summit, sunrise and saying goodbye!

Well hello! Very scary to think i am now in the fifth month whilst I've been here, and now comming up to being here for 4 months (left at the end of january). Only one and a half weeks of teaching left and i feel its going to be very hard leaving. I realise that i havnt talked much about actually teaching in this blog. Mainly becuase it is such a part of my day to day life, well, its my job really. The things tht happen at th weekend all beome strange ad new and i forget that i prehaps havnt told you about Jemsi, my Kisololi LEGEND whos so clever and loves dancing, or Zawadi, not so hot in english but an immense artist, hoping to be a painter when hes older. And ZUlphur, who came to school without her headscarf on after Easter and i barely reconised her and Martha and her sulks whenever i take her maths book off her in a desperat attempt to make her work! I also have four boys in Nshara who ive ben teaching the alphabet to, and they have all improved so much! Exaudi can recognise most letters and write them now, and Ikram can read most basic swahili! Anoldi has even moved onto the english alphabet!
Anyhoo, back to the promised summit talk!

BARAFU 4600 M ASL
UHURU 5895 M ASL
MWENKA HUT 3000 M ASL
Woken (well, never reallygot to sleep) by screams comming from Rach and Kims tent, very girly like. Aparrently a gerbil had got into R's pack of mini eggs and rawled up K's arm. Serve them right for having mini eggs! Just after full moon so quite light, no need for head torgh. Issac brought us chai and biscoot in our tent and by 12 we were off! Spirits up, chatting and joking, but very soon i got VERY HOT. TO ALL THOSE WHO TOLD ME HOW COLD I WOULD HAVE BEEN, OH NO! i had to stop to take two fleeces off and ended up giving them to the guides beucase there was just no need for them, still very hot though! The walkto summit was 6 hours, strait up. If you look at a pictures of Kili in rainy season, lok at the peak, we stared below the snowline and just went strait up, over 1 K vertically, even entering into 'extreme alititude' (the same band as everest peak) It is one of the highest mountains you can climb without oxegen and y God does it feel it when you get there. On the second night we discoverd, running to the loo was just out of th question, and the air got thinner from there! It was amazing looking down upon the blanket of clouds below us, and seeing lightning storms from above. The hills rolled with thunder.
But later on i had no energy for this, the pain in my chest was unbearable. It was a challenge just to put the next foot down. One in front of the other, keeping my eyes on the person in front of me's gaiters. when we stopped for a break i would only just get my breath back, only to start again to find it gone. Four stiches at a time, felt as if my lungs were being compressed. This hell went on and on, Willieam seemed completely unaffected, as did our giude, who happily strolled past us with no bags a hoodie and no water! crazy people! By the time we got to 5000m out water started to freeze so very little to drink. I was away behind the others and kept blacking out, Issac took my bag off me, which some gremlin appeared to have put bricks in or something and was much better after that! Eventually we got to shira point, which was on the rim of the crater. 20-40 mins walk from there, not so upmountain! Now with my bag off and a nicer terrain my mind started going into giddiness! The people in front of me kept on looking behind, so i checked back to see what they were looking at. I was greeted by the strong morning sun, peeking its way through the clouds and slowly turning the snow golden. Turning back on the path the sign that announced Uhuru Peak came into veiw. This all became abit to much to handle at once! The feeling when i reached the sign, touched it and genrally realized what I'd done was something none of us have ever been able to explain. Literally on top of the world, so exhuasted and happy and just in such a bizzare and amazing place! Lots of photos then then long decsent down! You cant spend longer than 15 mins at the top really becuase of the alitutude, even our guides get headaches at the top. By the time we started walking back most of us had splitting headaches. You pass alot of others (for even in rainy season tis a popular thing) and many encouragements,s purring them on. I found myself saying 'your nearly there! its so amazing when you get there!' From someone else eye it might not have been, the only thing that differentiates Uhru from the rest of the moutain is a sign, but the knoledge of what that sign means! And yes, we were standing where the feet of Chris Moyles, Thingie Mcdoodle and Take that Man had stood before. Getton.
Walking down was long and hard, and painfull and just alot more pain! So steep and so slippery and then, with the sun properly up, in my MANY thermals SO DAMMED HOT! Summited at 6.20 AM and got back to base camp at 10.30. Greeted by the porters cheering and a nice cup of orange squash. Good nice sunny weather so a nice chill out, lunch and then at 1 o'clock we wer to walk down the mountain (for you cant staya t that alitutde for so long) to Mwenka hut, which was 3000m got into camp at around 4ish. Now, in the rain, damp and no sun. This was a bad bad time. All very tired, all very wet and the campsite had many rivers running through it! HOwever, slept VERY well!

LST DAY! MWENKA HUT 3000
MWENKA GATE (another height)
Nice simple day with 3 hours walk on a man made path all downhill back in the rainforest again. To tired to care really and we all pretty much legged it down. Almost like walking in the woods at home (the closet ive got to it here!) then we got to the gate at 1ish. WE HAD DONE IT! YIPPE!


And i will leave it there as once again, i have run out of time!
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