Hello, everyone. Last month I introduced you to Dr. Sharon Moore, and you read about her commitment to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for an Alzheimer’s non-profit organization in Alberta, Canada, where she lives.

Well, as you will read below, Sharon made it to the top!! You will be
moved, thrilled, and inspired as you read the letter I got from her a few days ago.

If you are inspired for your own life in someway by Sharon’s actions and words, send me a note. I’d love to hear from you.

Love,
Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth:

What an amazing journey so far. Hope you are well and that you got updates on the climb from Sue. It was a wonderful experience. Tough for the whole team. We had 12 people doing the climb and 37 people to look after us (2 head guides, 3 assistant guides, porters, and cooks). This is a really well run climb. Our team doctor from Vancouver treated our water every morning (the guides would not take responsibility for the water). We took the Rongai Route up the mountain which is one of the longer routes and has more climbing and some rock scrambling. We took 5 days going up and two down (took a route down that is much more maintained trail and more of a walk than a climb).

On the summit day, we had hiked into high camp for about 7 hours and arrived at 4:00 pm (to see one of our British friends from the hotel we had been at being taken down on a stretcher). They did the summit one day ahead of us (took 6 days instead of 7). We arrived at camp at 4:00 pm, had dinner at 5:30 and were supposed to sleep for three hours (which I couldn’t do). Three of us in our group wanted a little extra time so we set out with two guides and the man who owns the hotel (Seamus) and organizers the climb about 45 minutes ahead of the rest of the group. We headed out about 11:30 pm. Part way up, one of the women got altitude sickness symptoms (she had already had some problems on the climb). The guide and Seamus had her try a couple of things which didn’t work and she was still unable to keep her balance, felt like she was falling over, so Eric, one of our guides took her down. On the way down, they passed the rest of our group and Rose was sobbing (her husband was in that group) and apologizing for not being able to do it. They sent another guide ahead to be with our group and about a half hour before we reached the first point at the top (Gilman’s Point), the second group caught up with us. We saw the sun rise over Africa and it was beautiful When we reached Gilman’s Point (at which point you have summitted), the guides brought out tea and biscuits which we ate. One of our teammates felt she was too tired to carry on to the Uhuru Peak (which is the highest point in Africa) and considered the summit peak. It was still another 2 hours to that point across the saddle. Our team doc assessed her and knew it wasn’t altitude sickness, just fatigue so they encouraged her to carry on. We were all quite tired and about 2/3 the way up, Charlie (one of our guides) took and carried my pack. So one of the other guides took Cathy’s pack at this time and we carried on. Some of the group reached the summit peak at 0945 and the rest of us reached it at 1015. Cathy had kept wanting to stop but they encouraged her to continue. When we were at the summit and looked back, there were two of our precious guides carrying Cathy across their hiking poles the last few hundred yards. It was quite an emotional experience for all of us. We were all pretty tired by that point and we had been climbing 12 hours to the summit plus 7 hours the day before. We had a few photos at the summit but we were all too tired to have team photos done with our cameras so we are waiting to get a team photo from our team doc when he returns to Canada. I have one photo of Cathy and me and our guides and Seamus which i will try to attach.We started down to high camp at 11:15 and I reached there at 2:00 pm. We had lunch and then had to hike down to the lower camp at 12000 feet (another 11 km). We reached there at 7:00 pm quite exhausted. It was very cold (had been minus 20 climbing to the summit.) We slept at that camp that night (our high camp had been at 15,500 feet and they didn’t want us there longer than 24 hours which is why we had such a long two days on the summit day). I got to feeling quite ill that night after the summit climb and got severe diarrhea and vomiting. Felt lousy and wondered how I would ever do the 24 km hike out to the park gates. But we headed off that last day. I had to stop several times in the bush. Charlie continued to carry my pack which was a blessing. We arrived at the park gates about 4:00 pm and there was transport to take us back to the hotel. We had a closing ceremony that evening with all of our guides and porters and received our certificates. It was a very special time.

The next day our team started going in all directions. My friend from Vernon, our team doc and I took a cab into Arusha and met my sister Glenna. Glenna, my friend and I then took a three day safari which was great and then Lorie headed home and I headed with Glenna back to Kampala Uganda.

Have already had some amazing experiences here, visiting clinics, high schools and elementary schools. Yesterday I went with David Mafuli who runs an AIDS clinic and we visited 5 families who are living with AIDS. These women’s stories are so sad. After one woman’s husband died from AIDS, his family came and took the property and she was left with 5 children and AIDS to try and find housing and support her children. She lives in a two room shack and they sleep on the dirt floor. The stories don’t get any better. We took some rice, sugar, flour and a small toy for each child. What these women most appreciated was the fact that someone would come into their home to visit as they are often shunned by everyone.

Tomorrow I am presenting to the Faculty of Nursing at Makaere University in Kampala. I did a presentation at one of the health clinics in the village last week. Wed. I am presenting something on hope to a group of women who are living with HIV/AIDS. Following that I will be teaching a simple quilting class to the women so they can make something to sell in the markets and make a little money to feed their families.

On Thursday we leave for Kenya and I will be doing the Marifa Lecture at the international School of Theology and then head home on Oct. 31.

I know there are many lessons I have learned. i have been journalling but want to spend some focused time on lessons learned.

My big challenge for this week is to give careful thought to what I will say to these dear women living with HIV about hope and how they might live hope.

Trust all is well in your world and I look forward to keeping connected.

Love from Sharon

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Dr. Elizabeth Harper Neeld offers wisdom and practical insights to anyone whose life is in a time of transition, change, grief and loss of any kind. As an internationally recognized and accomplished consultant, and author of more than twenty books - including Tough Transitions and Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World - she is committed to work that helps lift the human spirit.