climb for it

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“Climb for it.”

Anyone who once followed me via Tumblr (are you still there?) or read this blog in the past may remember that it was once called Climb for Life with the URL, kiliclimbforlife.tumblr.com. 

Well not anymore! 

With the onset of deciding to start blogging again I decided to change the name of this blog because the old name does not really apply anymore. I did Kili (Mount Kilimanjaro) already! And climbforlife.tumblr.com was taken.

“Climb for it” was free and seemed very fitting. And now I’m in love. This line fits into my life, your life, anyone’s life really well. It’s a great motto...if you have goals, which I hope you do. 

Now anytime I am struggling, whether it’s at the gym, at work, mediating some relationship hiccup, like a little weirdo I’m going to say to myself “climb for it.” 

My new blog name and mantra blends seamlessly into my optimistic outlook on life & my love for rock climbing...

(View from my first bouldering trip with Matt & Craig. Adirondacks, May 2014)

I have been climbing for about 5 years. Mainly indoors at Coyote Rock Gym in Ottawa but a few times outdoors and I’d like to do more. Besides yoga and hiking (arguably not exactly sports) rock climbing is the sport I have committed most of my adult life to. I go about twice a week all year round! 

Climbing is said to be a terrific sport, especially for children because it teaches kids to build body awareness and develop fundamental movement skills, physical and motor abilities, mental abilities, even social abilities. It is an awesome physical and mental challenge to get up a rock wall and little makes me feel better. 

I firmly believe climbing contributes to a happier, healthier life. It is the best workout for me because I get to sweat it out in a full body workout, talk Craig’s ear off, and solve problems both on and off the wall. 

I hope I’ve inspired you to try climbing & I hope you like my new name!  

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Good to be back

(photo by my friend Julianne Robert)

Hi there! After a 3 year absence I thought I’d come back to this blog. I originally started it in early 2012 to document my prep and travels to Tanzania and the Kilimanjaro Climb For Life bucket list adventure with the Ottawa based NGO WaterCan. It was a time that I think back fondly on and blog posts from that time help me with the details I am foggy on. 

What have I been up to since 2012? 

Since the climb I’ve been having a great time. I am very happy living and working at a great job in my hometown of Ottawa and met my boyfriend Jake shortly after returning from the big trip. He’s pretty cute! I am blessed to still have the wonderful support system of friends and family who got me up the mountain back in 2012. Oh, and I moved out! :)

WaterCan has changed it’s name and merged with another NGO to create WaterAid. They continue to do wonderful work in the lack of safe water and sanitation crisis department.

With the refresh of this blog I plan to dig back through the cobwebs to remember some times from the 2012 trip and talk about some more recent travels + the future! Peru 2016!

Cheers.

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How to top 2012

Can it be done? Biting my lip on this one. 

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(Photo via Erin Roberts)

What I was thinking as this photo was being taken:

“Holy f*@k it feels like my skin is literally peeling away from my body so it can move away from here and curl up and huddle together for warmth or some semblance of how it used to feel to be somewhat comfortable being outdoors. Take the goddamn photo Nick, please take the f’in photo.” 

Chris has a really great post on Summit Night/ Day if you’d care to read it. I have been slow to revisit that time. 

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A Real Hole

There is a day for everything! That's right, today is World Toilet Day.

I also read that today is International Men's Day. Hmmmm. Weirdly enough World Toilet Day comes after World Hand Washing Day which is in October.

Anyways, I was thinking earlier it's unfortunate I never took a photo of the more basic toilets we used in our rural visits. I guess I never thought to do that because I was more concerned with actually using the toilet carefully over taking a photograph of it. 

The toilets we used in and on our way to Kiteto were squat toilets. They're exactly what they sound like. If you follow through to the Wiki page ours were not quite as fresh and clean, as I imagine most in the developing world are not. I fondly remember passing a flock of live chickens just hanging outside of the lavatory, somehow not minding the smell. 

Like WaterCan says, "it may not be glamourous, but adequate sanitation is vital to development and human life." Toilets play a humble yet incredibly important part in our daily lives. Weren't you thankful for yours today?

At Engusero Primary School there were separate squat toilets for girls and boys. I can't express enough how having a private and safe place to go to the bathroom influences and improves the lives of girls.

A lack of separate bathrooms actually increases absenteeism which leads to more young girls dropping out of school which is already so common without the bathroom politics.

