Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Youngest Summit of Kilimanjaro

Sorry for no updates, but the net hasn't worked but once in two weeks. Keats made the summit January 21 at 3:45 pm in freezing rain, sleet and snow. He was amazing - he wouldn't be stopped it was a 14-hour day for the little guy. Several times his guide and I told him to go down but he kept saying "up, up." I kid you not.

On the 5th night on the mountain we had 70-mph winds and below zero temperature. Two tents from another group were blown completely off the mountain that night. The screams were horrible - fortunately everyone made it out of the tents before they blew away.

We won't be back for 10 days or so.

It was a hell of a thing.

Kindest regards,


Bryan Boyd

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Updates

We are sorry we haven't posted updates so far. But where we are the Internet is unreliable and painfully slow. Just writing this has taken 30-minutes to secure access. We will do our best to update once we get a chance.

So far the trip has gone well except for a small issue with customs and our camera gear - think small heart attack. But all is well, our Thomson guide Robert Chama made things "no problem man." The poverty here is inexcapable yet they seem to have secrets to happiness that elude many in the US. I have to say the next time I hear someone say, money doesn't matter I'm going to have to tell them they have no idea what they are talking about.

Keats went to the Monduli schools two days ago and spent the day with the kids. None of them had ever seen a Westerner so it was an interesting day. The Head of School wrote Keats a sweet speech about what he was doing. When we return we will post it and some pics. Between Keats and I we must have had 2,000 children (seriously that is a real number) touch our hair. The Masaai are shy but friendly people so we hope we left a good impression. Hundreds of children swarmed Keats as if he were famous. I must have had several hundred grab my hands and pull my hands to thier cheeks so they could feel my skin.

The children were so nice and welcoming of Keats that I cried like a baby at one point. It was, and is, too emotional for words. More later my connection is faltering.

We climb on the 15th with much love and support here. The Tanzanians are so happy Keats is doing this for them that they can't do enough to help us. They are too kind. You remember what it means to be human here.

Thanks for reading,

Keats' dad