Pole! Pole! Kilimanjaro

After Masai Mara, I did a 6-day hike in Mt. Kilimanjaro, which was a really unique and potentially life changing experience for me. It was not the most adventurous outdoor experience I had – just a year ago, I did a week-long white water rafting in Utah's complete wilderness with a bunch of GSB classmates. But this time, since I was not with a big group, I had more time to stay alone, thinking and observing. I learned a lot from going through the physically demanding and mentally challenging process. And I enjoyed the random meeting with people we bumped into along the way.

I had some serious altitude sickness on the final climb but I am glad I made it to the summit. In the end, it was more of a mental challenge than a physical demand. If I had known that this amount of altitude sickness would permanently damage my brain cells, would I do it again? Absolutely. If my guide had told me that vomiting more than three times on such high altitude is life threatening, would I insist to climb? Probably not.

With the benefit of hindsight, people could have made a better choice. But we don't have the luxury of knowing everything or predicting what to happen, so live the questions, take some risks, and embrace the uncertainty.

About the title."Pole" means "Slowly" in Swahili. Along the hike, you would hear people ,especially local porters, saying this as a greeting to you. We even met a guide who knows Chinese – and all he can speak is "Man Dier, Man Dier", which means "Slowly Slowly". Funny.