Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro. Our first view of the mountain wasn't as grand as I had hoped but it was far more shocking and intimidating than I had ever thought. My first view was through the clouds, it was rainy out but the top of the mountain barely poked through. If you didn't look hard enough the top of the mountain blends in with the clouds. It was massive. We got in to tanzania later in the day which gave us time to get to the lodge, pack, eat, and sleep. The next day we all packed onto a bus and began our trip to the base of the mountain. The point where we started was in the rainforest at the base. We sat there for several hours because the machine that read the gap years credit card was not working. It was good we started late because it rained hard for about an hour and a half. Finally after a long wait we began our 7 day journey. Day 1 was easy for me, in fact all days up to summit night were pretty easy for me. The first day started with a pretty long walk on a road which then turned into a steeper slippery climb up through the rainforest. The rainforest was crazy, there was not one color but green the whole way up. It was pretty crazy to be in the rainforest for the first time. Since so many people walk that trail there aren't very many animals around except monkeys which we heard at night. We stayed with the group for a while but everyone has a different pace so Logan and I took off. At that point it was starting to get really dark and we were determined to make it to camp. We finally did after a lot more hiking than I expected. We arrived about two hours ahead of the first wave of our group. The last group came in about an hour after and it wasn't good news. One of our girls had some serious trouble breathing and even walking. When she came into camp she was being half carried by two of our porters. I thought for sure she was going to have to go down. Fortunately after a good dinner she was doing a lot better. We had a team of about 30 porters to carry our stuff, set up camp and cook, and about 7 guides. It was a massive group including the 11 of us. After the first day things only got a lot harder. On days and 2 and 4 we had to say goodbye to 4 members in total. They did so well and only when the guides told them to go down did they. Day 5 arrived. It was the day we had all been waiting for the whole time. In the morning we woke up and did a "short" hike to base camp. We arrived in time to eat lunch, sleep for a couple hours, eat dinner, and then sleep for 4 hours before we started our climb at 11 at night. I tried to sleep as much as I could but I was too excited to get much sleep. looking back on it there was nothing to be excited about, in fact if I had know what the climb was going to be like I probably would have ran right down the mountain. We woke up at 11 had some tea and cookies and began the climb to the top. The climb was steep and rocky and it kept going and going. By this time we had been hiking for the past 4 days for 6-8 hours every day. I don't care how fit I was at the beginning of the climb by this time I was tired and as the climb wore on we all began to suffer. A couple hours up several of the girls had thrown up and as we reached a break one of the guys began to feel really sick. By this point I was beginning to break down and as we sat down I lost it and began to sob and I don't mean little tears I was really crying. I was tired and the stupid mountain just kept going. By that point we had gone over at least 4 false summits and those hurt more than anything. It was starting to snow and there was a big storm on the other side of the mountain and you could see lighting and hear the loud boom of thunder. It was a truly spectacular scene almost right out of a movie. I was determined to make it up though so I got my crap together and after some fist bumps we all began the last leg of our journey. It didn't get any easier and the storm got worse. The wind began to really pick up and the snow did too. After a while another one of our girls couldn't go on anymore. She was the one that struggles so much the first day and we all thought would go down. Yet here she was about to pass out and fall off the mountain and it took our leader 3 times to tell her to go down before she did. It was amazing. Me and the other two guys and one guide broke off from the group and that point and began to climb up. Yet another obstacle arrived when I collapsed from a terrible headache but after some panic, water, and food we trudged on. Not long after that the snowstorm stopped and we could see the first summit. As the sun came up things started to warm up a bit although the wind was still pretty strong. The last part up to the summit was a steep slippery hill. It was backed up with people and after a couple minutes I decided to run up the hill. The first summit was done. By the time everyone had arrived to the top, a couple in tears, the sun had come out. