Here’s another post about our trek up Kilimanjaro. A few months have passed and now we look back on the experience and can’t believe we did it. We certainly couldn’t have without people like this.
We climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with a very rich man. He doesn’t show up on any of those Wealthiest People in the Universe lists and you won’t see him ringing the bell on a stock exchange. He didn’t graduate from an expensive business school with dreams of investment banking or start-up riches. His parents divorced when he was age 15, his Christian mother unable to pay for his education and his Muslim father unwilling. Today, this natural, self-made leader helps people from all over the world achieve their dreams, encouraging them to ignore their inner voices of doubt and find an untapped strength that they never knew existed. He urges people to push harder than they ever thought possible and to “just go”. He commands the respect of his staff, running an efficient operation with safety and customer experience as top priorities. He’s savvy with social media, has global connections, and his logo is recognized in the field. And the only place you’ll meet him is on the tallest free-standing mountain in the world.
Kilian Christian is a 27-year old Tanzanian guide on Mt. Kilimanjaro. After two years of living on the streets of Moshi following his parents’ divorce, he decided that he needed to take control of his life and joined the ranks of Tanzanian men who are fortunate to be hired as a porter on the mountain. In the hierarchy of support staff on a Kilimanjaro trek, there are regular porters, toilet porters, assistant cooks, cooks, and guides. The guide is also the camp boss, supervising all of the staff and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. The porters, earning an average salary of $6USD per day, carry all of the camp gear and most of the personal gear belonging to the trekkers. Each porter hauls up to 30 pounds, carrying it on his head while scurrying up the mountain. The toilet porter is responsible for maintaining and carrying the camp toilet and understandably receives a slightly higher wage. The support team breaks down camp each morning after the trekkers leave and sets it up again at the next site before they arrive. Our group of eight was supported by 25 Tanzanians. Several of them were spotted at the end of the trek proudly wearing Team Kilian shirts.
Kilian’s career as mountain guide began as a regular porter. He only spoke Swahili but quickly figured out that the path to success required learning English. He began by gathering up functional phrases from trekkers, asking them to write down words that he heard tossed about. Good morning. Thank you. Is everything okay? At the end of each trek, he practiced those words and learned new ones with each arriving group. With little formal training, Kilian mastered English well enough to pass the exams required to become a guide. In ten years on the mountain, he has become nearly fluent in English and functional in multiple languages, encouraging weary trekkers to “just go” in many tongues?
By his own count, Kilian has accompanied groups up Mt. Kilimanjaro over 230 times. Even using a conservative estimate, this means that nearly 2,000 people have been led, emotionally lifted, or physically supported by this gentle and remarkably strong man in their attempt to reach the highest point in Africa. He’s carried packs, hauled supplies, administered emergency aid, and choreographed a complex production to ensure the success of every trekker and team member. So many people are indebted to Kilian for achieving a life goal and checking another box on the bucket list.
After ten years and nearly 3.5 million feet of elevation gain, Kilian has reached the pinnacle of his career on Kilimanjaro. He dreams of immigrating to the United States, where he could develop his talents to new levels. Even with a U.S. based guide company willing to sponsor him, the immigration path is long and uncertain. In our world, natural leaders who can communicate with customers in multiple languages become high-paid consultants. In Kilian’s world, those skills get you to the top of your field in your mid-20s. In our world, people whine about paying $4 for a gallon of gas to fuel their car. In Kilian’s world, people beg for a job carrying tourists’ belongings up a 19,340′ mountain for $6 a day.
On the mountain, where Kilian seems the happiest, none of this matters to him. His huge smile and infectious laugh is the same in the thick air of the cloud forest as it is in the rarified air of the glacier summit. Always calm under pressure, his confident and positive demeanor didn’t change when the dining tent blew away in the dark during a severe windstorm at 15,000′ elevation or when several members of our group suffered increasingly severe symptoms of altitude sickness. Happily singing on the trail and doing acrobatic handstands on panoramic overlooks, Kilian is the embodiment of embracing life and refusing to accept a hand dealt as fate. And all of that makes him a very rich man.
