Overview
A travel memoir that chronicles the authors' remarkable journey of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and then walking 6,000 kilometers through six countries in Africa, all on a stringent budget of just $2 a day. Their adventure is not only a test of physical endurance but also a journey that leads to profound personal growth and understanding. The narrative captures the essence of the human spirit through extreme pain, immense kindness, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way, all while bringing attention to the cause of early childhood development
Notable Quotes and Moments
I’ll l be backing you every. single. day," the words at the bottom of Bryony's letter reads. The last word is slightly smudged. I need these words today.
Only later, when Choletta climbs onto the little couch for the night, do we realize that she has given up her own for the two of us. It shocks us. Yet again, we're shown how strangers are prepared to make sacrifices for us, people they've never met. Although Choletta and her mother have very little in the way of material things, they give us so much.
Before we leave, we ask them to pose for a photograph. The women emerge into the morning sun, dressed in their finest: Choletta in a canary-yellow dress and her mother in a traditional African print khanga dress with a scarf wound elaborately around her head.
Choletta escorts us down the dirt track out of the village and waves farewell from between the forests of maize that grow among backyard acacias.
"How do you think that situation would have unfolded back home"
"If we'd encountered two tired-looking strangers who couldn't speak our language, would we have offered them the same?"
Tom shakes his head sadly.
"This will stay with me forever," he says softly.
Later that day, he receives a text from Choletta.
"I hope you have a nice moon tonight," it reads.
“I’m scared of becoming that doctor. My fear that we’ll finish this journey and our superficial, materialistic lives will overtake us and force all this into the backs of our mind”
Bryony's last Tuesday's letter:
"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done, one is called 'yesterday' and the other is called tomorrow:
So today is the right day to come, believe, do and mostly, live
Bryony had signed off with, "May today be extraordinary" and shed drawn a little star beside it. I decide to text her later to tell her just how extraordinary.
Eli knowing the only one card game and it also being shithead
He leaves us with a memory of redemption song that we’ll forever associate with him
We dread walking through some villages, places that aren't even identified on our map, for we know what awaits. Instead, we keep our heads down to avoid the disappointed looks in the children's eyes and the angry resignation from some of the mothers who thrust them forward.
We are mzungus here and suddenly we feel this in a different way. We're met with a level of expectation that we have something to give or offer. which is soon followed by glowering resentment
The significance of the dish nshima in the journey
"Six countries in less than six months. It's surely my greatest achievement. Its significance, on a personal level, is profound. If I can do this, I can do anything. I've got through this experience one step at a time. It's a philosophy l'll apply to the rest of my life."
Warrens advice: Focus on what you have done
"Yes we returned to our privilege but it’s not about feeling guilty for having them. It’s about how we use our privileged to better the lives of those who need us most."
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