Sasa by Proxy: The Rebirth

Jambo friends of Sasafrica!

This is Josh, the original ghost-blogger who kicked off this series back in August while Sarah and the girls got settled in their new African digs. Since then Sarah has taken the reigns and delighted us with her daily tales of life in Tanzania, all while subtly instructing us to send clothes, to carpe diem, and to not eat shit sandwiches. Well folks, we’re going to TiVo that stream of red-headed consciousness for a little while as Sarah leads another ambitious group up Mount Kili. In her absence, I and Eric “Too Tall” Schoonveld, the stretched husband of Shawna, Sarah’s co-leader and partner in crime, will be filling in with both play-by-play and color commentary as Fric & Frac lead another group of brave philanthropists up the hill. For those who have grown accustomed to the stylings of Sasafrica, please note that the tone will change a bit. With me, you’ll get a Sedaris-like slant on the events with a light-hearted, but sardonic take on the climb. When Too Tall starts typing, his eloquent lawyerness will come shining through, and suddenly you’ll be Thoreau country. Once the climb is over, he and I will gladly pass the baton back to Ramona Quimby: The Acid Years for her own take on the climb and 2nd semester in Africa.

As for the climbers, welcome to the great journey that is sure to change your life! Sarah introduced you all in previous posts in guest star fashion, reminiscent of the opening credits of the Love Boat. All that was missing was each of your faces in the ship steering wheel and, of course, the Landers sisters, Sid Caesar, and Charles Nelson Reilly. A key pointer: when you’re on the climb be warned that Sasa likes to tell stories…repetitively. When you hear her open up with “Did I tell you…?” quickly cut her off at the pass. Sure, you’ll need the entertainment to get through the grueling part of the climb, but don’t let her think that the multiple climate changes will erase your memory. Demand new material!

I’ve also sent Sarah 7 awesome CDs, so if anyone is short on music, ask Hannah Africanna if you can borrow her collection, then you all can dance a Soul Train line up the mountain. However, watch out for Sarah’s moves…when she puts that iPod on she’s Elaine Bennis with a backpack, and trust me, there have been casualties.

Shawna will be a great resource, particularly if you need to reach the top shelf. Her favorite pastime is laughing (and subsequently peeing in her pants), so if you want to feel like you’re headlining at Caroline’s Comedy Club, grab Shawniqua and let the jokes fly. Knock-knocks had her at hello.

So good luck to the climbers, and happy reading to friends and family near and far. It’s sure to be another successful adventure, so Too Tall and I will do our best to translate the journey to make you feel like you’re right there with them!

Snow and Spelling

First a shout out to all my misspelled words...I type fast and usually never edit...similar to how I live my life...I could use a full time editor....anyone intersted in the position???
Anyway...so I just wrote my group about how the snow on Kili had been going away and then BAM...it's now covered. Yesterday I drove to Arusha and noticed Mt. Meru has also gotten snow (very very uncommon) the second highest portion of Kili...Mwenzi...snow...ug.
I am hoping the unseasonable rain we have gotten of late is almost over as we start climbing Monday. They are mostly traveling from Chicago which I hear has gotten its fair share of snow...
Soon on this page there will commence a bloggins smackdown...in one corner we have Josh...who is a Google exectuive...in the other we have Eric who is a high powered attorney...I doubt they will have misspellings...should prove for some interesting reading while i am away....best to all of you and more when I return on the 23rd!!!
Love and Peace,
Sarah
PS...positive energy our way as we do a Valentine's day summit!!!! LOVE

Intros continued!!!

