Kwaheri (goodbye) from Tanzania

We spent our last day together today in the Ngorongoro Crater, “the cradle of mankind” as they say. Surrounded by wildebeests, elephants, mating lions, zebra, hyena, rhino, jackals, hippos, crowned cranes, acacia trees and “Africa” in all of its glory, we have all forgotten about the aches and pains that seemed all consuming just days ago. The bitter freeze has left our bones and we seem to only remember the best parts of the rigorous climb to the roof of Africa. We closed the day with a visit to the ‘boma’ of chief Ole Dorop to meet his gorgeous family before retiring to our final night in camp. As I type, the sounds of Glenn Tilbrook belting out songs by the fire are calling me to cut this short and end our journey with a small but TRULY heartfelt statement…

With music and love in our hearts, we simply want to say…Asante Sana. Thank you.

With the assistance of the United Coalition Against Cancer (UICC) we are reviewing the final details of a proposal to build the foundation of a children’s cancer center in Tanzania. We will keep you posted via the Love Hope Strength website on the final plans for our funds here in Africa. As with the story of “the cradle of mankind”, this story does NOT end here…

…to be continued.

Love Hope and Strength to you all
October 8, 2009
The 2009 Kilimanjaro Rocks Team

Angie Devanney
Kay Licausi
Christine Alan
Julie Lampton
Kelly Carpenter
Mike Peters
Jules Peters
Julie Bowlen
Molly Silverman
Carrie Marzolf
Karen Brooks
Matt Adam Smith
Paul Cooney
Ryan Garner
Nick Harper
Glenn Tilbrook
Brien McVernon
Robin Wilson
Nick Heil
Owen Fegan
Oli Powell
Stash Slionski
Shannon Foley
Cy Curnin
James ‘Slim Jim’ McDonnell
Kevin Carlberg (in memoriam)

Special thanks to African Environments and our sponsors:

MARMOT
SMITH OPTICS
EPIPHONE
LEKI
SUUNTO
CEPHALON
HYPOXICO
LARABAR
INMARSAT
POINT6
SUPERFEET
GLOBAL RESCUE
HEAT FACTORY

 

Click on the yellow flags to see where the team is today!