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. All you could see was cloud. Everywhere you looked was white. The sky was an incredible blue like nothing I have ever seen before. It was incredible how high up we were. It was so amazing in fact that I started crying again, and so amazing it is almost impossible for me to describe in words. I soaked up the moment and with much complaining and resistance began our final trudge to the highest summit. The walk was nothing compared to what we had just came through but because all of us were so exhausted it took quite a while. We stumbled and crawled all the way to the summit. Finally we had reached it. After all the stress, tears, frustration, and physical and emotional exhaustion we had done it. I had done it. I was way to tired to jump or shout with joy so I just laid down in the snow and enjoyed the sun but as I look back on it I am so proud of myself and even more proud of everyone else who made it. Everyone fought hard to keep going and do there best to encourage others. I don't think I would have made it without the encouragement I was given. It was one of the hardest experiences in my life I think.  I'm so happy I got to do it though and even though I doubt I will attempt something like that again I can always think of it when I'm having a bad day. If there is one thing I really got when climbing that mountain is sometimes you can't do it alone. I think that I have spent a lot of my life flying solo relying on my own strength. If I had done that on kilimanjaro I wouldn't have made it. It took us two days to go down the mountain and I think I ran the whole way.

Africa!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I didn't really know what to expect when I left again and I didn't have an expectations either. It shouldn't have been a surprise when the homesickness hit me or when I actually got sick after the longest two days of traveling I have ever had. I shouldn't have been surprised when I started asking my self why the heck am I on this plane and I want to go home but all of it hit me pretty hard in my first week of being in Africa. All of those mixed together along with limited access to wifi has been a factor in the absence of my blog. I'm going to try and catch you all up on the past couple weeks. There is a lot so I hope you don't mind reading a small novel. I never thought I would be this far away from home. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would choose to go on a journey like the one I am on. I thought that the best case scenario would involve me going to a community college, getting a job, possibly moving into an apartment and doing the same things I always had done. I would stay in colorado springs and that is as far as I thought. Yet here I am halfway through possibly the most life changing experience I will ever have. I read through one of my journal entries from back in november when I was still in Denver. I was at the point where I was completely emotionally exhausted and ready to be out of there, I was ready to be overseas. When I was on break and even in haiti everything was comfortable. I had great people around me, I was able to see my family and my friends. Even though christmas break was only a little over two weeks it was still long enough to start to feel at home again and go back to the normal routines of life that I have been doing for the past 19 years. I didn't really think about the next 4 months at all, whether I was subconsciously not thinking about it or I was having to much fun. Either way when the last day came it started to sink in. It's not easy packing up all your things again and taking off but there was no fighting it or turning back. I made this choice a long time ago and God brought me here for a reason. I said goodbye to my family and friends and boarded the plane to Washington D.C. where I would stay the night with the rest of the Gap Year students. Unfortunately due to some really bad weather about half of our group got stuck elsewhere so we had to fly out without them. We arrived in Rwanda as planned. The first couple of days were not very fun to put it lightly. Rwanda is 9 hours ahead of colorado so the jet lag was horrible after our 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa and then the shorter flight to Kigali. On top of all of that I got pretty sick and I starting to struggle with homesickness. The first couple of days in Rwanda we visited the Genocide museum as well as several art galleries and a school. Up to this point I had no idea who I was staying with or really what my internship was. I found out the day before I left. I am staying with apollo, his wife, and his two daughters Ana, Heaven, and his two sons Christian and Yannick. I am in a town called Kagarama maybe a 15 minute drive outside of Kigali. It is a very wonderful family they are very welcoming. They speak some english but not very well so communicating with them is difficult and I can't really have an actual conversation with them. Just being around them though is really fun. They love to laugh and play around with each other and man do they love their T.V. I have spent a lot of time watching some of the crappiest stuff on T.V. that has ever existed. Some of the shows have been dubbed over horribly and even some of the movies I have watched are dubbed over and my god it is awful. I have watched several good things though and a couple movies I haven't seen since