Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2007
1
2
27
Trip End
May 30, 2007
Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Five days before that morning, Matt and I were picked up from our hotel in a mini bus of sorts with a bunch of people already on the bus. "Hmmm," I though, "Maybe we're taking a local bus downtown to take another car to the trail head?" So, I get on the bus and tentatively say "Jambo?" and was greeted with an enthusiastic "Jambo!" We're on our way towards downtown and I suddenly think "Wait, for Matt and I to climb Kilimanjaro we need to hire a guide (which is why we went with a outfit called Tanzanian Journeys) and that guide comes with 9 porters. So, all of these people are coming with us!" Good heavens we were quite a crowd.
In fact, the whole mountain was quite a crowed, I'm sorry to report. Washington was the name of our guide and he said that up to 60 "tourists" were allowed in the park at our trail head each day. Each of those people has anywhere from 3-5 porters with them, so, that makes around 300 people each day leaving from that trail head. There are 5 trail heads.
One thing that struck me as we were waiting for paperwork at the trail head is that all the porters I saw were black. They were carrying big loads for mostly white clients. Having read and seen many pictures in my school history books about black slavery made me a bit uneasy. Also, a lot of the climbing companies do not pay or treat their porters very well, so it's not unlike slavery in the south. We found our company through a recommendations from the Porter Assistance Project which works to make sure the porters are treated fairly. I'd like to give a shot out to this organization because it is a bad situation which I think not many tourist know about. So, if you or someone you know is hoping to climb this beautiful mountain, please go to Porters Assistance Project so they can recommend a company that is treating their staff fairly.
We spent six days on the mountain, four ascending 9,000 net feet (there was a fair amount of up and down) and two ascending 4,000 feet and descending 13,000 feet. Ouch. The mountain is made up of five ecosystem zones; forest, rain forest, moorland, just rocks and glacier. It was interesting to walk through these layers because it was a very abrupt change.
Not a surprise to anyone, but Matt and I have confirmed that we are not the "to be guided" type. It was hard to have someone else set the pace, which was very slowly. So slowly that I had a hard time keeping my balance. On the other hand, it was nice to have the porters take a lot of our weight, including all the food and tents. So, I guess that's the trade off, they help us schlep our stuff up and we do as we're told.
In sum, Mt Kilimanjaro is a beautiful mountain and I'm blessed that we were able to climb it.
Comments
Slavery in the South!???!
Gretchen wrote:
'Also, a lot of the climbing companies do not pay or treat their porters very well, so it's not unlike slavery in the south.'
I could ask Gretchen what she meant by 'south' and start a very silly blogging/hashing chain where people defend The South (US) and we all get our bristles up over being a Rebel versus a Northerner, blah, blah, blah.
But that's not what I want to do here, although let me quickly point out that while not slaves, 'indentured servants' hired in the state of Maine, where I believe Matt hails from, were treated just as badly as Matt and Gretchen's porters.
Gretchen's real concern, hiring abused workers, does pose an interesting question: do you, as the 'privileged' person hire the company that mistreats its employees? And that's only what we see. How do I know that my favorite car mechanic doesn't beat his wife who does the accounting?
On the other hand, I'd far rather be a porter than stuck in a building making shoes all day long - so by hiring the companies that 'abuse' their porters, at least I'm giving some people a choice of 'abusive' jobs. But really, I don't know enough about the Tanzanian economy to fully comment.
But I relate it to this: some people do not want to buy stock of cigarette companies, but they will buy Wal-Mart stock and Wal-Mart sells cigarettes.
So can you really ever get away from 'evil' in this world?
But really I'm posting this because I guess, I've become a Southerner, (Heavens!) because as soon as I saw Gretchen's could-be derogatory comment about the South, I felt an immediate need to defend.
Posted by Tori in Charleston, SC, who warns that if you do move south of the Mason-Dixon line you really will end up liking grits
Porters...!?!?
Hey guys,
I did not actually open up the boxes before we dropped you off in Boulder... these bicycles were kind of heavy. With this 'colonial' attitude of using porters to go for a stroll in the hill of Tanzania, I will take a very close look at the upcoming pictures to make sure that I do not see a foldaway rickshaw, where you also did hire a couple of people to 'do Africa the old-fashioned way' (as we would say in Europe) .... ;)
Have fun !!!!
Sunrise
The pictures are spectacular. Your written description made me feel as if I were there. Actually, my heart was with you the entire time. Thank you for your sensitivity to the plight of the porters and for going with a company that at least is trying to be more just.
Love you,
Mom
Re: Porter mistreatment
Bubba's and Bubbitt's!
I'm sorry; I didn't mean to step on toes comparing the treatment of porters on Kili to the history of US slavery. Tori is right, it was not an exclusive southern thing and I should have been more sensitive to that.
The point of me writing about the mistreatment was to let people know that there is a problem and there are organizations working to solve that problem. If you or someone you know is hoping to climb Kili, please consider paying the extra 15% to make sure the people who will be with you are treated fairly.
Get seroius, Jambo
You didn't step on any toes. Don't take yourself so seriously. Tori isn't from the South anyway, she's just an interloper. I, on the other hand, am a true Southern hillbilly, and respect your caring attitude toward the locals. Now, don't drink the water, don't eat the food, don't talk to strangers, don't go out alone, and really enjoy that vivid travel experience.
3rd world abuse and temperatures
Good discussions on fair trade/fair treatment companies. I often get depressed putting on my Adidas (made in Indonesia) shoes and Eddie Bauer pants (made in Mexico). Their wages are undoubtably far below the US's minimum wage, which translates into a much lower standard of living. It is even MORE depressing that we could have outfitted the 20 largest cities in the world (outside of the US) with state of the art sewer systems instead of our little war in Iraq (or something like that, can't remember the exact nubmers). Can you imagine how many lives would be saved?
On a non-depressing note, the weather is finally out of the single digits here, so I was able to go for a run this morning without so many layers that I was almost constrained in my running. It was wonderful. The days are also getting longer, which means it is no longer dark when I leave for work and dark when I return.
We miss you both!! Love, Brenda and Andrew