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Raleigh woman will take on African mountain to raise money for UNC patients

For most people, a diagnosis of terminal cancer would be enough of a challenge to face. But Harriet Farb, who has incurable breast cancer, is taking on another physical conquest — climbing one of the world’s tallest mountains. Farb flies out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Jan. 10, bound for Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Her ascent of the 19,340-foot peak will raise more than $10,000, which Farb is donating to the patient and family resource center at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Farb, who lives in Raleigh, has been a patient at UNC’s cancer center since 2001.

The resource center helps patients cope with the physical, emotional and financial strains of treatment. Assistance may come in the form of a prepaid gas card to defray travel expenses, a class on managing appearance changes or the use of a jaunty hat to cover a head newly bald from chemotherapy. Continue Reading…

Five-week trip full of adventures highlighted by the incredible people

Trekking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, white water rafting the mighty class-5 rapids of the Zambezi River, swimming at the edge one of the world’s highest falls, Victoria Falls, watching the cheetah kill on the plains of the Serengeti, dancing with the Masai warriors — these were all part of our five-week travel adventure in Tanzania and Zambia.

Along with my two friends, Lori Last and Sandy Turner, I travelled to Africa recently to trek to the summit of 5,898-metre-high Mount Kilimanjaro — the highest peak in the African continent and the world’s highest free-standing mountain. The non-technical climb in support of the Alzheimer Society of B.C. was one of myriad travel adventures we experienced during our five weeks in Tanzania and Zambia. Continue Reading…

Alex Menkhaus was going through a break up and needed something to clear his mind.

Why not climb a mountain? Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to be exact.

“It was a suggestion from my sister,” said Menkhaus, 24, who immediately passed on the idea to his friend Kevin Hurley. “He really took to it more than I thought he would.”

Soon the word spread and the two recruited five other friends and family to embark on what some would say is the trip of a lifetime. But Menkhaus and the others didn’t just want to have an adventure-filled vacation. They decided to put up a Web site and turn their trip and experiences into a fundraising tool for the Network for the Improvement of World Health, a nonprofit operating in Tanzania. Continue Reading…

MOUNT KILIMANJARO, Tanzania — “Step by step, inch by inch” rang through my oxygen-deprived mind as I trudged the last 1,000 feet of the summit push toward an elevation of 19,478 feet.

The radiating sun slowly creeps across the frozen glacier field as my lips begin to go numb. I’m not thinking, I am just walking, walking … walking. A porter smiles at me and offers to take my pack, and I just shrug him off.

I am going to do this. I did not go all this way, ruin my heels with hellish blisters and eat porridge for nothing! My dad walks besides me, just talking, softly whispering words to me. Do I look at him? No. I have to keep my eyes on the target, and I absolutely cannot stop. Stopping would mean I quit. Stopping would mean the mountain beat me, and my competitive nature would not have it. Continue Reading…

Climate:
Tanzania is known for being hot all year round but humid on the coast and dry on the central plateau. Its it the hot and dry weather which attracts safari tourists especially in the months of January to March.

Time: GMT +3.
Electricity: 230 volts, 50Hz. Square or round three-pin plugs are used.

Language: Kiswahili and English are the official languages. Several indigenous languages are also spoken. Continue Reading…

Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has seen a dramatic decline in its glaciers over the past century. The disappearance of snow and ice on the peak and sides of Africa’s largest mountain is often cited as an example of the impact of global climate change. Closer to the ground, residents of the Mount Kilimanjaro area also are concerned about the impact of climate change on their livelihoods. Cathy Majtenyi went to Mount Kilimanjaro and files this report for VOA.

Mount Kilimanjaro glacier

Once covered with snow and ice, the peak of Africa’s largest mountain is looking quite bare.

Mount Kilimanjaro’s glaciers have shrunk by more than 80 percent over the past century and scientists are predicting that Kilimanjaro’s ice cap could disappear by 2020.

Environmentalists often cite Mount Kilimanjaro as evidence of world-wide climate change.

Most scientists agree that decreased precipitation and increased solar radiation are the direct causes of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s shrinking ice cap. Continue Reading…

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif., Dec. 27 A 7-year-old Southern California boy is preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, a 19,340-foot volcano in Tanzania.

“I want to be the youngest climber to ever reach the summit,” said Keats Boyd. “I can do it.”

Keats wants to raise funds for two African charities: Kids of Kilimanjaro and the Jane Goodall Institute, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Thursday. Continue Reading…

Bill Barkeley was eager to enter an ultra-exclusive club: people who’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

But his journey differed vastly from others’ because Barkeley is nearly blind because of an inherited condition that causes progressive hearing and vision loss.

Yet, he refused to allow his Usher’s Syndrome to limit his ability to ascend to the mountain’s top. Continue Reading…

COOKEVILLE — There are three groups of people in this world: the sayers, the planners and the doers. The sayers pay lip service to a cause, but that is as far as they go. The planners say they will commit to a cause “as soon as their schedule lightens up” or “as soon as they have the money.” And the doers fulfill their promises. Janet Matson, a local occupational therapist, made good on her desire to go to Africa and help those in need.

“I have been interested in Africa and her people for decades,” Matson said. “I lived in New York City in the late ’90s, and there were many venues with which to educate myself regarding Africa and Africans.

“I planned to go to Mali, West Africa, when Hurricane Katrina devastated our country. I found a church in Mississippi on the Internet, contacted them and drove there from Pennsylvania,” she continued. “I sorted, boxed and stacked pallets to ship to the Gulf. I was muscle power, and that was all I needed to be.” But soon her sights on Africa became more honed, and she discovered that her skills would be needed in Tanzania. Continue Reading…

A WOMAN will be forgoing turkey and presents by spending Christmas Day in the foothills of Kilimanjaro.

Hazel Burlison, from Esh Winning, near Durham, is climbing Africa’s highest mountain, with husband Glyn, to raise money for charity.

The couple fly to Africa today and expect to arrive at the mountain on Christmas Day. Continue Reading…