Coming home

I am leaving tomorrow. It's hard to believe that my eight weeks are up and I am headed back to the States. I have been looking forward to bagels and my own apartment, but now that the time has come, I am sad to leave Allyson and Bryan and the new friends I have made along the way - and the kids.

I put up some new pics from the orphanage and will continue to update and organize once I arrive home and have free internet access from the comfort of a Manhattan apartment. I can't wait to see my Mac!

Last shift

Our last orphanage shift ended a couple of days ago. We are all very sad to be done and I miss the kids already. We spent most of our time in the Baby House, which means anything from 2 week year olds to 6 or 7 year olds. After 5 weeks, you get attached whether you try to or not. The kids embrace you so quickly and all fight with each other to have you all to themselves. If one of them hops on your lap, there are always more close behind angling for the attention. And they prefer if you don't share your lap either.

The founder of the orphanage has her special black chair in the Baby Room. When R. is not around, anyone is free to sit there, but as soon as she walks in, the chair is vacated and R. takes her place. If you are lucky, she will share the stories of the children with you. They are heartbreaking and heartwarming.

On our first shift we met P. He had only arrived the night before we did. We were told not to pick him up and to watch out for him when he sat down. He had burns down the back of both of his legs. Over the course of our time there, we learned more of his story. His mother had placed him on a hot stove. There is an ongoing investigation and she is trying to get him back. I'm not sure that is in his best interest, but it does seem to happen without much to do. P.is about 3 or 4 years old and loves to play ball. He has quite a vocabulary, but it's all in Xhosa, which we know very little. It's frustrating because he tries so hard to communicate and he talks and talks, but we don't know what he is saying. We had to get someone to tell us what he was talking about when he kept saying 'chula'(throw) and 'caba' (kick) all the time. P. also has to poop quite often. He can't fully take care of it on his own, so he comes up to one of the volunteers and tugs your sleeve until you accompany him to the toilet with the training seat. He can sit there for quite some time and he prefers that you patiently wait with him while he sings along and takes care of business.

Then there is Z. She went back with her mother about 2 weeks ago. She was over 2 years old and had been at the orphanage since she was less than a day old. She was born at 1AM, and was at the orphanage by 7PM that same day. She already had two other brothers or sisters, but for some reason, she was unwanted. In all the 2 years she had been there, none of her family had ever visted. The social worker tracked down her aunt, grandmother and mother and within 2-3 weeks, Z. was off and living back with her mom and siblings. Almost impossible to imagine it happening that quickly - no home visits, just two stops to the orphanage by the family and she was gone.

One of my favorites is the story of B. and A. B. is just a baby and he has cerebal palsy. He doesn't interact much with the other kids and has a hard time doing much of anything. They sit him out on the floor with everyone else and it's all he can do to keep his head supported. He responds to his name and loves when you pick him up. His sister is older and attends the creche (school) across the street. In the past five weeks, we have seen their father there about 3 times. He comes on the weekend and spends time with them and even took them out for a few hours last week. It's the mother who does not want the children and their father is learning a trade to get a good job, so he can take them home to be with them. Considering that there are 2 of them and the younger has the health issues, it's quite amazing that he is working on getting them back. He always has a smile on his face and looks so happy and proud when he is with them.

In our 5 weeks there were 4 new kids that arrived. They are usually brought in by the police. One of the kids left after only one night - which apparently happens quite often. Most recently, a boy arrived last week around dinner time. The police had found him wandering the streets. No one knew his name. He was clean and well-dressed. While the police were there, the caregivers looked him over and noticed that he had a burn across his mid-section. It wasn't fresh, but appeared to go around his body in an almost perfect 4 inch band. We fed him bread with peanut butter and water, which he hungrily accepted. He is adjusting to playing and fighting with the other kids, but at night time he gets sad and cries in the corner by himself.

The orphanage must be a pretty fun place for the kids - they get some toys, tons of kids and volunteers to play with, 3 meals and 2 snacks a day - but the individual attention they would get at home is seriously lacking and I can't even imagine how it is for a 1-2 year old to be thrust into that situation and have no idea what is happening to them.

It's hard to leave not knowing what the future holds for them. We are lucky to know others that are just starting shift so we can get updates on everyone. It was an experience that I will never forget and I hope that the love that I brought to them made some kind of difference.

Off shift activities

Hopefully you have been following Allyson's blog, as I have been doing quite a poor job of updating this one. I have put a few pictures up on flickr with comments, but it's not the same.

