Tasting Life Twice

Two Ladies on Top of the World – in Africa!

Last year I taught a course, “Journeys and Journals: Stories of Exploration” where we considered the nature of travel, the human quest for adventure and what happens when we step out of our comfort zone and experience “threshold anxiety” and the romance of differences. 

Jordan Floyd, one of my students at William Woods University, told our class of a fascinating trip she made a few years ago.  During her senior year of high school, Jordan was asked by her grandmother, “where do you want to go for your senior trip?”  Grandma said it would be just the two of them.  Without hesitation, Jordan replied, “Africa.  I want to go Africa.” 

Grandma had made a trip to Africa about a decade earlier and the stories from that exotic land has left a mark on the grandchildren.  Grandma agreed to take Jordan there, but on one condition: she had to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with her!  Grandma explained that the last time she was in Africa, she couldn’t talk members of her party into making the ascent up to the summit (19,331 feet). 

So two years ago, Jordan and her grandmother traveled to Tanzania.  Jordan says,

When we arrived at the mountain it was cloudy and rainy.  That was just our luck.  So we bundled up in a  bunch of unnecessary layers.  When we got to the starting point we were greeted by these cheery faced men who were going to be joining us on our hike…we had eighteen shurpas, a first aide guy, a cook, a server and two guides.

It took them six days to reach the peak and two to return to the base.  Along the way, Jordan writes, 

my grandma and I talked about everything imaginable until we literally ran out of things to talk about.  Then we started thinking about how we could be shopping in Paris or on the beach somewhere amazing, but instead we were hiking.”

She continues:

The hike was good until the third to last day when we got to about 17,000 feet and were camped at the base of the steepest slope I have ever seen.  Msafiri, our guide, told us that is how we were going to get to the top.  I wasn’t really surprised because we passed people throughout the trail they told us we were crazy to take the Western Breach.  So, I looked up this slope and wanted to cry….that night was the first night we noticed how cold it was.  We woke at four am and ate some breakfast.  We put on all of our clothes because it was supposed to be real cold.  We started out climb in the dark.  Bad idea.  I was already really nervous from what I saw on the breach the day before.  The entire trail before had been straight up.  Unlike in the USA, it didn’t zig zag gradually up the mountain.  Msafiri told us that it would zig zag and not go straight up.  He lied.  African zig zag is two steps to the left and two steps to the right and then ten steps straight up.  I had to trade my grandma backpacks because somehow her bag was as a lot heavier than mine.  She has a tiny little body that if she accidentally tipped the wrong way it would be sayonara grandma….

….Once we made it up the hill, we were awestruck by the beautiful glaciers that sat on top Kili.  They had three glaciers that were on top.  They were huge, at least twenty feet tall that seemed to go on forever.  Not only were the glaciers beautiful, but it was as if we were in an airplane and on top of the clouds.  We could look across at Kili’s sister mountain as she stuck her peak through the clouds.  We finally reached the sign that said we were at the peak.  My grandma started to cry.  I was really happy for her that she was able to complete what she had wanted to do for so long and that I was able to experience it with her.