Ciru Kibera - Between a Rock and a Hard Place

 

Okay. In my high school, before we did our final exams, the school had a trip that would go for at Mount Kenya. The trip was to prepare us for our final exams and it was to teach us endurance and patience and courage. And so, I was very excited for the trip. But I was not very athletic in high school. I was sick before, and I had asthma. So, this prevented me from playing a lot of sports, because when I would participate in physical activity, I'd get an attack and I was unable to continue. My mom and my sister had also previously taken the same trip, so I really wanted to prove that I could also do it as well and I was just as strong and capable as everyone else. 

 

Going on this trip, I found myself not in the fast-paced group, neither was I in the slow-paced group and I would be in the middle and I'd be walking alone for most of the journey. It was very tiring. It was an exhausting trip. The point was to get to a place called Point Lenana, which is the third highest peak in the mountain. The journey was very tiring, as I had said. It took us three days to get to the place where we'd start the ascent onto the summit and the ascent would do it at night. And this was to trick our minds, so that we wouldn't see how far we'd have to go and we would keep walking, we would keep moving forward. 

 

When we got to this place, we started the ascent at around 07:00. And just as the rest of the journey, I found myself alone as I was making this ascent. We were told that there were guides along the way in case we got lost or in case we veered off the path, there would be someone to guide us back. So, I knew that I would be fine even if I was walking alone. So, they got to a point where I veered off the path and I was walking towards the glaciers. We'd been warned about the glaciers because people had actually lost their lives falling into the glaciers, but I knew I was fine because there were definitely guards watching us. As I was walking, someone yelled at me, and they were like, “You're going to get hurt. Come back to the path.” And that frightened me, that I wasn't seen at that point, but I kept walking. 

 

It was dark, as I said, and I was alone and I got an asthma attack. I had previously taken already two shots of my ventilation, and I was weak and I wasn't allowed to take another because of course, medical reasons. And so, at this point, I thought I should just sit down and wait for the group behind me to catch up and then maybe we'd go down in the morning. So, I thought, you know, this is as far as I can go, and I sat down. I was just crying and I was frustrated and I was tired. And then, a guide came up. He wasn't part of our group. He was leading this other man, and he saw me in this mess. He saw me with all this dirt around me. You know, the whole trip, you don't shower. I was dirty and I had mucus on my face and I'd been crying and I was disturbed by myself.

 

The way he looked at me, he had so much kindness in his eyes and he's like, “We'll go together and I'll help you up.” And so, the man next to him actually [chuckles] looked a lot worse than me because he had mountain sickness. We were going very slowly up the mountain. He held my hand. So, we went up with him and he kept saying, “You can do this. We can go together, and you'll make it.” And just as we reached the top, the point is called Point Lenana. As we reached it, the day broke, and it was the most beautiful view I've ever seen. And he was like, “Look, you did it.” I saw the first team there and they were like, “Hey, you made it. Hi, How Are you?” 

 

I don't think they really expected anyone after that point to make it. And there I was in this place, and I was just like, “This lesson isn't about exams. It's not about success. It's a lesson in life.” Up till now, I didn't realize how much the story has affected me in my life. I've had mountains that I've had to climb alone, figuratively. I didn't go up another mountain after this, but-- [audience laughter] I realized that it feels dark and you're not alone. [sobs] The people were there to hold your hand in the darkness. There's this quote that I later read, and it really just summarizes this whole story for me and it says that, “Tell the story of the mountains you climbed, because your words can become a survival guide in someone else's book.” Thank you.