An International Smoothie

Kilimanjaro

Sunrise from Gilman's Point, that's the top baby

Wow. Wow. Holycrapwow. I've taken my sweet time writing this post but even as I sit typing this out I can remember the unbridled intensity of my whirlwind trip to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Basically it was the hardest thing I've done in my life. Physically and mentally, nothing can prepare you for the way that air thins and the way you fight for breath while walking 10 yards. After I hit about 3000 meters, breathing got a little tough and after around 4500, even standing was a challenge. Maybe I'm just making excuses for doing basically no physical prep, but hey. 

Despite myself (and I mean that, because I think I wanted to quit about 200 times on the way up) I made it, and that my friends is awesome.

I could wax lyrical about every moment of the climb (and how I basically passed out on the way down), how stuff happened that may well change my life and all the rest of it, but I think I'd find it boring if someone else did that, so I won't.

But if you like, check out the pictures I took over on Flickr. Some of them are totally breathtaking. And some of them have me in them.

To Climb a Mountain

Picture courtesy of Tambako via Flickr

In 4 weeks, I'm going to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Partly inspired by Kedar (who did it last year) and partly just because I wanted to something a bit mental, I'm quite looking forward to it - in the way you look forward to a crazy rollercoaster that may make you soil your proverbial undergarments. I leave July 2nd.

I'll be raising money for the children of Gaza, a situation that President Obama called "A continuing humanitarian crisis" yesterday in Cairo. I won't insult your intelligence by reeling off statistics about how many people were killed or injured during the course of the Israeli invasion earlier this year, just as I would hope that people reading will understand that this isn't me picking sides in this massively polarized situation. This is me doing something that I feel is important, for a community that is need of assistance to get on with their lives.

Anyone who knows me will know that the issue of Israel and Palestine is something that is very close to who I am (quite literally) as well as something I consider to be shrouded in grays, there is very little black and white in the situation. But I believe that helping the people, and in particular the children of Gaza to rebuild their lives is one of things that is quite obviously needed.

After much thought, I've decided not to pimp the cause massively to you, the benevolent blogosphere because I feel that there's been a lot of people asking for charitable help recently and I'd probably just be adding to the noise.

I think this over-pimpage dilutes from the cause somewhat. It's not a lemonade stand and the seriousness of these issues that people raise money for should in many ways, speak for themselves.

So given that, if you'd like to know a little bit more about the charities I'm raising for drop me an email at samismail [at] yahoo [dot] com.

And if not, as Marcus once said, spare a thought for those who are not as fortunate as us, and have a great weekend.