After a long and tiring travel process,
we arrived at Kilimanjaro airport at around 1:30 in the morning. After we had
obtained our visas we were greeted by our country coordinator, Tim, and our
instructor from World Leadership School, Susan. Within seconds we were playing
team building games outside of the airport in the middle of the night. We then took a bus to Kilimanjaro Lodge,
which is where we would be staying the first few days.
At
11 A.M. we were greeted by a great brunch, courtesy of the chefs and staff at
the lodge. Shortly after we did some
group building exercises with Tim and Susan, that would help us prepare for the
events in the following hours. After our mellow drive through the beautiful
scenery in Tanzania, we arrived at a small village, where we met Miriam, or Mama
Erik. She was perfect example of an independent leader. She spoke to us about
how she created a micro lending organization within her community. Essentially,
she created a little bank in which women from within the village could make
small deposits of their money. Because there was no easy access to a bank
nearby, villagers weren’t used to saving money for their own personal lives, spending
most of their money on necessities like food, water, and clothing. But with
this new system Miriam provided, all of the savings from the women together
made it possible to make loans to purchase a far more expensive item than any
one woman could have ever gotten otherwise, like a sewing machine, or a
bicycle, which could be used to make more income. Over the course of a decade
Miriam completely changed the way this little village operated for the better.
The
next day we packed our day bags, gathered on the bus and traveled to Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Before we began to travel up the
mountain we stopped at the travel head where we played games and registered
ourselves for the hike. After a brief
drive further up the mountain we arrived at a spot where we would then travel
on foot up the mountain. It was a dry
and rugged terrain; many of the plants were cactus like. We hiked all the way up to the Simba River,
which was 9000 feet above sea level, and had lunch. As we were eating a cloud
passed over us and we surrounded by mist.
It was a very peaceful and calming experience. Lunch ended and we cleaned up our mess and
then began our descent back to our starting point and back to the lodge.
- Jackson & Eugene
Note from Mr. Clarke: I’m sorry about the slow start to the blog; we’ve
been unable to get an adequate internet signal. Now that we’re at Banjika, we’ll
work to get posts up regularly. Thanks for your patience. Everyone is healthy
and having a terrific time! Tomorrow Jules and Kat will post about meeting their
counterparts at the school.