While I don't think girls should be embarrassed of their periods (there are a lot of arguments surrounding the issue of common vs. separate toilets) it is a significant improvement over shared toilets where boys and girls use the same space.

It can be argued common toilets prioritize the interests of males, leaving the needs of females out of the picture. I think: if girls have their own toilets, they can focus on their own bodies, and get back to class. They don't have to stay home, they don't have to worry someone will find out their on their period, they can just take care of themselves and get going. 

I'm not even going to get into the traditional style of relieving yourself - in the woods or bush or whatever is an option. You can imagine or easily research the problems stemming from that - for females and males. 

Sanitation is recognized by the UN as a human right - yet 1 in 3 people the world over don't have access to a safe toilet. World Toilet Day aspires to hold governments to their promises to provide adequate sanitation through global awareness campaigns. Let me know if you enjoyed using a toilet today! You can sign the petition and share why you give a shit here. 

(Photo via World Toilet Organization and Inscrutable Exhortations)

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It can't be that hard.

I want to and have to talk about this for just a bit because it happened again tonight and it's aggravating.

A few times now, even before I left for Tanzania, I was met with what could be the worst kind of criticism. A kind of hopeless, faithless and uninspired criticism. I don't know where this comes from - jealousy maybe or maybe I'm being too sensitive or others are being insensitive or they are uneducated or I should research more, or maybe its intimidation due to epic bad assness.

When some people, not naming names, found out I was headed to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro they made sure to "point out" that Mount Kilimanjaro is not hard or is considered an easy hike of the mountain hikes in the world. 

That's really nice. 

Sadly I am back in Canada now but even sadder is the truth that having summited Mount Kilimanjaro, guys still need to make comments like "it can't be that hard."

Thank you.

It is or has been all guys, by the way, who have said things like this. Young guys, who are actually the kind of people most likely to not make it all the way up Kilimanjaro. Because they get too competitive, speed ahead, get sick from the altitude and are carried down in decompression bags. 

All I can say to them (here through this blog, no way never to their faces, but maybe if my patience is tried one more time) is please go and give it a try and then we can talk. Because anyone who has not attempted to climb Kili can not review it so off'handedly with as little care or thought as putting on deodorant before the gym. 

It was really hard.

I haven't done a lot of hard things in my life - my Grandpa died when I was in grade six, I split my chin open on a concrete floor when I was in an even younger grade - I have suffered from very little heart ache and thankfully from little physical ailment or surgery in 23 years. Therefore, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro is the hardest thing I have ever done. Especially and most definitely it was summit night that was so hard, which I promise to talk about at a later time. 

Anyone who says it is easy has never done it. It's as "not hard" as that. 

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5 Lessons Learned

A few weeks back WaterCan asked a few of us Ottawa people to put together five lessons we learnt on our trip for an Ottawa Citizen article called Kilimanjaro Climb for Life: Top 10 Lessons Learned The article should be out now although I haven't seen it. Anyways I figure it's ok to post mine here! 

(Photo via Erin Roberts)

1. Enjoy it while you're up there: I stayed at the summit all of 7 minutes, it was exceptionally cold. Two photographs later and we were flying down, poles in hand. Before you know it, the 7 day trek is over. Take the time to look up from the trail, ask about weird shaped trees, and get to know your guides - ours were really cool and the strongest guys I’ve ever met.

2. Both the journey and destination count: I couldn’t imagine climbing Kili without reaching the top but decided to take the hike one day at a time. It’s a mountain paradox…”to reach a goal, you have to forget about the goal.” I made sure to enjoy everything – a breathtaking valley view at Barranco camp, for example, rather than solely focus on the midnight summit.

3. Don’t forget about your hands: a week off the mountain and my hands are still red and blistered. The African sun and strong winds burnt and chapped them to the state they’re in now. Wear gloves no matter how hot it is.

4. Let someone take care of you: My tent mate, Erin was great – she braided my hair, massaged my hands, kept me on time. Everyone on the team was each other’s nurse and our guides were constantly asking how we were doing. At the summit I could hardly support myself, I was exhausted and cold, falling over, and a guide, Deo, literally held me up. There isn’t a lot of room for independence on Kilimanjaro, you have to trust your team and take support when you can get it. 