Ok...so...next we have Jimmy Masterson...Jimmy has been interested in doing this climb sense the first time I came here 4 years ago. He had that look in his eye as if to say "I want to do that" way back when . He and his wife Beth ( who will join us for the second half of the trip) generously sponsored me for that first climb! They are parents to 5 great kids...who I hope they are inspired to bring back in the future. I look forward to spend ing this time with both Jimmy and Beth!!! Then there is Yong Myong....he is the father of three great girls. Yong has traveled all over the world so he will lend an experienced sense of this adventure. yong is checking out the climb for his wife and first born daughter who also want to climb with us in the future (right cathy????)
Julie Newman is a business woman from Chicago...a very very busy one who I imagine will have a challenge slowing down to the pace of Africa. I doubt she will flinch on the mountain as she is a courageous independent soul.
Anna Loftus and Joanne Jorgenson are the other respesenting lawyers on the climb. They both owrk for the same firm but in different regional offices. Joanne hails from Utah...and has been hiking at altitude...she'll be leaving her its and her Army employed husband....now it's her turn to leave the country as he spent time in Iraq. Anna I don't know as well and really met briefly at our last meeting in Chicago...she strikes me a a bright vibrant addition to the group....she's tiny...and looks very fit.
Melissa Guierrez is the youngest member of our group. She is a veteran traveler mostly in South America...I'll be happy to introduce her to Abu one of our drivers who is fluent in Spanish. A few of our Tumaini trained porters also speak Spanish...I like Melissa's enthusiasm and will appreciate it onthe mountain!
Last but not least....it is our lucky luck to have Jamie Dwyer labor delivery Nurse extrodinaire. She was supposed to climb with our group in dec. but contracted Dengue Fever in South America...she has been here in Tanzania for the last few weeks traveling and visiting her sister Sam who is a GAA employee. She is great....I am SOOOOO happy she will be joining us!!! Nice to have a nurse along as well....especially if anyone goes into labor!
Ok....more later my mom needs some more training! HA....
Love to you all....see you climbers soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sarah

Climbers Continued

So next on the list we have Amy Kaplan...spitfire this one. She has raised the most money thus far! When Amy gets something in her head she is determined...this will serve her well on Kili. She works for Capitol Records so she is taking the word of GAA into another arena! Amy is a mom of two beautiful kids who will be cheering her on from home with their dad Eric.
Then there is Tara Goff Kamradt, I always want her on MY side. Tara is a partner in a major law firm in Chicago. Her manner exudes strength and determination...she too will be served well by this on Kili. Tara and I share the role of happy single mom's....she is mother to Harrison who is the same age as Pearl. I appreciate a knowing glance from Tara at school...in the years we have known each other. Tara is bringing two important people with her...first her sister in law Leslie Goff who I have yet to meet. Tara tells us she is amazing woman and mother. She has three young children and one with special needs. She has focused very hard as a mom and career woamn and is finally taking some time for herself. ( notice in doing so she is fundraising fo other kids!). I look forward to meeting Leslie and I'll tell you more about her when i do! Tara is also joined by Kay Raso. Kay is also an accomplished athlete and a lover of Pilates. She recently moved to Colorado so she has been lucky enough to do some training at altitude. Kay rode in a super long bike race this summer ( I can't remeber the distance) it was over a several day span and covered a lot of feet up and down. Kay is leaving her Buff husband at home.
So I will finish the line up tomorrow...off to finish the details of our trip!!!! Starting to finally feel real!!!!
Love to you all.
Sarah

Fundraising-o-rama

So as a reminder let me tell you that my job here is to plan and execute fundraising trips that support the various programs of Global Alliance for Africa, a non-for-profit located in Chicago. We are now working on a trip from Georgetown University, Loyola University, a bike trip, and yoga trip and an Art Camp. Those 5 trips will be coming before July....thus far this year we have had an Art trip and a Kili climb with another arriving in less than two weeks. We have a lot of momentum going...our goal was 6 trips this year...and we will easily surpass that. This trip coming in February is by far the biggest fundraisng group of the year. Shawna and I have both been working with this group since early last year. It is a wonderful mix of highly accomplished people with a drive to both help GAA and climb to the roof of Africa. I want to give you a bit of background on the group because this blog will be the home of their journey. We plan to document their ascent (and descent) up Kili. and give descriptions of their journey. You can log in here to see how they are doing and where they are on the mountain. So I am going to introduce each of them over the next few blogs to give their journey a more personal feel.
First there is Shawna, Shawna is my great great friend and a wonderful supporter of Global Alliance. This will be her 3rd attempt on Kili...she was successful in her first two tries. She does triathlons, skis, bikes....and I would say is generally happiest when outdoors. She is a leader on this trip. Both Shawna's sister Nicole and her father Jim will be joining us this year. I already feel emotional at the thought of the three of them doing this together. Kili brings out a lot of different emotions in people and for them to share this wih each other will be very powerful...Jim has been trainig really hard and has set the bar high for the rest of us. Rumors of his efforts have already come to Africa....ankle weights, heavy backpacks...he's gunning for this mountain!!! Nicole is an accomplished althlete and a natural runner. She is leaving behind her husband and beautiful daughter to join us. As I've told her and the other parents on the trip...the effect their climb will have on their own children is as powerful as the effect it will have on the kids here.
I'll finish my focus on our line up in my next blog so stay tuned....there will be 15 of us doing the climb beginning on the 11th of February....this group leaves Chicago on the 8th and will spend a day getting ready and visitng the programs of GAA...for a littel pre-climb motivation.
My mom comes this Sat....she willbe staying wth my kids while a travel with this group...this is about the 10th trip she has taken this year. She's been in Indonesia, Brazil, and many other foreign locales...so i think she'll easily adapt to our life here....we can't wait to see her!!! Yeah Gamma!!!
More soon!!!!
Sarah

