Kili is harder than a marathon?

Hello,

So, today's agenda has been very lax. Just sit, hydrate, and read
books. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of kili. So far, though, no
luck. She's covered in rain clouds and it looks like rain. Down here
in town, the winds are strong - the 10-15 mph constant breeze with
some harder gusts makes the 90s temperature seem less terrible.
Still, oddly, I'm dry. So it's raining 10 miles away and it's dry as
a bone here.

Anyway, I see a group of three young Asian guys sitting nearby. I
chat a little. They just came off Kili yesterday, and they're running
the marathon tomorrow. They've all run marathons before, and they've
run them in this heat, too.

"Oh, climbing Kili is definitely harder than running this marathon
will be..." I smile and chuckle, but now two thoughts are predominant
in my head: my years of mountaineering will make the marathon cake, OR
(more likely), Kili is going to be harder than I imagined!

I promise I will start posting more pics with my entries starting
tomorrow. I still have to work out some data issues (the local Zain
telephone guys don't know how to get me the unlimited data package),
so I'll either figure that out after running or I'll pick up a few
"top-ups" so that I can send pics over the 8 days on the mountain.

OK, time to pig out again and then get ready for bed... I'm catching a
taxi at 5:30 am just because "east african time" tends to be accurate
+/- 24 hours...

Joel

--
Joel

Hot! and oops!

Hello,

Ok, so, when I arrived, I was blasted by the heat, which reminded me
of my running gear, which made me realize what an idiot I can be. I
was planning on running a marathon, right? did I remember to bring my
running tights or shorts? ooops!

Remember me talking about the monsoon season? I brought enough warm
clothes to survive an arctic storm. except, I forgot to bring
waterproof shoes. reports from the mountain say there is as much as
four feet of snow from a recent storm. Doh! though my guide says
those reports are from panzy tourists. He was up recently and he
thinks you can avoid any snow... but he's never seen an experienced
American backpacker who doesn't wear big boots anyway.

So, back to this morning. When I woke, it was quite nice out. By
8:30am, it was becoming hot. From about 9:30 to 6pm, it was deep into
the 90s.

So my plan it to run my first marathon in this heat, eh? I better
prepare myself not to be dissappointed with any time... this won't be
easy!

Today was pretty lax, I wandered around town and talked with people.
It's hard to blend in, as a muzungu (white man). I almost felt like I
did in China. I'm bigger than most folks here. Taller than many but
certainly heavier than anyone my height. And therefore a shining white
billboard that screams "sell me stuff!" hahaha.

Seems like curiosity about money is big here. People want to know
what caused the current financial situation (ie why there are fewer
tourists), how much money people make in the US, how expensive houses
are, etc. Considering that crappy houses start at $4k while people
make $150 per month... its a very different world here.

Anyway, good morning to y'all and i'm going to enjoy the current cool
(70s) breeze, drinking some local beers now since once I start diamox,
it's all over, all the beer will taste terrible!

Joel

--
Joel

wow, teh internets!

Well... it took about two hours to get internet service. I was quite
surprised. I paid $5 for a prepaid sim and asked how to set it up
properly. This led to the Zain representative calling his boss when he
couldn't get it working. And he tried for almost an hour. Then the
boss's boss got called in and we had a little gathering around my
"iphone by htc." I realy couldn't convince people it isn't an
iphone...

The boss boss finally got several people on several phones and it
turns out the only settings we needed were quite simple and voila,
about 5 man hours later... Hi everyone!

--
Joel

Longer message(s) coming tomorrow - couldn't get sim today. I arrived and dang, it's "africa hot." 87F at 9pm!

hahaha... character limit fail!

Well, there you have it. My first blog post. And I sure hope the
African SIM works, otherwise this will be my last! Boarding now. See
y'all!

--
Joel

Hello! First post / my first time blogging. Here I was, saying I was blogging but I had nothing in my blog. Kit poked fun at me so I to