Mt. Kilimanjaro

Hiking with Purpose

Hiking with Purpose

Though it is highly unusual (this is a first) that I’m posting a second blog entry within a week, I wanted to bring you up to speed on our appeal to add purpose to my hike by raising funds for Jennie Danger Mutaka. If you missed our appeal letter, you can find it here. And if you haven’t read my previous blog account of the hike, you can find it here.

Hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro landed on my bucket list 15 years ago when two things converged: seeing the IMAX National Geographic movie chronicling the trek to the top by a group bookended by a 12-year-old boy and a 70-year-old woman, and subsequently visiting our future son-in-law in Mbale, Uganda, who at the time was the executive director of a pediatric hospital which had just hosted a trek up Mt. Kili to raise funds for the hospital. Lisa, Julie, and I all expressed interest in being part of such an event, one which combined both the adventure of hiking the world’s tallest free-standing peak with a clear philanthropic purpose.

From Tanzania with Love

From Tanzania with Love

Exactly one week ago today, Lisa and I were walking the final 10 miles of our Mt. Kilimanjaro “Excellent Adventure” . . . through the rain forest, surrounded by beautiful lush plants, flowers, and trees, with passing views of the summit of Mt. Kili, and a few monkeys to boot.

It was the grand finale of a long held dream and bucket-list item. Flanked front and back by our incredible guides and constant companions for the past 7 days, Kombe and Jackson, Lisa made the accurate observation to Jackson, “I’ll bet you didn’t know Mama could talk!”

It was true. The preceding six days, our climb was uphill in increasingly thin air. And I reserved ALL of my breath for fueling the physically arduous movement up the mountain.