The last of the Mt. Kenya pics

We ran out of gas coming out of the park and had to wait until a guard hunted some down for us!

2 hours in a 40yr old Landrover in conditions worse than this was totally scarier than the mountain! But another adventure! We did so many 360's and nearly tipped over coming down! Better than any roller coaster out there!

These are the last of the pics. I was so blessed to have this opportunity to climb the 2nd highest mountain in Africa with a wonderful bunch of folks....many whom I just met. I climbed with Roberta and Olivia, a missionary in Kenya and her daughter, and a missionary from Mozambique who is originally from Charlotte and his son is at UNCC! I love making those connections! The rest of the Maxwell clan stayed down at Lake Ellis and caught some amazing trout. But we had some pretty awesome food on the mountain as well thanks to our cooks and our guide, William. It took us 3 days, many layers of clothes (I wore my tye-dyed shirt for 4 days without taking it off!), too many hyraxes to count, drinking water from beautiful mountain streams that I only thought were in the movies, loads of jolly ranchers someone had from home, nearly 15,000 feet of climbing through sleet, a bit of freezing rain, and the bitter cold, a night sleeping on a board with 15 other people, a couple bouts of vomiting from the altitude (not me!), and we reached the top! It was such an amazing, exhilirating feeling! My adrenaline was pumping, and when I got down the rocky part, I literally ran and skipped down the mountain. I felt like I could do it again 3 times that day or run a marathon! But as soon as we got back to base camp and ate some beans and rice, I couldn't move! I could have just curled up right there and slept. That's when the crazy adventure in the Landrover was just beginning! Day 3 was the longest day, as we woke up at 1:30 to summit, and I made it back to Lauren's house in Nairobi at 11pm that night! But it was one of the fullest days I have experienced in a long time! The whole experience reminded me of one of my favorite quotes...

"The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything! God is the ground, the substance, the teaching, the teacher, the purpose, and the reward for which every soul labors." ~Julian of Norwich

I experienced our Master in so many ways on the mountain. I saw Him in sunsets and the sunrise, in cactuses and the Milky Way, in dancing fires and stories from our guards, in people like Paul Zimmerman and his ministry in Mozambique, and Lisa and their ministry in Navaisha, in the Southern cross and the Big Dipper that we could see stretched for miles, in the warm hot chocolate, and the snow crystals on our toes! What a full and rich God we serve!

Mt. Kenya pics (Part 4)

Point Lenana from a distance

The crew who attempted the summit!

God is so remarkable! He gave me this beautiful waterfall as a gift at the very end of the hike!

Tired feet!

Loadin' up and headin' out. I wanna drive a Carolina blue Landrover just like this one!!

Mt. Kenya pics (Part 3)

We woke up at 1:45 am to start the summit, and we reached the top just as the sun was coming up! It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I think I have ever seen!


I made it!

On the way back down...

Back at Mintos Hut, where we spent night #2. We shed some clothes and ate breakfast, before going the rest of the way down. This is my "mountain hair" after 5 days and no bathing. haha

Our cook, sitting outside of Mintos Hut. We slept on a board inside because it was too cold to be outside! And the hut was so toasty inside that we didn't mind the leaking roof and all the hyraxes running around!

Mt. Kenya pics (Part 2)

We celebrated Trevor's 42nd birthday the first morning on the mountain.


Roberta and Olivia, the oldest of the Maxwell clan.


We had a U.S. states rock-look-alike contest. And my North Carolina rock won! It's amazing! See if you can find it! And my Tennessee wasn't too shabby either!


Nearing the top. It was so weird how your face, fingers and everything swells up in the high altitude! Check out my chubby face! Crazy feeling!

Another gorgeous peak of Mt. Kenya!

Mt. Kenya pics (Part 1)

My principal, Trevor, getting all the gear packed up on the 1976 Landrover! haha


His wife, Roberta, and I ready for the adventure!


A buffalo skull at the entrance to the park.

