Prologue

IF I COULD REACH MT. KILIMANJARO

If I could Reach, higher

Just for one moment touch the sky

From that one moment in my life I'm gonna be stronger

Know that I've tried my very best I'd put my spirit to the test

If I could reach

( Click here for a QuickTimeMovie, or RealAudio from  http://www.estefan.net/clips/ )

On the first day of sabbatical on Jan 15, 1999  I started to seriously  train for our hike up Mt. Kilamanjaro. The words and music is by Gloria Estefan, and you can listen to it on her 1996 CD "Destiny." At Intel many people take an eight-week sabbatical after every 7 years of service, but I bet very few people have a theme song for their sabbatical :-) Well, I thought "Reach" is a great song for our trek up to Africa's highest peak at 19340 feet.

Some dreams live on in time forever

Those dreams you want with all your heart

And I'll do whatever it takes

Follow through with the promise I made

Put it all on the line

What I hoped for at last would be mine

Why did we choose Mt. Kilimanjaro? There are so many other places to visit. We could be riding an elephant in Thailand, playing golf in Princeville at Kauai, or snorkling in the Caribbean. Well, it turned that that we have seen Mt. Kilimanjaro before. Here was the first time we saw Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1991 when Theresa and I went on a safari in Kenya during my first sabbatical. We saw the majestic moutain from Amboseli. After dinner around the camp fire one night our tour guide Clive talked about his experience hiking up Mt. Kilimajaro. That was the time Theresa and I agreed that we should hike Mt. Kili before turning  40--we figured that we can always go to Bora Bora when we are 70-years old.

 

If I could Reach, higher

Just for one moment touch the sky

From that one moment in my life I'm gonna be stronger

Know that I've tried my very best I'd put my spirit to the test

If I could reach

"You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." -- Wayne Gretzky

I remember seeing quote the first time outside Bob's office at work. For me, I will never know whether I can make it up to the montains unless I try. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro seems like such a daunting task. We have never done anything like this before. Sure, Theresa and I are relatively active and healthy. Sure, we do enjoy hiking, but we have never hiked for 8 days straight! In the end we decided to go because we think this is a challenge that we cannot pass up.

"Sometimes you just have to trust your intuition." -- Bill Gates

These two quotes are from two after-dinner  fortunes that we got at Palomino Euro Bistro in San Francisco one month prior to our trip. They sounded appropriate for our trip. While I don't exactly trust Bill Gates :-),  I do trust Theresa's intutition--that we will make it all the way to the top, despite the blisters, the pain, the difficulty of breathing, the cold weather, and not able to take a hot shower for 8 days! The worst is not having ice-cream for me, and not having a cup of Starbucks' Caramel Macchiato for Theresa.

Some days are meant to be remembered

Those days we rise above the stars

So I'll go the distance this time

Seeing more the higher I climb

That the more I believe

All the more that this dream will be mine