Monday, September 3, 2007 (Unless you are in Ethiopia, then it is 1999)

Written by: Susan 

Current location: Ethiopia

The Porters of Kilimanjaro

One of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had so far on the trip is going through the whole experience of having porters for Kilimanjaro. When we first booked our trip, the idea of porters was just someone who carried our backpacks up the mountain for us. Maybe we would each get a porter or something like that. I wasn’t expecting the whole production that it actually was.

When our safari company, Good Earth Tours, picked us up at the hotel our van was full of people. Perhaps we were giving these guys a ride somewhere? Not unheard of in these parts as anybody who needs a ride can usually find one if there’s room in a moving and working vehicle. “No, these are our porters” our guide Bura told us. “All for us? What are they going to do?” We still had no concept of the production it takes to get people up Kilimanjaro. “They’ll be carrying all of our supplies including tents, food, stove for cooking, water etc.” Basically everything we would need for the next 7 days. There were 6 porters, 1 cook, 1 assistant guide and 1 guide……all to make sure Brian and I would have a safe trip. Simply amazing to think that these people were all here for our well-being.

Thanks to new regulations and much lobbying by a newly formed porter’s union, the porter’s now have a maximum load they can carry up the mountain. 25 Kilos (approx. 50 pounds). This was a good rule since before some tour companies would make them carry up to 100 pounds since you have to pay for each porter. All porter’s bags are weighed at the gate to ensure that porter’s aren’t being abused which used to happen a lot.

The tough part and the most emotionally wrenching part for me was the division of classes. It really was so starkly apparent what money can buy. Here Brian and I were in our mountain gear, down jackets, sleeping bags, good sturdy hiking shoes and warm wool socks while the porter’s were at best wearing hand me down jackets and used hiking shoes. At worst, we saw some wearing dress socks and shoes so thin walking around the mall would hurt, and shirts and pants that barely look fit for a nice spring day. Some didn’t even have sleeping bags for the cold mountain. These were the people carrying all of our gear up the mountain. I couldn’t believe anybody would choose to have this job. It is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever witnessed. We asked our guide, Bura, about this and he said it is just one of the best ways to make money in Tanzania. The average Tanzanian salary is $40 per month. On the mountain, they get paid anywhere from $3 to $8 a day to porter and an additional $6 per day as a tip from us. So for a 7 day journey, on the low end they would make $63. Well above the average salary. That is why the bust their butts.

This of course didn’t make Brian and I feel that much better knowing that our porter’s are busting their butts up the mountain, hauling spring water from deep valleys and racing ahead of us to the next camp to make sure we have hot water for tea and freshly popped popcorn…..all for $9 a day. The part that is so amazing too is that you would expect these men to be hardened. To look at their lives and be a little bit bitter that they had to work so hard for rich tourists who came to do silly things like spend thousands of dollars to climb a mountain. But they weren’t. In fact they were the exact opposite and it was amazing and very heartwarming that every time you passed a porter (or rather they passed you), they had big smiles on their faces, said jambo! (hi in Swahili), and reminded you to go ‘pole, pole’ (slowly, slowly in Swahili).

In the end, we gave some of our gear to our guide and assistant guide, had observed what seemed to be most desparately needed by the porters on the mountain (some didn’t even have flashlights or gloves) and gave them enough money to buy it at the local Shoprite. When we insisted on asking how much things cost, they didn’t want to tell us because they thought it would be way too much money. Additional money that they themselves couldn’t even fathom. We pressed and finally got an answer that a headlamp cost $8. “$8 we asked them?” We had been bracing ourselves for REI prices and thinking we would have to shell out a couple of hundred dollars just to get them simple items. There is so much good, used mountaineering clothing in Seattle that we are now trying to figure out a way to get it to them. There is just no such thing as mountaineering gear hear in Tanzania and we feel that these guys just need to have the basics to make their job a little less painful although I’m not sure their smiles could get any bigger.

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Friday, August 31, 2007

Written by: Brian

Current Location : Addis Ababa,Ethiopia

The Snows of Kilimanjaro:

My dream of climbing a mountain was finally coming true, we had left at 11:00 pm from the final camp attempting to summit the 19,8000ft mountain. We were told to walk slow, drink water and to take very few breaks to avoid freezing.  We were excited, nervous and anxious.  We made it an hour into the seven-hour climb when Susan developed a little bit of mountain dizziness. We slowed our progress and took a couple of breaks to ensure everything was all right.  Though we were able to push on in the -10 degree biting cold windy weather, our climb didn’t improve from there.

