Of Hills & Mountains

Well guys, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written any blog posts. I finished my nursing mission in Sierra Leone and returned to the U.S. at the end of March. Since being home, I have had a wonderful time relaxing, cooking/baking practically every yummy recipe that caught my eye, doing arts and crafts, going on walks, going to movies, visiting friends, pettin’ my cats and just trying to “recover” (possibly too strong a word, but close to what I mean) from long-term, high-intensity work. In short, I have been reacclimating to all the things I have left behind these past 6 months and it’s been great.

So I’ll give an update on what I’m up to next. I have signed on with a travel nursing agency and am currently headed to North Carolina to begin a 3-month contract at one of the hospitals in the area. I’m quite excited, as it is a brand new place for me to explore, and I hope the South is ready for me. By that I mean, I hope they are firing up the grills now and getting some good bbq ready for me 😋 *Disclaimer*: I had originally planned on hiking the Appalachian Trail currently (a 6 month hike across several states), but I was quite ill and exhausted upon returning home and in no condition to hike for 6 months. So my grand hike is postponed yet another year. That’s just Life folks and if anything, ya gotta try to be flexible and “go with the flow” …something I’m still trying to get used to 😏

Anyways. I wanted to write this blog post a couple months ago when it actually happened but time got away from me. So without further ado, here it is:

Awhile back, my friends and I decided to do something a bit different for our rare, coveted day off of work. Usually everyone goes to the beaches nearby or just relaxes at home but on this particular day we decided to hike up a mountain, no big deal. Well, technically it was labeled a hill but I am sticking with mountain because it sounds cooler ;)…and definitely felt like one.

It all started when one of our friends found a guided tour of Picket Hill through the ‘Visit Sierra Leone’ tourist website. She set everything up for us and on Sunday morning, we were on our way to the site of the hike. We were picked up and driven for about an hour to a rural village. Our original tour guide needed to partner up with a local guide from the village as he was native to the area and knew the way to the top of the mountain well, as it is through fairly dense woods & foliage. A tall, somewhat formidable looking man welcomed us to the village and introduced himself as the chief. We mistakenly heard his name said as “Journey” instead of “Johnny” so that was a bit awkward when we were all saying, “oh hi Journey” lol. He then asked us who the chief was of our “expedition” and that is how our group of friends became known as the “Journey Expedition”, quite a fitting name considering the adventure that lay before us.

We got the guide situation all set up and began our hike. It started off as a nice, little trail with a gradual incline. It did not stay that way. Early on the trail got very steep. Now, luckily for us, there were many trees overhead and it created a very nice shade and cooled the temperature greatly. But guys, I’m just going to give you a visual of what we did:

So if that’s a hill, then I can’t even with a mountain. Our pace didn’t necessarily help things either. I wouldn’t say we were speed walking but we were NOT going at a leisurely pace because both of our guides wanted to get back in time for the soccer game on TV 🙄 so we were hustling our bustles.Here were just a few of our adventures/(mishaps? 😆) on our steep hike up:

*I had to go number #1 and my friend did too. We found a secluded spot and took turns being the lookout for each other. Sarah took her turn and everything was fine. I took my turn in the bushes and I guess the spot we found wasn’t so secluded after all…and Sarah wasn’t a very good look out. When I had my turn, a group of 3 African guys all walked by and I’m pretty sure they got to see a very clear picture of the front moon of me…thank you Sarah. 😑🙈 I’m sure that’s a great image for them to have  of the first white woman they ever saw 🙄

*About halfway to the top, we passed a few village women who were carrying baskets and looked like they were out doing some work in the forest (gardening or gathering something). They waved to us and we sort of tried to chat a bit but we didn’t speak the same language. They were all dopey smiles, giggle fits, and practically falling down over each other with laughter. There’s no other way to say this: they were MESSED UP 🤩🤯🤪😆 lol. Later the guides told us that they chewed some sort of root or plant to get high and make the work easier. I wish we would have asked for some because I think had I been a bit “removed” from the mountain, it would have made hiking up it a bit better.

*Probably our more serious “adventure” was us running out of water. When we got to the top of the mountain and were enjoying our triumph and the glorious views, we realized that we only had 1 small bottle of water left for the journey back. Somebody forgot to pack the rest of it. So we dissolved an oral rehydration packet into it and tried not to be too nervous. Also, we didn’t have much to choose from for snacks so we brought what was on hand, which consisted of cookies and Pringles 🙄. Definitely not the best food for about 7 hours of hiking. Also, the British have the cutest names for their cookies: Jammie Dodgers. Now try saying that out loud in an enthusiastic British accent.

Anyways. This whole fiasco/wonderful adventure got me thinking about the type of people we surround ourselves with. It really does make such a difference as far as the type of energy they bring into our lives. For instance, I was most definitely the weakest link on the hike. I had put my stuff in a plastic grocery bag (just bc I didn’t have a proper bag), which was not gonna work, and had to be divided up into everyone else’s hiking packs, thus giving them extra weight. And on the decline of the hike, everyone was getting enormously thirsty and moderately dehydrated…but my friends gave me extra sips of what was left in the bottle bc I had started feeling dizzy and things were going a bit grayish on the periphery of my visual field. Real pals, honestly. On the way up when I truly wanted to quit, when I clearly felt that I simply could not physically manage with the incline of the hike and was going to call it quits, my friends offered that we should all slow down the pace a bit and take a few more breaks on the remaining distance up. They basically encouraged me not to quit, refused to leave me alone in the jungle while I waited for their return on the descent, and offered suggestive solutions on how I could finish the hike with them. I simply would not have been able to do the hike and see the INCREDIBLE views at the top of it had not been for them (we were practically touching some low-hanging clouds!). Shout out to the Journey Expedition lol.

When we got back to the village that was our starting point, all the villagers (maybe 15-20 of them) were kind of gathered waiting for us casually. Once they saw us they began saying how fast we were and how well we did and good job us lol. It felt a little put-on but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. I am too embarrassed to post an after-pic but it’s basically me sitting on a bench in sweat drenched clothes holding my walking stick, covered in dust and clutching my Pringles for dear life. It didn’t capture it in the picture but I was also surrounded by baby chicks running around me. Yeah, that’s right! The image of a true champion!

So be mindful about the people, friends, groups, communities, social energies, etc. that you are surrounding yourself with. Are they bringing out the champion in you? Willing or not so willing, as in my case 😉 Let’s just say, I am so happy I made it to the top of that mountain and saw that view. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my pals there seeing me through. So as the Golden Gurls theme song goes, “thank you for being a friend”.