Mt Kilimanjaro!

The roof of Africa! 

On Saturday June 12, as the rest of Southern Africa was glued to their TV screens to watch the World Cup, I set off the climb the highest mountain in Africa.  I went with a team from Maasai Moja (a wonderful company, whom I would recommend highly), Ayesha (a fellow PAC doctor who has been in Tanzania this past year),  and Cabrini and Mike (2 Peace Corps volunteers who just finished their two years in rural Botswana).  We set off on Saturday for a 7 day adventure.  For 6.5 days we climbed up, (though sometimes down as well so that we could properly acclimatize by "climbing high and sleeping low") finally reaching the summit at 6:45 am on June 17th.  I got mild altitude sickness on the last day (headache and some dizziness) as well as wicked blisters, but it was all worth the feeling of exhilaration you get from standing on top of the highest point in Africa.
I think a slide show with captions is the best way to tell the story, so here you go (it ends with a video - you have to click on the video to be able to watch it)....



And now it is back to World Cup fever, which has totally sucked me in (hard not to be into it when the festivities are happening in your neighboring country!)