Photos : To the right , top & bottom
· The moment when the guides left their thumbprints on the MPC banner is when when I learned that Uhuru is the Swahili word for Freedom . This is when my trip to Kilimanjaro clicked for me : chasing hope and pursuing freedom is no easy thing .
· Walking through parts of Kilimanjaro is like walking across Mars . At this point , there is nothing beautiful about climbing Kilimanjaro .
Photo , Opposite Page
· On day two you see the first view of the mountain . It takes 5-7 days to get up the mountain and 1 day to get down . If you try to go any faster on the way up , your body won ’ t acclimate , and you won ’ t summit . In fact , you could face serious health issues and even die . So it was pole-pole ( Swahili for slowly , slowly ) for 5 days straight . That can get tedious .
Photo , Below
· We realized when we woke up the next morning , nearly unable to move , that we still had to walk 12 miles to exit the park . This is the ambulance cart used to transport emergencies off the mountain , and I wondered if maybe I could get a ride out of the park this way .
GREENBOOK | SPRING 2017 17