I was very young. It has given me some good laughs for sure and it's part of what they do. As far as the living situation it is pretty great. I have my own small room which I can hangout in when I need too and I always workout before I go to bed. They have running water which is awesome some of the others have to shower from a bucket. I remember showering for the first time and getting a huge shock when it was ice cold. I don't know what I was expecting but I have gotten used to it now and it sure wakes me up. There are a lot of mosquitos so I have a net over my bed but somehow I have still managed to get eaten alive but over time I am getting less bites. I walked into my room one night and saw this huge dark spot on the wall. I went over to look and saw it was a massive cockroach. I played it cool and coaxed it into a paper bag and took it outside. When I dumped it out it ran right towards me and I might have freaked out a little. The family got a huge kick out of it and we all laughed. If I want to wash socks and underwear I have to do that by hand but as far as shirts and pants they have two housekeepers or workers that cook and clean so they take care of that. Since then I haven't seen another one so i'll attribute that to God. At first I struggled a lot. The electricity tends to go out later at night a lot but eventually it will stay on. As for the water sometimes there is none and I have to use a bucket to shower. I recently cut my hair simply because it's to darn hot here and my hair is a solar collector. The water hasn't been on for a while now so i'm glad I have short hair, it makes washing easier. When I got here and unpacked I realized what was going on. I realized that I am 13 hours away from the United States by plane and that I am a whole continent away from my family and friends, an ocean apart. I also realized that I am in a completely different country by myself. Honestly I still don't really know where the rest of our group is. Either way the first couple of days were really emotionally challenging. I read several books to keep my mind occupied and did the best I could to stay positive. With all new things I think there is a tough spot at the beginning where everything is unfamiliar and foreign but once you get used to things that is when the fun begins. I think of it as one of my cross country races. Every time I would line up at the starting line I would always ask myself why am I here? why did I even sign up? and I don"t want to do this. As the gun sounded and we took off the running became easy and I slipped into a rhythm and a peaceful state of mind. It takes a lot of mental battling but if you can do that and not quit then you have done the hardest part. That is exactly what I did and here we are. I have spent about a week with my family and just a couple days actually working at my internship. It hasn't even been that long really but I an already feel things getting much better. I have forced myself to talk when I don't want to, to sit with the family when all I wanted was to just sleep in my room, and to get out and about on my own. If I can do well for myself and get around in a foreign country all on my own then when I go back home i'm pretty sure I can handle anything. It's been a great confidence booster so far and just an overall amazing experience. Rwanda is a beautiful country. Everything is green, there is not one spot of land where something isn't growing. The people are very friendly and it's amazing how safe it is here. I was told they have very strict laws so you can be out at anytime of day or night really and be safe. I am truly living as rwandan as you can get which is pretty awesome. I typically wake up around 7:30 and have tea and bread for breakfast. The tea here is super good they add a lot of milk and then I add a lot of sugar so it tastes amazing. For lunch I typically eat with patrick who makes quesadillas or sandwiches. For dinner I eat beans and rice and then bananas or sometimes spaghetti and then a couple other dishes that are bananas just cooked differently. The food is really good, a lot of carbs so it is good fuel for the day and along with working out and working in the fields everyday should build some good muscle. As for my internship I am working with an organization called Farming Gods Way. I work alongside patrick who is a pastor at Vineyard Church not far from where I am staying. He is a really awesome guy. He is irish and has lived several places in Europe but now he lives in Canada.  