Day 9: Climb to Mweka Gate
Our climbers are waking up to their last day on the mountain. They’ll have their last breakfast in the mess tent and then start their trek. They’ll descend through the rainforest past towering trees and lush ferns to a hot lunch at Mweka Gate – where they’ll end their adventure on Mount Kilimanjaro.
MOUNTAIN ROUTE STATS
Starting elevation 13,000 feet
Ending elevation 6,000 feet
Elevation gain 7,000 feet
Distance hiked 7 miles
Average hiking time 5 hours
What just happened ??? …. PART 2
We awoke this morning to our last night’s sleep in our tents and last full course breakfast. The mood at breakfast was infectious. All smiles and laughter reminiscing over what in the world just occurred the past 24 hours. Shortly after breakfast we joined with the 60 plus porters and guides in a large circle. This was the final meeting that takes place the morning of the last day after summit and could quite possibly be the sweetest moment of the trip. As I like to call times when the Holy Spirit moves beyond expectation a “love gift”. They sang us a few songs and we all danced. This was the first opportunity we could ALL pray together and then meet all the porters especially those behind the scenes we had not had an opportunity to meet yet. Gabriel and John introduced each according to their position and then announced the final gratuity for a job well done, which is definitely an understatement. These men and woman met us each day with joyful smiles on their faces, anticipating all our needs before we even knew them, and a work ethic I’ve never seen with not an ounce of complaining. The excitement was a wonderful site but not in comparison to hearing from them that now they would be able to care for their families by putting food on the table, paying for school or college etc. So beautiful to see God put us all together in community to help one another Pamoja Pamoja.
We were able to tell them how thankful we were for their humbling service and joyful spirit taking such amazing care of us. As Ben said it perfectly; their humble service towards us resembled so clearly the love of Jesus who humbled himself being fully God to come to this earth as a man to be the ultimate servant for us. He not only saved us but set the example for us all to live by. God made us for Himself and for community and that was a beautiful reality this morning.
We then trekked down the remainder of Kili trying to spare the impact on all our knees and toes. Reaching the end (some of us not losing said promised 6-8 lbs) we had a delicious lunch waiting for us and a lottery auction ready to take place. From all our donated gear the porters were called out by a lottery system to grab whatever item they needed the most: boots, fanciest headlamp one has ever seen, back packs etc.
Dinner that evening was somehow filled with a plethora of double cheeseburgers, the same infectious smiles and laughter as at breakfast and goodbyes to our McCarty family. Each of us shared our biggest take away from the trek. Though still processing the overwhelming consensus was the genuine humility shown by our porters and guides towards us would and had already undoubtedly change our hearts and lives as we prepare to return home.
Mccartys we miss you already! Hope you have a wonderful safari!
~ Robyn