Climbing to the Roof of Africa - Day 2

Today is Thursday, January 22, 2009.

We walked four hours to camp today at second cave on Kilimanjaro 'journey' in Swahili. It was a slow (pole pole), steady uphill climb. When we see our porters we say “pole Kaka” which means SORRY brother, or I feel for you brother, or we are one and they respond with asante sana (thank you very much). Their language is teaching me to be more compassionate!

The weather today is incredible. It is sunny and warm and our clothes are drying after yesterday's rain.
Breakfast is amazing. Fresh fruit, eggs and toast. We have warm soup at midday and evening meal and today it was served with fresh cilantro. We enjoyed fresh vegetables, chicken, potatoes rice and beans, all cooked over a small camp stove in a tent.

Ironically many of the women that come to the clinic are suffering from violence at the hands of men, but here in the mountain all of us (including the HIV+ women who have suffered from gender inequality) are being cared for by men who are carrying our equipment up the mountain, setting up camp each day and cooking warm nutritious meals for us each day – more dichotomies in Africa. When I asked Samson how he feels about the HIV+ women climbing the mountain he thinks it is a good thing for women to climb. HIV+ men have climbed and it is time for women to do the same. Women need more equality in Tanzania and this is a step in the right direction.

Mama Minde is climbing with us. She has her own personal porter because she is going pole pole (more slowly than the rest of us). Kashini (a strong fit 18 year old girl who dreams of being in the Olympics one day representing Canada in the javelin throw event) could climb the mountain quickly, but she spent the first two days climbing with Mama Minde and enjoying her company. She said Mama Minde reminds her of her grandmother. She encouraged Mama Minde to take more steps (up to 40) before stopping for a break so they could get to camp before dark, but Mama Minde still came into camp after dusk each day after 12 hours of slow uphill walking. She was aclimatizing better than the rest of us at that pace. We hope that one day Kash can say she climbed Kilimanjaro with the Prime Minister of Tanzania, Elizabeth Minde.

As we climb we can see pinnalces and snow on Mawenzi, the second peak on Kilimanjaro, it reminds me of Black Tusk in Garibaldi Provincial Park in B.C., except Mawenzi cannot be climbed because the rock it too loose. The main peak of Kili, taht we will summit is called Kibo. The top is called Uhuru, which means 'freedom' in Swahili. We are climbing for the freedom of all women in Tanzania. The photo is of Kashini and Agnes Mtambo, one of the HIV+ women climbing as a representative of all women whose lives have been touched by HIV.

I am also reminded of the mountain meadows in B.C. coastal mountains as we climb through mountain meadows today.

I taught yoga on the mountain today. That’s the first time I have taught a class at altitude. It was not a real physical class, but more of a spiritual class with all of us grounding into the mountain to absorb the power and energy of the mountain to give us strength and confidence to climb and we reached up and opened our hearts to bring the energy of one of the most spiritual places on earth into our hearts.