a local village that had been very successful in setting up a CARE supervised Wakeza Project, VSL or Village Savings & Loan. We all crammed into a CARE labelled SUV for the “10-minute drive”. (My first experience with ‘African time’. The drive took about 45-minutes!) Our sweaty bodies emerged at the very quiet Madaka Village. The meeting had already started and we were late!! This is where we ‘westerners’ can learn something about running meetings. Each of us were fined for being late and had to deposit money (about $2) into a jar. This jar also gets filled if you speak out of turn at the meeting! Definitely a couple of rules that should be instituted in our meetings! Our interpreter, Deogratis (his name is latin for “thanks be to God”), provided an on-going explanation of the proceedings (he was given an exemption from the fining process!). After the meeting we took the standard group photo and then were invited by the village chief to a snack and a drink (they drink ‘way too much soda pop here!) I took photos of everyone and handed out candies. Later, we met some of the children and their pets. Ramona, with her dark skin, was a big hit as many of the women had them try on their colourful wraps. The women also took a liking to my greying beard and started calling me ‘Babu’. Goodbyes and thank you’s completed, we squeezed back into the SUV for the ride home. While driving through Moshi I became quite excited to see all the market stalls open and thousands of people around. I asked the driver stop and he responded, “hakuna matata” (no problem!) and I jumped out to find my own way home. Stephen and Amélie joined me as together we explored African city life.
The next morning we were all up early and packed. All our mountain gear in the duffle bags, day gear in our backpacks - loaded down with an additional 4-litres of water apiece. Our suitcases were hauled off to local storage. It was 28°C and my altimeter showed 2780 feet. We all clambered into a huge ex-military 6x6 truck for our 5-hour drive to the start point. After an hour or so of driving we stopped at a small village to allow our truckload of porters a break. We had a ball playing with the local street kids. Stephen in particular was a superstar as he played with them all taking their photos and having them pose in various states. Ramona soon had them dancing – emulating Michael Jackson. I really enjoyed it as they taught me various Swahili words for different animals and then they would each do their best to emulate the animal actions. Eliakim took me aside and said, “It is a good thing that you do here. This is the only love these children ever see.”
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