Guides

Top: Alfonse and Patrice

Middle: Moses (Not THE Moses, but our guide)


Bottom: Peter Moto, our head guide

Our guides were absolutely awesome. Aside from Peter, who I described in an earlier post, there were 3 main guides; Alfonse, Patrice, and Moses. Alfonse was a big, laughable, loveable guy, who about 2 minutes into the hike decided the rest of his week would be dedicated to breaking Sam's chops at every opportunity. It was great fun to watch the cross-species (Human to Sasquatch) interplay, and it seemed that Alfonse got the best of the deal every time.

Patrice was the quiet, focused guide. He never faltered, and man did he keep us going. Up near the summit, he was with Bob and I, and we were both near death. Patrice comes up to us, never changes his voice, and say "It is good to put on foot in front of the other...like this" and then proceeds to show us how to walk. Like it was news to us...But, he got his point across, and we kept moving forward.

Like his namesake, Moses was worshipped and feared by everyone. Two quick Moses stories. First, he was taking a hike crew through the public market in Arusha when one of the tourists asked him to take a picture with his (the tourist's) camera. Moses is taking the picture out the land rover window and someone tries to grab the camera from his hand (to steal it). Moses casually lets the camera drop onto its holding strap, grabs the thief's arm, and breaks it in two. Just like that.

Second Moses story; Moses is asleep in his house with his wife and kids. A burgular breaks into the house, and is in the process of stealing stuff when Moses awakes. He grabs his machette from his bedside (where ELSE would you keep a machette?), chases the burgular, and proceeds to machette both of his achilles tendons. The thief drags himself out the window and down the street, and Moses goes back to bed. Nobody's burgularized Moses house since then...wonder why?

We knew the guides would be important, but I don't think any of us knew just how important until we got up high. I dare say none of us would have summitted without them.

Lumpy out