SAFE AND SOUND ON THE GROUND

20 hours of travel and our team is safely in another world.  A quick stop in Amsterdam followed by hours of traveling over the Sahara's endless sand.  As they climbed down the 2 story tall boarding ladder and look back, the KLM 747 looks like it landed on the equivalent of a dirt landing strip.  No boarding tunnel, the runway lights were quickly turned off and there sits the massive plane in the dark in the middle of nowhere.  Our travelers moved across the dusty tarmac into a single story terminal with a few tired fans barely moving the hot desert air. Cash obtained visas, customs made a cursory glance at their forms and their African adventure had begun.   

The trip was long and tiring but without problems.  Well almost without problems.  A bag or two was delayed and Amy Kaplan had a little run-in with a lovely KLM flight attendant.  It seems there was a bit of a dispute over some liquid that ended up in Amy's seat.  Amy was insistent that the flight attendant spilled soup while she was gone, it seems a leaking camelback may have been another possible explanation.  It's good to see our climbers well prepared for all contingencies.  By the time the group arrived, these travel annoyances seemed insignificant.  

In the words of my good friend Thoreau "Our life is frittered away by detail.  Simplify, Simplify." 

It seems like things are getting much simpler for our fearless trekkers.  Today they 

got a chance to meet some  the GAA sponsored orphans.  Food, shelter and someone to care about them is all they have.  There are over 8000 AIDS ophans in the town.  Many have no access to something as simple as clean water.  The worries of life back at home and fear about the mountain quickly disappeared when faced with the daunting impact of their fundraising along with a realization of how lifechanging the GAA programs are.

Tonight our team enjoyed their second night at the luxurious Kigongoni Lodge in Arusha located on a historic coffee farm overlooking Mt. Killimanjaro.  Tomorrow they board trucks for a lengthy ride to the base of the mountain.  If you think Chicago has bad potholes, wait until you get a chance to careen down a dirt road in a Land Rover at 60 mph for 3 hours.  At the gate they will join their support team and hike three hours to their first camp.  There they will find sleeping tents, a mess tent, a bathroom tent and dinner waiting for them.  (We are all waiting to hear how our vegan/rawfoodists will enjoy the menu.)  15 of their porters, including 5 women, are graduates of the GAA orphanage and training program.  We have been told that these 5 women are the first female porters on the mountain.  Its been amazingly empowering for them.  The support crew including guides, porters and cooks totals 48 for the 15 climbers.  

Everyone was happy to hear of our chilly temperatures in Chicago.  80 degrees in Arusha today.

More to follow.

Too Tall.