Time goes by very quickly when we are off-shift. Basically, we spend 3 nights at the orphanage, and 3 nights in Capetown. The day we get back, we are usually too tired to do much. We have lunch, drop off our laundry, run some errands and try to get some rest. When we are not fighting flus, chest coughs, stomach viruses and fevers, we take in some of the activities that Cape Town has to offer. We have tried to do one 'big thing' each off-shift. We have done a Vineyard tour, a township tour, visited Robben Island and most recently ascended Table Mountain.

I also posted some orphange pics, but they are not 'public', which means you need a flickr account and to be connected to me as a 'friend or family.' Sign up if you would like and I will add you as a contact when we get back from shift next week. We are back on shift (our last one! so sad!) until Tues, so I will check in with you then.

Zanzibar

Continuing with my theme of going completely out of order and being way behind what is happening right now, I present you with the pictures from Zanzibar. You may recall after our week of safari and week of climb in Kili, we treated ourselves with 5 nights and 5 days in paradise, otherwise known as Zanzibar.

We arrived at our guest house, Arabian Nights aroun 9PM, so we didn't fully appreciate the view until we awoke the next morning to find that we were only feet from the Indian Sea - complete with stunning blue/green water, powder white sand and our own lounge chairs. Needless to say there was not much activity over the next two days. We read, we slept, we ate, we played in the water and enjoyed the beach entertainment.
On day 3, we forced ourselves out from the beach chairs and off to a tour of a spice farm and an afternoon in Stonetown. We were adorned with necklaces, lipstick, land all kinds of silly stuff by our assistant guides on the tour. We also learned about the pineapple, the clove and various other spices.

We shopped and walked around Stonetown. It was a nice afternoon, but we were happy that we were staying out at the beach and not in the 'city.'

Our last day, we got in more beach time and played cards at the next door restaurant. We had a lovely last night dinner in a special area at the hotel that they set up just for us.

The next morning, we were off early for a transfer to the airport and the flight back to Arusha. It was literally the shortest flight you could imagine. I think Bryan clocked it at 14 minutes. Apparently you can also take a ferry, but it was included as part of the package we booked with Roys.

Zanzibar was the perfect ending to a great 3 week vacation in Tanzania. We met others that did Zanzibar before Kilimanjaro, but I would have to say that in my opinion, the order of our trip is the way to go.

Real time update - July 31st

I am taking a break from the detailed Kilimanjaro updates to bring you some long overdue pictures from safari.

We are off to our second shift at the orphanage tomorrow but I will update more when we return this weekend. When not at the orphanage we are staying at a lodge with free internet access, so I will be much more diligent with my blog posts over the next month. Can't wait to tell you all about the orphanage!

Climb Day 2

I woke up around 6AM and had to step out to pee. Before dinner, we would all politely walk to the latrine to take care of business, but in the middle of the night and early in the morning, we would squat just off the campsite - getting closer and closer to the tents as the days passed and we got lazier and colder and more and more tired of climbing in and out of the tent in the middle of the night.

Our hot water bowls arrived at 7:20 and we washed up before 7:30 breakfast. We had porridge, bread with peanut butter and honey and then a course of egges with cheese and a side of cucumber. The food was turning out much better than we had expected.

After changing and packing our day packs we set out just after 9AM. It was foggy and misty for the first hour or so and we climbed up some steep rocks and inclines. We had to stop a lot because all of the porters needed to pass us. We were going so slow, that hundreds of men with multiple back packs, chairs, and food supplies balanced on their heads went ahead of us on the narrow path. As we walked the mist cleared and it turned out to be a dry, warm, sunny afternoon.

We passed the time playing the 'bah bah' game (kinda like 'name that tune' but instead of whistling or humming, you can only use 'bah's). We stopped for lunch and found ourselves above the clouds. We knew that this would happen at some point, but had no idea it would be on Day 2. It was quite a feeling laid out in the sun on some nice flat rocks, sipping our apple juice and eating our sandwiches and looking down on the clouds. We also had a great view of Kili.

The afternoon was steep and rocky as we hiked up past the Shira caves. We finally saw the tents at Shira camp. There were so many tents, that we nicknamed it 'tent city.' Quite bizarre to see all these dots of colored tents in such dense population. As we headed down the dirt path to camp, Deb stumbled and put her hand out to balance herself. She landed her hand in a cactus or prickly bush. Our guide Elias was by her side before we even knew what was happening. He patiently picked the quills from her palm while Lynn held her other arm and tried to keep her from jumping around. It looked like it hurt, but Drake held tough. She used Lynn's tweezers to get the remants out later at camp.

We walked through the tent chaos and were happy to find that our porters had set up our camp far from everyone else, close - but not too close - to the latrene and next to a flat rock clearing that we called Meditation Rock. We had a nice relaxing hour or so, a nice warm dinner and then off to sleep.

