Uhuru Peak

So the wake up call is 11pm... we headed to bed around 6pm. Sure like I'm going to sleep at 6pm... first of all it was still light out, second I was petrified that because of the high altitude my body would "forget" to breathe (you really don't need to tell me how dumb this is). I'm staring at my tent ceiling lying with Nikki and Janet wrapped double up in two sleeping bags, winter hat on. Those next few hours were excruciating as my mind cycled through the events about to happen. A cycle that I in no way could predict.
Ok so 11pm arrives, the porters are coming around to make sure we are all awake, it is pitch dark and COLD. I know, you are thinking, it's Africa. Well, yes, it's Africa at 15,000 feet. So we get up, my nerves like the strings of a piano during a concert. I can do this only if I don't think about it too much. We (21 of us) line up single file after a quick "tea and cookies" and start up the mountain. Oh, so I might have forgotten to mention that as I was gearing up to leave I decided to save money by not buying hiking poles. I'll be fine. I hiked a couple 14ers and poles are kind of a pain except for the really steep parts and even then it's a personal feeling. So I didn't bring poles.
We are heading up the final summit day and I look around to see that everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean even my African guides, have poles. Uh oh. Whatever, I'll be ok. Single file, pitch dark, freezing cold. Pole Pole in Swahili means, slowly, slowly and god knows we were going slow. So slow my blood was freezing in my fingertips and toes. Well we can't move faster because we need to give our body time to acclimate to the altitude as we head up to 19,000 feet. At our 4th stop the group began to split. A group moving ahead and a group slowing up. Why am I doing this? What do I have to prove and to who? After all this is the Summer of Lisa, so if I want to slow down, I'll slow down. I spoke to my guide, Photo, and he told me to shut my mouth and get back in line. At over 16,000 feet your arguing skills are kind of limited so I did what he said. Got back in line and put one foot in front of the other and slithered up to the top of Kilimanjaro! Twelve of us made it to the "roof of Africa", a moment I will never forget. This wasn't about who hiked the most in preparation for the trip, this really was an exercise of the mind.