Shit Sandwich

Let me preface this blog with the fact that I know I am swearing and there is swearing involved...hope no one takes offense.
While hiking on Sunday, I had an interesting conversation with Pearl. She had recently seen a movie called Gracie. (this movie was left behind by my Christian friend) The movie is about a girl whose brother dies. She tries to replace him on the soccer team. She has to work and train very hard and eventually wins the game etc. She struggles a lot to get to this point. At one part of the movie she is having a conversation with her mother and her mother basically tells her that "women have to, at some point, take a bite of a big shit sandwich" that it is part of our inequality etc. Gracie was discouraged by her mother's attitude and vowed to prove her wrong.
Pearl asked me if my mom had made me take a bite of a "shit sandwich". I know she doesn't know what shit is and doubt she grasped the metphorical aspect of this comment. But it did lead to a great conversation about how "no, I was raised pretty equally to my brothers and always encouraged to compete". I told her under no circumstances would she ever be made to take a bite from me...hopefully not from other influences in her life. I told her I was raising my daughters to be humans....in a global world and to understand that we can all be equal and should be compensated as such. May have gone over my 5 year olds head...but she was trudging through the mud nodding...listening...
When I reflected on this later...I realized I have to vote for Hillary. I have to vote for her for no other reason than to have a woman in power, for that to exist in my girls lifetime. Of course I LOVE Barack...loving African men....but I never want my girls to take a bite of the shit sandwich.

Waterfalls and Banana Beer

Today Nell and Pearl and I and three other friends went for an amazing hike up to a glorious huge waterfall. The day began with a slippery drive (me driving) up towards Kili to a village called Uru. It was lightly raining which made getting up there in my sedan type car a bit of a feat. Then we fond some local kids to take us into the area where the falls are...
I need to first tell you what a typical Sunday is like in a village like this. Sundays start with church in the villagers Sunday finest and end in a drunken stumble home. Pretty hilarious....so while we were hiking in, many people were just leaving their services...in heels and nice shoes in the sloppy mud. These people use leaves as their umbrellas. The Banana trees are so huge that one leaf can provide shelter for two or three people. This sight alone....the bright bright green mixed with the bright colors of the church clothes was a sight to absorb....the people greeted us happily. As is the norm...Nell and Pearl are the center of attention. People stop them...want to look at them....talk to them...they are mini rockstars here. By the time we were hiking out hours later, the entire village had consumed a lot of banana beer. Even the old "mamas" were wasted....it's pretty funny to see these people stumbling down the path. Add to this spectacle the HUGE snail Nell was carrying on a banana leaf and you have a sight to behold. the villagers were essentially falling down laughing (drunk) at the sight of this Mzungu (oh so very white one) carrying a snail. what they didn't know is that she named it Gary...ala Sponge Bob. I didn't mention that Nell did the entire hike barefooted...very much like every other Tanzanian kid we saw...that child is made to be outdoors! Pearl in the meantime was charming everyone by picking up a few Chagga phrases and greeting the parties as we descended...she spent most of the day on someones shoulders...mainly mine. They were both such a pleasure to take on this adventure and always add to everyone elses humor. Neither complained being in the mud and rain....they loved the mud squishing through their toes...being free etc.
Great great day!!!!
Peace,
Sarah