Lessons from Kilimanjaro : Gratitude (part 1- things)
If you’ve read the harrowing ‘had to get it off my chest’ last instalment don’t be concerned.
This one is much more sunshine and rainbows………
My experiences in Africa will forever leave me grateful for what I have.
This trip was my first visit to anywhere not on the UK tourist trail. European beaches, American Theme parks, and a few city breaks are my previous experience of foreign travel.
I loved my brief visit to Tanzania, and intend to explore the African continent further in the future.
My impressions of Africa have come from watching TV and I was delighted to see the colour and friendliness of the places we visited.
The sight of women wearing brightly coloured dressed carrying their shopping in a basket on their heads, motorbikes carrying a whole family, roadside stalls full of bananas, lush coffee plantations and the all-encompassing red dust that covers everything fascinated me.
It was so clear that how we live in the west and our ‘first world problems’ should be questioned at a most basic level. The people had so little in comparison to our ‘riches’ , houses are small, children playing in dusty yards under drying washing sound happy and the world continues to turn with ‘less stuff’.
We were a large group of trekkers. Almost 40 of us from the UK required a huge team to look after us. The Kilimanjaro treks are an important part of the local economy of parts of Tanzania. From the hotels and bus drivers through the porters and cooks to specialist qualified guides. Covid has decimated the industry. Professional mountain guides told me stories of driving a ‘tuk tuk’ or picking coffee beans to make ends meet over the last few years. They were really pleased that trekkers were returning and there was work to be had again.
The usual ratio is at least 3 support team for each trekker, so there were well over 100 support team helping us.
And, oh my goodness, they were amazing.
The porters pack up the campsite, put our camp bags (weighing 15KG) and the tents, cooking equipment, tables, toilets , whatever , on their heads, and very quickly take the whole camp up the hill past us, to the next campsite, getting it set up ready for the trekkers to slowly arrive.
The amount of ‘stuff’ these amazingly tough people were carrying was incredible. And they are so full of joy, we thanked them with calls of ‘Jambo’ as they zoomed past us. There were porters of all ages, some looking as young as 16, and several women. Many of the porters were shooting up the mountain wearing clothes that made me feel ‘pampered’ and privileged. Some of these amazing people were wearing normal trainers, often not in the correct size. Their clothes had often been donated by previous trekkers, and made me feel humbled about those last minute Amazon-delivered ‘necessities’ that arrived daily before I set off.
I have done some camping over the years. I have stayed on campsites with few facilities like showers or washing up blocks. But all of these places had plumbing. Flushing toilets, and taps for filling up water containers.
Not on Kiliamnajro. All water must be collected from streams from the melting glaciers by porters, carried back to camp and filtered. We were advised to drink at least 4 litres per day each. Add to this the drinking water needed for over 100 porters and guides, plus the water needed to cook food for all of these people.
Imagine what a huge job this is, travelling to the stream, collecting the water , then carrying it back to camp. Anyone who has carried a backpack containing 5 litres of water will know how heavy this is (I am familiar with this, for obvious reasons LOL) I am forever grateful for the porters who did this onerous job for us, without whom our adventure would have been impossible.
When we arrived back at the hotel (that after a week sleeping on the mountain felt like The Ritz) I popped to use the bathroom.
I couldn’t contain my glee! I laughed so much my roomie was concerned about me. A toilet that FLUSHED and a TAP with WARM water to wash my hands with SOAP. A big change from baby wipes and alcohol gel.
I am still delighted to be able to use a flushing toilet. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet. I apologise to any work colleagues who are bemused by strange giggling…….
So many places in the world don’t have indoor plumbing! I feel so grateful to enjoy running water.
I am also grateful for the absence of something:
Mobile phone connection.
We are all so connected these days.
With a daughter facing exams at the end of her Masters degree and the other doing mock GCSEs whilst I was away I was worried about not being ‘contactable’ by my family.
Unlike others my phone refused to allow any data usage at all the whole time I was in Tanzania, so I really did ‘go dark’ once away from the hotel in which we spent the first and last night which had Wifi.
After a few days frustration at this I relaxed and allowed my iPhone to become a very expensive camera and occasional music player. If my family really needed me there was the emergency number…..
Many of us haven’t unplugged from the internet for years.
Not being able to google the weather, double check the height of the summit, or see what was happening in British politics was liberating!
We are so used to having instant access to brain-numbing entertainment we don’t converse any more.
One of the great inspirations of the trip was peoples conversations. A bunch of strangers from up and down to UK talked to each other….. we chatted…..
And it was good.
More on the amazingness of people in the next instalment.
Reasons to be cheerful
Well fitting boots and fresh socks
Shades of green vegetation
Access to water ‘on tap’
Unplugging from the ‘net’
Flushing toilets.
The next instalment will be all about how grateful I am for personal connection ….. and how much I learned from the others around me
Karen Sutton is fundraising for Community Action Malvern (justgiving.com)