Climbing Mount Kenya

My friend Sarah & I climbed Mount Kenya last week - the second tallest mountain in Africa (17,000feet) - supposedly harder to climb (steeper) but more scenic than Mt. Kilimanjaro. I may have to personally compare the two some day!

DAY 1: Begin at 8530feet. Check out the model of the mountain and the route we will take (up Sirimon and down Chogoria).

Quick stop at the Equator on the way

Thankfully these guys carried our big packs and all our food for us!

We hiked 9km the first day - initially it was rainy and muddy but it cleared up by the end of the day. The mud slowed us down, though, so we barely glimpsed our first sight of the mountain at the end of the day and finished hiking in the dark (full moon, though) up to 10827ft. We stayed in a shelter (Old Moses Hut) the first night with a group of young hikers from Denmark.

DAY 2: Hike 14.6km up to 13,780feet

See the Mt Kenya peak behind us as we begin hiking the 2nd day

The mountain gets closer as we continue hiking

Lots of interesting vegetation on the way

Lunch break - getting colder

Rock hyrax - a relative to the elephant - evidently the skulls of the two animals look quite similar though significantly different in size

We slept in a shelter - Shipton's Hut - the 2nd night with a good view of our final ascent path

DAY 3: Begin hiking at 3am in order to reach the summit by sunrise. We hiked for three hours up 3000 more feet altitude (in just 3 km) in the dark over this scree stuff - essentially loose gravel that is very difficult to keep your footing on. We slipped and slid up (and then down) the scree but thankfully made it to the top with no serious injuries.

3am & ready to go (we think!) - Sarah and I with our guide Caeser

Full moon

Sunrise - note the clouds below us

The Pt. Lenana summit - 16,400feet. I doubted whether I would make it to the top all the way up to 10 minutes before finally reaching it - I had to stop and catch my breath every few feet with the altitude and my leg muscles were so tired! Clonus definitely made an appearance (my right leg shaking leftover from my paralysis at age 10 with transverse myelitis). I thank God for teaching me about how He strengthens me in my weakness one step at a time. I also thank Him for healing me from transverse myelitis so that this adventure was possible.

Who knew I'd be walking in so much snow in Africa?!

Sarah & I on the way down the other side (Chogoria route) with the peak behind us

Mountain lake or "tarn" formed by a melted glacier

Steep descent!

We continued hiking after a break for breakfast at 14,108ft. The view of the valley as we continued our descent was incredible!

Nithi Falls

Gorges Valley

We finished hiking day 3 at 4:45pm after hiking 21km, covering 11,000feet altitude (3000 up, 8000 down). What a long but spectacular day!

DAY 4: Altitude 9843feet. Short hike today (we did most of today's hike yesterday) - day of rest!

Our campsite

We saw monkeys, buffalo, water bucks, and lots of rabbits this day as we explored the bamboo rain forest

DAY 5: 10 km hike back down to 8530feet. Another muddy day but fun to walk through the rain forest.

This vehicle - 1978 Land Rover (older than me!) - brought us the final ~20km back to civilization. The vehicle may be old but the driver was excellent at finding the best track as we slipped and slid in the deep mud. I'm thankful for Dramamine!

We finished Sarah's African adventure with a short safari - here are the "cousins" to the rock hyrax

Glad to be back in familiar territory but thankful for such a fun, challenging, beautiful experience

Ethopia Update

Ishi! Ethiopia's amazing! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to travel further in East Africa. I've safely arrived back in Nairobi and will post pictures soon but I wanted to give you a brief update and thank you for your prayers. My favorite parts of the trip:
1) Meeting the Ethiopian people, especially the children, and experiencing their beautiful smiles.
2) Remembering joy in my work as I interacted with patients directly (with a translator), heard their stories, and sought to encourage them.
3) Visiting patients in their homes and seeing how their lives have been changed by the gospel and by the project
4) Sharing perspectives on cross cultural life and ministry with the Treadwells, my friends from Birmingham who are missionaries in Addis with the AIDS project
5) Reconnecting with Red Mountain Church
6) Experiencing a new place in the world with a unique language, culture, scenery, and people

Now I'm off to climb Mt Kenya with my friend Sarah. I'll post pictures after I descend from 17,000 feet!

Selam hunu! (Amharic for "Goodbye in peace")

Ethiopia, etc

From Friday, November 12 through Saturday, November 20, I will be visiting Kenya’s neighboring country Ethiopia. I look forward to joining six other health care professionals from my church in Birmingham,AL (Red Mountain Church) as we set up clinics in the slums of Addis Ababa. I’m excited to reconnect with people from my home church and also with my friends who are missionaries in Addis and have invited us to come. Read about their work caring for and supporting AIDS patients economically, medically, emotionally, and spiritually on their website: www.mtwact.org. I greatly appreciate your prayers for this experience.

Please pray for:

1) Travel safety and good health for the team

2) Team unity

3) Medical wisdom

4) Encouragement for the missionaries in Ethiopia

5) Good reconnection for me with my church

6) God to be glorified in our words, thoughts, & actions (Ps 145:9-12)

“And find joy also in this – that your sufferings, your losses, & persecutions shall make you a platform from which with more vigor and with greater power you will witness for Christ Jesus. Study your great example and be filled with His Spirit. Remember that you need much teaching, much upholding, much grace, and much humility if your witnessing is to be to your Master’s glory.” Charles Spurgeon

I already know and love one Ethiopian! This is me and Abi Fader (adopted from Ethiopia) on the way back from Mombasa.

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I also wanted to update you on a couple patients. Remember this child? I blogged about her here. After the picture on the left was taken, she became sicker again and remained in the ICU critically ill and febrile for a couple days. We treated her for sepsis and systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and she miraculously improved. The below pictures were taken on the day she went home. Praise God for her healing!

Elijah Terrer (intern), myself, the patient and her mother

This teenage girl is also making a wonderful recovery. She was struck by lightning near her home and suffers from significant burns as a result. She has received multiple skin grafts by the surgery team and this picture was taken on one of the first days she was able to sit in a wheelchair outside (rather than lying in bed). Now she is improving daily as she works with physical therapy to walk again.

Nairobi 10K run

In honor of my one year anniversary of arriving in Kenya, I decided to run a 10K with some friends. The proceeds from the Nairobi Marathon (including the half marathon and 10K) support pediatric eye surgery at 5 centers in the country, one of which is Tenwek. As you can see from the group picture, a lot of Tenwek staff (Kenyan and expat) wanted to support this cause - we filled the bus and an 11 passenger van!

Ready to run, bright and early. Amazingly, the van was still there and in one piece when we returned!

At the starting line

There were approximately 15,000 runners - we ran right through the city center of Nairobi - not a good day to try to drive through Nairobi traffic!

An elephant and a camel??? After all, we are in Africa! (By the way, the camel's real!)

Me crossing the finish line (photo courtesy of Bryan Popp)
At the finish: Bryan and Toanh Popp, John and Jess Cropsey, Meridith and Jason Axt, Jason and Heather Fader, Todd Anderson

We five girls ran together for all 10 kilometers and finished strong!

Group picture at Rift Valley Academy on the way back to Tenwek

View of Mt Longonot and the Great Rift Valley on the way home

What a fun weekend!