My trip was a perfect storm of three amazing experiences: the Africa experience, the Kilimanjaro summit experience, and the Safari experience. My Africa experience reminded me of the simple pleasures that keep all humans happy; family, fun, and making a decent living. I saw hard working poor people with no more or less happiness than me and that prompted me to reevaluate my goals. I saw poverty and squalor that inspired me to give and spend money to do my part in the global economy. I saw Masai people living in huts covered with dung, kids covered with flies, colorfully dressed women carrying large bundles on their heads and school children actively playing during recess. I’ll never forget this beautiful country, its warm people, and its challenges and opportunities.

My climb was arranged through what I believe to be the best tour operator in the world – Abercrombie and Kent. It was a seven day camping and hiking program which culminated with the summiting of Mount Kilimanjaro. I brought along four friends and were joined by other to make up a group of ten. Our support team of porters and guides numbered 56. They set up camp ahead of us each day and welcomed us with open arms and hiking songs I will never forget. The scenery on the mountain changed daily. The mountain rose to over 19,000 feet. We slept on cots in tents and ate well everyday. Most days included 6 - 8 hours of non-technical climbing in some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. On the big day, or rather the night before, we awoke at 11:00 pm, anclimbed all night, summiting at 10:00 am. We returned to camp at 12:30 pm, departed at 2:00 pm and hiking back to our last camp arriving at 7:00 pm. I’ll never forget watching the sun rise from 19,000 feet. The winds blew hard (40 miles per hour gusting to 80) and the altitude and the endurance requirements of the day did make it quite a challenge. It was a long day, yet everyone made it - including the eldest member of our group who was 76. Our guides and a few porters accompanied us and the euphoria of summiting was truly amazing. We sang, took pictures, called our spouses from the top on a satellite phone, and gazed out at the world from well above the clouds.

After the climb, our group of five spent three nights on Safari in the Serengeti and at the Ngorongoro Crater. I can never go to a zoo again. I saw thousands of animals - maybe millions. I was the one in the cage (our well equipped Land Rover) and I was traveling in their world. I saw lions attack migrating wildebeests, a leopard and his lunch (an unfortunate gazelle), elephants up-close-and-personal, giraffes, hippos, and more.

As I write these words to you, the pictures of these animals and this whole experience play vividly in my mind. We stayed in moderately priced lodges which reminded me of the lodges in our National parks. One of the highlights of the trip was awaiting the sun rise from a top a large "coepje" or cropping of rocks (our hotel was built into this coepje). As my friend John monitored his time-elapsed camera setting, we sipped coffee and talked about our experience. We heard a stampede of zebras, baboons fighting and playing, and other interesting animal sounds. Aside from these noises - which at times made me uneasy - the sound of silence was what I noticed most. The soundtrack of this experience was as amazing as the sights themselves. The songs of our porters, the absolutely quiet time when I wrote in my journal and pondered the meaning of life, the sounds of wildlife, the sound of my beating heart at the top of Uhuru peak, and others were surpassed only by the sights that accompanied this soundtrack. I was transformed by this trip, these people, these animals, the sights from above the clouds, the physical challenge. Go find your summit and let your experience help you appreciate the world and the lessons it has for us all!