Andrew's Birthday Present

A Story in Which the Mountain Plays an Unfortunate Joke on a Friend

 

There were two people in our group to have birthdays during the trip, Andrew’s happened to be while we were on the mountain. In fact, the day after this was taken was his birthday. The mountain had a gift for him.

            The day before Andrew’s birthday had been a good one, everyone was in high spirits, and we were only now leaving the highly vegetative zones. We were all familiar with what altitude sickness causes, having experienced nausea and headaches to a minor degree at this point. Andrew woke up with a headache, and laughed through breakfast and was still smiling for a good chunk of the morning. At some point during the walk, before we’d even managed to get to Lava Tower, Andrew’s smile slide off his face. He started to move slower and slower. I wasn’t moving as fast as him, I was the poky puppy, but he was at the back of the larger group. I don’t remember if it was Marissa or Anna who stuck with him, but there was always someone nearby as he visibly worsened.

            We broke for lunch on the ridge, and many of us couldn’t eat much. I tried to eat something, slowly, but it ended up being of no use, as the altitude turned my stomach. Andrew wasn’t much better, yet somehow he managed to keep his food down for the rest of the day. At this point, we split ways, I took a lower route below the Lava Tower, and the rest of the group took the planned route above it.

            When I arrived in camp that evening, I called out “Jambo (Hello)! Who am I staying with tonight?” Due to our odd numbers of ladies and gentlemen, there was a co-ed tent, which was always mine because I didn’t mind. Every night on the mountain, I got a new roomie. Tonight, I shared the tent with Andrew.

            I peeked into the tent to toss my belongings in, and poor Andrew was curled up in his sleeping bag trying to contain his nausea. We all tried to get him to eat something, but nothing seemed to help. Eventually he refused all the offers of food and chai (Swahili word for tea, not the specific tea called chai). We coaxed him into the tent for dinner, but he only had a couple spoonfuls of soup. Before he left again, we sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and I think some of the guides and porters came by and wished him a happy birthday. We all joked about the awful birthday present Kilimanjaro had given him, and several of us started avoiding most protein.

            After dinner, Andrew tried to sleep again. When I got back from dinner, he was still in bad shape, and I told him that I had felt a lot better after I had thrown up earlier in the evening, so if he had to, he should roll with it. He went to the bathroom to see if he needed to, but it didn’t really help, and he went to bed.

            The next morning, Kili’s gift had faded back to a headache, and he was keeping up with the rest of the pack again. In his words, it was “the worst birthday ever.”