5. Canadians are incredibly lucky: from WaterCan’s clinic and school visits in rural Kiteto, to the experience we had on Kilimanjaro – raising $270,000 for clean water projects -  I can say I’m ready to do a lot more. Everest Climb for Life 2020?

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At the very beginning (still energetic), exploring the Moorland and Alpine desert and getting checked out by our porter Daniel. 

Erin Roberts from Waterloo was my awesome tentmate.

At the beginning of the climb our team of 22 was split into two separate groups - Tembo and Simba. The only thing that really meant was we were supposed to eat in separate tents and we had different head guides, Onest or Wilfred.

We were on Tembo with Onest! He was a very gentle older man who mostly lived up to his name. He measured our heart rates every night and the amount of oxygen in our blood to monitor how we were doing. 

Erin and I were together for the final ascent and it was like the Amazing Race. We both kept pushing each other or checking each other to make sure we were okay. After a few freezing cold minutes on Uruhu Peak we were both like "see ya!" and blasted out of there arm in arm. 

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The all mighty ginkgo

Mount Meru Hotel was a palace in comparison to where we'd been staying in Kiteto and the Thomson tents awaiting us on Kilimanjaro. Time before leaving for the climb was spent saving energy and rearranging luggage. 

Our head guides, Wilfred and Honest, from Thomson Safaris met us in the late afternoon at the hotel to give us a briefing on the climb and equipment.

I had taken my altitude sickness medication a few hours before and began to feel the effects mid- meeting. It was intense! My legs were asleep and my lower back was starting to go too. A couple climbers went natural on the trek but most of us took Diamox, so we all experienced the same kind of tingly sensations in our hands and toes. Diamox is also a diuretic. Fun!

Along with the malaria tablets I was taking and my vitamins, I had a nice little collection of pills to take every day.

I started taking Ginkgo biloba on the advice of a friend a few weeks before the climb. It is supposed to help with vertigo as well as immune function, memory, all that stuff. It may have been a placebo effect thing, but I'll take what I can get. That stuff gets some credit for getting me to the top of Kilimanjaro. 

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Mambo Engusero Primary!

We arrived to our afternoon hosts very late. Like three hours late. With a school of 900 children, their teachers, their families and other members of the community in attendance - that is a huge crowd to show up late to. Oops.

Just a few years ago, Engusero was slated for closure due to lack of sanitation and access to clean water. WaterCan intervened, repairing and building rainwater harvesting tanks and separate toilets for girls and boys. 

It's safe to say the school is now thriving. They welcomed us with catchy songs (that we sang up and down the mountain) and impressive dancing.

One of our climbers, Devin had brought his first guitar all the way from Canada to donate to the school. He played a song for them that he'd made up with a few Swahili phrases we'd learnt.

"Jambo" = "hello"

"Mambo" = "what's up?"

"Poa" = "cool" (common reaction to being asked "mambo?")

"Poa, kichizi kama nanasi!" had become the slogan for our trip. It was repeated hundreds of times those first few days. It translates to something like "Cool/ crazy as a cucumber."

Listening to Devin's song, the kids went nuts. They swarmed him. They were even yelling out the words to us as we drove away. 

Before we left there was a short soccer game held. Two climbers, Keith and Rynette, had donated soccer balls and the match was held on this huge field behind the school. I wanted to play but literally could not move out of the crowd of children around me. 

I have never experienced anything like that afternoon - being entirely surrounded by little ones who are simply amazed to see you and simply thrilled to have you high five them or lock eyes with them. Our hosts treated us better than our own families do! I sort of know how celebrities feel now.

When I got tired of high fives and props to the circle of kids around me I started taking their picture and showing them the result. I thought this would be an innovation for them but was wrong. Although they seemed to enjoy having their photo taken it's not entirely new.

The funniest thing was looking up with my camera to see a teenager taking my photo with his cell phone. Like I was a spectacle! I guess the whole group of us were a spectacle to this community, especially with our lack of dancing skills. 

In Masai culture, having guests means a village or family is blessed or will receive blessing in the near future. That night we were honoured with a farewell ceremony at Kabaya's community centre. The village gave each of us beaded bracelets with our names inscribed and presented WaterCan's ED George Yap with a traditional Masai dress. Pretty cute George!

We were up to leave Kabaya at 4 AM Tuesday morning. 

I couldn't help but think the village would find it odd - they would wake up and the visitors would be gone.