I had some trouble breathing the second night. I was laying in my tent out of breath, unable to breathe deeply and I had a rapid heart beat. I worried I might be having a heart attack, and wondered what would happen if I was in serious danger. Would I just scream out for Elias in the middle of the night? I got claustrophobic for the second time - but this was a worse feeling than being trapped in the mess tent. Here we were stuck on this mountain, so far from the closest hospital, with no cars or transportation options other than our feet - just all sleeping out here in these little tents. The only reassurance was that our guide had a working cell phone (who knew you could get reception on the mountain?). I tried not to freak out and relaxed enough to fall asleep.

Climb Day 1

We got picked up from the Impala Hotel in Arusha at about 9AM. A big mini van/bus drove the 6 of us, plus our 2 guides, cook, and tons and tons of stuff (backpacks, tents, food supplies) to the Machame gate of Kilimanjaro. It was about a 2 hour bus ride including a pit stop for supplies and bathroom break.

As a side note, the previous afternoon was spent at the offices of Roy Safaris. Allyson and Bryan purchased their clothes and equipment in February, before starting off on their around-the-world adventure. Unfortunately, the box filled with hundreds of dollars of their REI gear, never arrived in Africa (as far as we know). They had to rent most of their stuff last minute from our tour organizer. This included over-sized bright yellow gloves, duct-taped mittens, smelly long underwear and size 10 mens boots for Ally.

We arrived at the mountain just before noon. There was a long line to check in. Name, occupation, age, sex, passport number, size of party, number of nights on mountain, etc. Once the administration was complete, we were off - along with the 15 porters to carry all of our nonsense. We were responsible for our day packs with sunscreen, extra rain gear, toilet paper, gaiters and the such - but the heavy lifting was all done by the porters.

As we headed up the first incline through the rain forest, we had our first mishap. Allyson's knock-off camelbak was leaking - all over the Entertainment Weeklys Drake had saved for a birthday present. After some ado, Bryan carried the water bladder in a plastic bag to determine the source of the leak, and Allyson was stuck carrying a 1.5 liter water bottle in her hand.

We had heard the first day was easy. We did not think so. Even though we were going pole pole (Swahili for slow, slow and pronounced polee, polee), we were huffing and puffing right after the first bend. It was uphill for the most part, with some nice flat areas, and various log stairs that were built into the mountain. The rain forest was beautiful, but wet and muddy.
While we were covered with mud sometimes up to the knees of our pants, our assistant guide, John, managed to stay virtually mud-free. We surmised it was because of his slow, deliberate steps.

After stopping for our first box lunch and sitting on damp fallen trees near a latrene, we were off for camp. Lunch was a sandwich, hard boiled egg, more bread, bananas, and a tangarine. Not bad the first day, but it wore on us as the days passed with little variety. One of the keys to a successful summit, is eating everything that's put in front of you. You need to energy to power your muscles, as the oxygen in the air thins, you provide your legs the oxygen through water and food intake (at least that's what they told us at our pre-mountain briefing).

It was pretty steep after lunch - we kept up the slow pace without any breaks and arrived at Machame camp around 5PM. We were at 3100m, having ascended 1600m throughout the course of the afternoon.

The campsite was damp and cold. Our tents were all set up when we arrived, but they were all sitting on uneven ground. We were provided with bowls of hot water and soap to wash up with and then we were invited to the mess tent for popcorn, tea and cookies. After snacking, we all did some stretching and tried to figure out how to entertain our cold, muddy selves. Before long, we were called to dinner. Warm, creamy zucchini soup, pasta and veggie stew, fish and bread all hit the spot. Banana and avocados followed for dessert. More and more food just kept on coming and we kept on eating.

I got a bit clastrophobic in the mess tent. We were arranged on backless camping stools and the top of the tent was touching down on our heads. After stepping out for some fresh air I was fine. During this dinner break, we had our first sighting of the top of Kili. Up until then it was covered in mist, but early in the morning and at night, it sometimes clears and you can see it. We were all pretty excited, but she looked so far off and distant, it was still not a reality that we would get there.

Following dinner was our first briefing from our head guide Elias. He would come to sit with us after dinner and give us the low down on the next day - what time to meet for breakfast, what to carry in our day packs, how long we would be hiking, etc. The first night we learned that he had been hiking the mountain since he was 16 years old and his older brother was a guide. He started off as a porter and completed the required training to become a head guide. After the briefing we were off to our tents. Sleeping was okay, with the exception of the slanted floor of the tent and having to wake up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break.

Day 1 complete!

Week 2 Kilimanjaro

I have 2 minutes until the shuttle picks us up for Zanzibar, but check out Ally's blog for an update about our week long hike and summit (!) to the highest peak in Africa. (and more cool safari pics too)

Will update more when I can. Having a great time.