Monia, the Maxwell's middle child, playing on the roof rack. She'll be in my class next year! :-)

Starting the journey up! (If you're wondering
do I have a Hitler mustache in this picture....no, I don't. It's the stitches from the moto accident. I'll write about that later....that's a whole 'nother post!) :-)

Opposition

This is the current news in Rwanda.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8635890.stm

If you don't have time to read the article on BBC or CNN, I'll sum it up for you...

Ingabire is a Hutu-ethnic lady who is set to challenge Kagame in the Presidential elctions this August. She has lived in the Netherlands since the genocide ended, and just recently came back to Rwanda in January to try and win the presidency. She's been very vocal lately about how there was a "double" genocide, and the Hutu people who are refugees in Congo and other neighboring countries are being mistreated. She was just arrested yesterday for collaborating with a terroist organization (i.e, the Congolese Hutu rebels), and also for denying the genocide. Many say her group is responsible for the recent grenade attacks. Most Rwandans don't see her as a threat, and some are wondering why Kagame had her arrested, as this almost makes him look like "the bad guy." But others aren't so sure, and wonder if there's so much more to the story that we aren't hearing.

Ingabire was released on bail today and ordered not to leave Kigali. What makes this even more interesting for us is that she lives in our neighborhood, on our street! So for the last 2 days, theres been armed guards and soldiers out in front of everyones homes, lining the streets. It was weird yesterday when I was running, to run in between two lines of soldiers with guns looking at me running along and singing whatever song was in my head.

School starts back in August, at the same time as the elections. Most people think things will be ok, because Rwanda is still a heavily military-controlled state and the soldiers are the ones in charge! But you just never can tell. I keep learning things every day. I had no idea that even though Kagame is in power and was a former Tutsi rebel leader, the Tutsis are now the minority here in a big way. People love Kagame and he's made great strides in Rwanda in so many ways. But most also say he is a dictator...albeit a good one, if there is such a thing, and I think there is. I think Kagame is exactly what Rwanda needed after the events of 94. But I still hate to hear my Rwandan friends say things like, "You know, if something ever happened to Kagame, it could happen again. It would happen again." And I shudder, cause I know what "it" means. By "it" they are referring to the genocide where one million Tutsi Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days back in 1994. I can't even wrap my brain around how something that horrible could have happened in so little time. I can't get around the sheer size and numbers of it. So how could I possibly try to think about it happening again. I don't. We all feel very safe here, Rwandans do too. Please join me and others in praying for the continued peace and contentment of all people here in this beautiful country!

Confession

I have a confession to make. I bought a luxury item today...a real box of sweetened American-like cereal. Cereal here is a true luxury, one that I've missed. And until now, I think I've done a pretty good job at resisting the lure of the good life. You can get almost all kinds of cereal here...well, not everything....but lots of Kellogg's brands. And whatever you can't get here, Kenya has the rest. But it will cost you. A box of cereal here costs anywhere from $12-$24! The healthy stuff like Fiber One or Raisin Bran is the high-dollar stuff, and the Frosted Flakes are the cheaper kind. Corn Flakes "aren't that bad", starting at around $9 a box. Yeah, as you can see, I've resisted this luxury...until now. Cereal fell into that category of things that I will wait to eat until I get back, like Sundrop and Cheerwine and Whatburger. Until now. No, I didn't pay $12 or $24 for a box, but I still paid too much. That's why I have to confess. I've had a reoccuring bout of a nasty amoeba, giardia, hanging around in my intestines this last week....and I've not really wanted to eat much of anything...except a big bowl of Cheerios (and you can't get those here.) So, I found the next best thing that still was within my budget (but not really, that's why I'm confessing.) I found a box of "Choco Bubbles" at the duka (shop) down the road. Choco Bubbles are a random South African cereal akin to Coco Puffs. The whole box was just shy of $7, but I justified the purchase because it was all I had wanted to eat for a few days. And those Choco Bubbles tasted delightful! But I should have thought about the unpasteurized milk....it doesn't mix well with amoebas!!! So in the end, my $7 box of cereal really wasn't worth it, because it doesn't taste good anymore. Cereal is one thing that you can't mess around with. I've learned my lesson. No more South African brands again. I'm holding out and counting down until I get real Cheerios....or even better, Honey Nut Cheerios!