But as we waited for everyone to gather, Joscelyn and I heard this warbling, singing voice coming through the darkness. Our driver told us it was the Muslim call to prayer which happens every day, very early. It was so beautiful, truly beautiful and it made me tear up. It was surreal to hear that and then to drive out of Kabaya as the sun rose. 

I have to shout out to WaterCan's Kyla Smith who was our commander for the Kiteto visits. She herded 22 adults around which is not an easy task. You were so organized and so wise! 

On to Kilimanjaro!

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From the top

Most of the team arrived in Arusha quite late on Saturday (Oct. 13th). Quick dinner, quick meet and greet and we were under our mosquito nets, making small talk with our new roommates. 

The next day we set off early for Kabaya, in the Kiteto region of Tanzania.

One thing you have to know about Tanzania (I especially noticed this there, can't say much for other African countries) is that they see time a little differently. "T.I.A." became a popular expression, meaning "this is Africa". An estimated drive of six hours can easily turn into nine hours, a 30 minute drive can be confused for a slow 30 KM drive over rough terrain. Basically - give your schedule wiggle room. 

Funniest sights driving along the dry roads included Masai shepherds with cell phones and small innocent looking children flipping us off as we drove by. 

KINNAPA is one of WaterCan's local partners on the ground in Kiteto and we met with them our first night in the village and spent the next day with them learning about what they do. 

We took up two hotels in this village! It was (to me) in the middle of nowhere but a bustling village none the less. We went to a bar our first night - an appealing place where we were served warm beer. You've got to request it cold in Tanzania!

Our first morning we were taken to a health clinic in Ngobola where a lot of people had gathered to greet us. Masai women were singing and kids were dancing around. I had the impression they were a little nervous around us - the men were different, more laid back. They liked Mike's iPad and seeing the photos Nick took of them. With a little warming up, the children took to us and I learned how powerful high fives can be when you can't really communicate any other way. 

A few men took us to see the local water source. It was a 35 foot deep hole under a tree. I was not expecting to see that. The purpose of the trip was suddenly very real. At this source, a user has to climb down a very steep incline and haul dirty bug infested water up with a canister. Then carry it back to wherever they came from.

Water politics in this area are tricky - there are many factors at play. This source is drying up for one thing. It's not clean. It's a hike for the people in the area. The area itself is made up of pastoralists, who travel all over looking for land for their animals to graze on and water to drink. 

One of the KINNAPA men mentioned a common issue that really struck me. It is something inherent in the traditions of a culture I'll never understand because I wasn't raised herding animals or living off the land. The Masai often put their herd before their families, even young children. That means if there is a water source, cows or donkeys get priority. 

This complicates the politics behind creating sustainable water sources. We drove past a few wells that were fenced in with the ability to be locked up - something I see the benefit of now. Initially you'd think, why should that well be only for those with a key? But looking at it from another point of view - some people abuse the source.

Conflict also arises when one area gets development over another. It's very very complicated and I am probably too uneducated to even be blogging about it!

This was WaterCan's approach to show us what "before" could look like...they had only recently started working with this clinic. Next I'll talk about the "after", recapping our visit at Engusero Primary School. 

Thanks for reading!

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Where to start?

It's safe to say the past few weeks have been a slow moving blur. I feel like I've been away for a long time but in reality...it was only about 3.5 weeks. The portion with WaterCan and Mount Kilimanjaro feels like another lifetime ago. 

A story on the Kilimanjaro Climb for Life project is in what I guess is last week's Hello! Canada (the one with Justin Timberlake's wedding on the cover).

Our trip photographer, Nick Spector took amazing photos!

I have a lot to share. Not sure what's been my favourite sight or moment but recapping a lot of my memories here should help.

Here we go!

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Thursday morning, 5 AM

Well, I am back on Canadian soil in my Canadian bed that was probably made in China.

Through Europe, all over Africa, back through Europe and West Jet loses my luggage somewhere between Toronto and Ottawa. But I am not complaining...My cousin and I watched a good amount of Louis CK in Amsterdam so I am not going to complain or whine because I know I will get it eventually and I got to partake in the miracle of flying so...

So much flying has let me catch up on all the latest (ish) movies. I've seen: Friends with Kids, Total Recall, Ted, the Avengers, Magic Mike, the Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus. It's amazing! Thank you flying.