Mountain Climb!

10/17
It has been one week since I climbed the mountain. I posted pictures on of the climb on facebook, I hope you can check them out. I have been looking at this mountain for two months now knowing that the day willl come when I climb it. I got a ohone call from another volunteer saying a few people wanted to come in and climb. I got everything organized and then two days before we were supossed to climb I get a call from our guide. He tells me to look at the mountain. This is early in the morning so I don't expect anything of it. I walk outside and there are large cluds of smoke rising from the mountain. He tells me it caught fire this morning and we are not going to be able to climb. The fire is exactly where our path up the mountain is. I have a few people coming in from two days of travel just to climb the mountain, so my heart sinks. I talk with him for a bit and we decide to wait. He climbs the mountain the next day with a group of villagers to see if they could help stop the fire. When he comes back down he tells us the place where we climb the fire is already out. It has been burned so there is no way it can catch back on fire. We are back in! THis is about 12 hours before we would have to wake up to start the climb. The six of us that are planning on climbing are very excited. Not thinking too much of how hard the climb is going to be the next day we grab a few beers. When the alarm goes off at 4:45am I am shocked. We are running around the house grabbing our boiled eggs, PB&J sandwiches lots of water, and we are out the door by 5:15.
The climb begins: By this I mean we have a 8km walk just to the base of the mountain. Earlier this morning I realized my i-pod had no battery, so I would be climbing the mountain to the sound of my mind. (If you know me that can be a scary thing) So we begin the hike to the base of the mountain. The sun is rising over the hills and just looks beautiful. There is some excited chatter between us, but I think we were still all waking up. When we reached the base of the mountain and looked up it took my breath away. I guess from farther away it really does not look that big, but it is! It was awesome to walk from dry hills into an almost jungle. The hike felt like a hike in a jungle, except it was uphill. We were in heavy trees for about an hour which was beautiful all in itself.We finally reached the spot where the fire was earlier in the week, and it was complete devestation. It was sad to see everything burned down, but also quite a site to see only a day after a fir raged across the mountain. I think in some of the pictures you can see the smoke from the fire on a different part of the mountain. The hike continued, with me begining to be exhausted. Then we reached the actual climb. This part felt almost like rock climbing/hiking. There were parts where you had to pull yourself up over rocks, and vertical ground. It was tough especially after already hiking awhile. I have never really hiked before so I begin to fall back. After about two hours of complete hell, I think I have reached the top, but no one is around. I call the guide and he tells me I have reached the false peak.... This is the peak I see everyday from my house. The one that I said I would reach and be done. The peak that I knew I could reach. He says that there are two higher peaks one is an hour hike and the other is the highest is another two hours one way onto that. I decide with another girl that we will reach the second highest peak. After lots of rest, sweat, water, and hardboiled eggs we reach our goal. The other four had continued on to go to the main peak. I instead eat my PB&J sandwiches and take a nap on top of the mountain.
I feel accomplished for climbing what I did. It was alot more difficult than expected, but I think most people would not have a problem climbing it. Some advice for anyone lookng to do some mountain climbing in the future, dont drink the night before, ask around to figure out how hard the climb is going to be, bring lots of water and more food than you ever expect yourself to eat, charge your i-pod, and keep reminding yourself that this is fun, and you are almost there.
I hope you all enjoyed my mountain climbing story. It was such a beautiful experience and I plan on doing it again. Right now in my village, not much has changed. I am begining to write my analysis of the village. I have been meeting with various heads of the departments to ask questions and really figure out my village a little better.
I love and miss you all so much. Keep the emails and questions coming
Justin