Operation Climb Update
Hi Everyone
So I’ve heard from Howard, James, Max and Ben. They are 9 hours ahead of us. The weather is beautiful – 75 degrees and the 7 day forecast for the mountain looks good. Unless it changes it should be around 17 degrees on the summit on Sunday – the day they plan to summit!
Their first interesting experience was that as they were coming in for a landing, the airport turned on the runway lights for their plane. Apparently the runway lights are only turned on as needed.
Their hotel is very nice and they are eating every meal there as they feel it is the safest bet. If you want to check out the hotel they are staying at The African Tulip. Today they met with their guide who reassured them that he has led over 300 expeditions to the summit. It took them about 3 hours today to unpack and repack to best meet their needs on their hike.
This afternoon they ventured into the market. On the way in James was approached by a man who wanted him to hire him to “guide” them through the market. Max described the market in Arusha in this way “Remember the market in Tel Aviv? Now multiply that by 50% grossness and that is what this market was like.” Pretty gross! I think that this will be an eye-opening experience in so many ways for my boys! I think they will really appreciate the lives they lead even more after seeing how others live!
Ben’s favorite discovery is that in Swahili the word hello is “Jambo.” However, “Jamba” means fart. Therefore here in the USA “Jamba Juice” translates into “fart juice.” He thinks this is hysterical. Apparently someone at that company didn’t do their homework when they were deciding what to name it. I don’t think I’ll be visiting Jamba Juice for awhile.
Howard tells me not to expect to hear from them for a couple of days. They have been told that their phone will work after they reach a certain elevation which is about a 2-day climb to reach. So you can expect another update in a couple of days!
Best,
Anne
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