Upper School Hike

(posted by Dan)

This last friday we took a day out of our agenda in the upper school and took all the kids to Nkhoma for a day hike. Nkhoma is one of the biggest mountains in the area, and is just plain beautiful. You'll have to excuse the deluge of pictures of the mountain itself, I just miss real mountains. Lilongwe has turned out to remind me of LA; hot, dusty, ugly and no mountains. For a Seattlite like myself it is pretty dismal in the middle of the hot season (90 degrees indoors), so this was quite refreshing.

It was really just rewarding to spend time with our kids. I rarely get an opportunity to be with them without some sort of agenda, whether teaching, getting through curriculum, or monitoring them. This was so delightful because it reminded me of our days in youth ministry at CPC. We have a great group of kids in the school, and it was a ton of fun to hang out with them. It was really encouraging to feel like we are actually doing ministry here; I sadly think of our work here more as a job than ministry most days. Anyway, enjoy the pics.


Our bus ride



The beginning of the trail (which is a road) with the mountain in the horizon. And yes, that is a road.



We climbed pretty fast and took a couple breaks with the kids. It was funny how fast the group thinned out, and the kids who started out running ended up being last.

glorious

The actual peak we climbed was on the right. We climbed up the crack and mounted the saddle between them before reaching the summit.



Here is a nice little 'lodge' about halfway up. We stopped and gave the kids some food/candy to help with blood sugar. The boy on the right is Amungwa. He and I stuck together as we went up.

Here is Amungwa strutting the guns before the intense part of the climb.

Above, you can see one student, Colleen, taking some time to herself , and enjoying the view.

(Above)This is looking straight up the 'crack.'

Here is Amungwa (and I) reaching the top with some of the students awaiting us.

This is looking down the crack. There was an awesome updraft the whole time climbing. You can imagine just how powerful a large mountain is in creating its own mini-environment in such a flat land.

From the peak, looking north towards Lilongwe.

This is our great group of kids. I'm in the back looking surly as normal. One of my best friends in the upper school, Andy is to the right showing his guns with the other kids.


These are the guys in my group. From back left, clockwise: Amungwa, Luther, Steven, Sho, Nate, and Mapopa. There were a lot of fun to hang out and chat with.



Nate and Luther standing proud on the summit ... next to a dead tree that has been cemented into place. Don't ask me why, its just there.


Well, sorry for the huge pictures. I am trying to figure out how to use Picasa, and I am being a tad spastic about it. I will try and get more normal sized ones for the bandwidth impaired like myself.