The beginning of our mountain adventure started off with excitement. We were on the tallest mountain in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro.  We started our seven-hour hike at about 1,500 ft, the forest canopy above us.  The instructions that were given to us were to drink 4 liters of water a day and eat as much as you can. We can say that we did not lose any weight with those instructions. The last advice was a word we will never forget ‘Pole Pole’ to the top, which means ‘slowly slowly’. As we started out that first day we walked a pace that a 2 year old would walk, little did we know that this is the key each day to making it to the next camp and one step closer to the summit.  Though the walking was slow (in my opinion), I put away my male competitiveness of being the first to the top and listened to our guide’s advice.  Bura had been a guide for 15 years and our assistant guide Bariki had been one for 3 years.

The guides handled us with kid gloves the entire climb, ensuring that we were never walking to fast and that we were drinking enough water.  We could not have been in better hands.  The first evening when we reached camp at 9900ft we were a little tired from the day’s activities. The guides escorted us to our tent and gave us hot washing water to clean up with before showing us to the mess tent that had hot tea and popcorn to snack on.  As we were still in good spirits we joked about what movie they were going to show next.  That evening for dinner we were treated to a wonderfully delicious 3-course dinner of zucchini soup, beef stroganoff and fresh fruit.  After dinner we waddled back to our tent for what was to become a restless night of sleep for both of us. 

The restless night of sleep that night and the next couple nights were due to the malaria pills we had taken, mefloquin.  It is a once a week pill that reduces the severity of malaria if we happen to get it over the next 6 months. There are some side effects though; sleeplessness, nightmares, nausea, anxiety, and fatigue are the most common and the ones we have experienced.  The dreams you have are very vivid and realistic and when you finally wake in the morning you remember the whole dream like it just happened.  Needless to say trying to sleep is challenging the first few nights we take the pill.  The symptoms are supposed to decrease the longer you take it; unfortunately this was only the second time we took it.

We woke up the next morning at 8:00 am, packed and ate breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal, fruit, eggs and sausage.  The second day is a six-hour grueling hike that took us up to 12,600 ft.  Again, the pace was Pole Pole but as we trudged up the cliff side the sun was beating down on us all afternoon.  We finally arrived at camp around 3:00 and Bura told us to take a nap and relax and that we would take about a two hour walk before dinner to acclimate to our new altitude.  The night we were tired from the day’s activities and after diner we retired to our tent and fell fast asleep.

That night of sleep was the worst I have experienced in my life, I was exhausted, had a sun fried face, bad dreams and restlessness from the pills, a stomach from eating all the food and severe headache from the altitude. When the morning finally came we talked about how terrible we felt and we both agreed that we could not handle another night of that on the mountain.  We put on our happy faces though and started what would be one of the most difficult days we had.  The third day was a nine-hour hike up and down valleys, over rocks and ridges and up another 250 feet.  We also encountered a little problem at lunch, due to the malaria pills Susan came down with a little claustrophobic anxiety attack, it was at this point that we realized we were stuck on a mountain, there were only two ways down, a two day hike or a full day to a rescue hut for people who were injured.  We talked about it and decided our best course of action was to trudge on the final 3 hours to camp, which we managed to make.

That night we both slept well and decided to continue to the next camp, which we would have to do anyway to go down the mountain. The 4th day hiking was not bad and there was some simple rock climbing that took our mind off hiking. We made it to the next camp in about four hours where we then relaxed and slept for the night.

The 5th day brought us to a six-hour hike with some challenging terrain.  Again, we walked very Pole Pole and made it to high camp with no problems.  It is funny to watch your porters run by you as you are walking slowly and they are running like they are in a marathon.  They are super strong, carrying up to 25 kilos (about 50 pounds) on their back and head, yep their head.

That night we were attempting our submit climb.

After three hours into the summit climb, Susan’s hands were freezing and my feet were frozen.  We kept asking ourselves why we did not pack warmer cloths, but at 16,000 ft it is hard to reason, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.  When we reached 16,600 ft we came to a group decision that it would be best to turn around and head back to camp if we wanted to make it down safely.  It was very hard making that decision especially so close to the summit but the one thing we did promise everyone is that we would make it down safely.   There is an old mountain climbing saying that goes ”Summiting is optional but making it down alive is mandatory.” 

We made it back to camp thoroughly exhausted and fell fast asleep. The next morning brought many emotions and though I was frustrated, sad, and disappointed I knew we had made a good decision. We started our decent to 9000 ft, which took us four hours to complete.  The next morning our porters sung us a Kilimanjaro song and we headed for the gate.  After seven days on the mountain with no showers, no bed and holes in the floors as toilets, we were looking forward to our hotel.

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