Farming Gods way basically uses a technique of farming that teaches how to take care of the land so that it is not destroyed and teaches people to use everything they have and not waste anything. I will share more details later it is a lot to cover. one of Patricks associates, David, is part of an organization called ATN and they own a piece of land about 30 minutes bus ride from where I am. I travel out there once in a while to work with him on their land. He also has a team that does well drilling in the communities which is crazy cool, I got the opportunity to see the kits used to make the wells. All of the parts and the system itself is very simple yet works super well and in the case that anything were to break the parts to fix it can be found almost anywhere making it ideal to use in a country like Africa. They have several plots where they have planted corn and beans. It's super cool the results they are able to get. The land here is pretty tough. I was always told to watch for snakes. We were laying down the blanket over one of the plots, which is dried grass and corn stalks that protect the ground fro the sun, when David told me to watch out for snakes because they sometimes like to hangout under the grass. As he was picking up some of the grass to put it on he yelled out "snake!" we had a great time looking through the grass and sadly once we finally found it we had to kill it just to be safe. There are some pretty deadly snakes that live out on the land. Turns out it was a spitting cobra. It was smaller but still made me pretty cautious. The African Bagel Company is really close to my house in fact the road it's on goes straight to it. It is a super nice place and is tucked away so it is very quiet and I can have a time to rest there. They serve some awesome food too and they have wifi so it is where I go to check up on things. I walk a lot to get places which is for sure getting my legs in shape for Kilimanjaro. My foot is still giving me trouble I wonder if I may have damaged it a little more than I originally thought but there is really nothing I can do about it at this point I just hope it holds up on our climb.  I have had to figure transportation on my own and every time it has gone smooth. I usually get around on a Moto or if i'm going out to Davids I take a bus. I really love riding the Moto but I would obviously rather be driving it. I have gotten to know the area I am staying in pretty well. I could walk to the farm if I had too and I know where to tell the bus to stop when I get to kanzanze by Davids. If I want to go anywhere I walk about a mile to the "center" which is what they call the big market in the middle of town. There are buses and a ton of motos waiting there and that is where I can get a ride into the city. The moto rides have been super fun and I haven't had a problem with them so far. I believe that I was born to be on a two wheels and riding on the back of one through heavy traffic where there are no road rules at all i'm okay with crashing. I figure that would be a good way to go out. You just tell them where to go and somehow they figure it out. It has truly been a one of a kind experience so far. The work on the land is hard. I have been clearing land and digging a lot of holes and most recently helped build a fence and move razor wire which was a challenge. My hands are completely ripped to shreds after most days but they are getting tougher. Their main tool for farming is a hoe so I have learned to use it pretty well. I am thankful for my dad teaching me how to use an array of tools and also for all the manual labor he made me do.  It's a lot of fun working with the rwandans on the land it is amazing how strong they are and how much work they can do in just a couple hours.  Living with a rwandan family for 4 weeks on my own has had its challenges but its rewards as well. I have had the opportunity to learn some of the language, eat the local food, travel with the team to the mountains by lake kivu, travel around on the local transportation, and farm like they do. It has been an amazing healthy mix of everything. I have also been able to see God in a whole new way that I never have before. I was told many times in Denver to find my own path of faith and that path is starting to become more clear. I have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the girls, in fact every time we go out it is me and 7 girls. Daniel, Caroline, and Logan are several hours outside of kigali and as a result they are unable to be a part of group activities. I miss hanging with them a lot but it has been great connecting with some of the girls and being around them just by myself. We have had some great times too. We had fun at Drew's house eating pizza and playing games, another night at a hotel with live music, and most recently a soccer game which was insane! the fans were crazy everyone was dressed up in their teams colors and they all had horns and drums and were chanting and shouting. It was packed and by chance we picked the section with the craziest people. We ended up in a huge crowd of fans dancing, cheering, and having our pictures taken. It was a truly awesome experience. We most recently went to the U.S. embassy for a movie night which was really awesome.  At this point I will be honest and say I am starting to get a little burnt out. I am finding myself physically exhausted and a little bit emotionally. I want to finish strong though I have a good feeling about this week. I am in the last couple days of my stay here in Rwanda, I can't wait to hike Kilimanjaro but I will be sad to leave here. I am so thankful for what God has done in my life these last couple months and the people he has put in my life. I am excited for the rest of this trip and also to see how I can use all this experience in everyday life when I get home to America. Thank you all for your support and prayers.