Today happens to be Chinese New Year on the side of the world that I just left. One thing I loved about living in Asia was that I always got to celebrate new years three times each year. Once for “normal” New Years on Jan 1, once with the Chinese a few weeks later, and… more…
Pack Light but Carry Your Sense of Humor
If you’ve ever moved overseas you know that one thing more stressful than transoceanic economy class flying is transoceanic economy class relocating. This is equivalent to taking your entire life and physically packing it into a nutshell- or more technically 20kg suitcases. This is not fun. This can be exceptionally stressful if you’re a travel… more…
To the Summit and Beyond
We laid in the tent half sleeping, half scared to death. Outside it was thundering and inside my heart was beating nearly as loudly. It was summit night. Our instructions were to eat dinner and try to get some rest- though at 4,600 meters we were promised little more than short fits of shallow slumber…. more…
Valley Views
All my small stories this week have been about my quest to reach the top of Kilimanjaro, but today’s lesson comes from a much less exciting and more mysterious place: the valley. Perhaps it is my churchy upbringing, but I’ve always associated valleys with down, difficult times and the foreboding shadow of death. Since I’m… more…
The Invisible Journey
As our flight drew near to Kilimanjaro’s JRO airport for landing, I was glued to the window of 27A, camera in hand, waiting to get the first sight and first shot of the mountain we’d traveled so far to see. I imagined my first glimpse of Kilimanjaro would be like Ernest Hemingway penned: “There, ahead,… more…
The Moral of the Mountain
I promise I won’t tell a story about Kilimanjaro every day for the rest of this small month, but since it was such a big experience I hope you’ll indulge me at least a few more. I fear I may have sounded a little too brave and simplistic in my last post. Truth be told… more…
Big Mountain. Small Steps.
To kick off the small story month, I figure it would be appropriate to share a small adventure I had over Christmas up Mt. Kilimanjaro. When I left Cambodia in December, I made a small pitstop in Tanzania to climb to the roof of Africa with my friend Andrea (remember her from Bolivia and Bangladesh)…. more…