20,000 feet later.

20,000 feet/6,000 km in the air was reached about 6am on October 26, 2019.
There are so many things to say and so many emotions, that I am going to try to lay it out from the moment I left, to when I got back. Basically a 'race report' for a volcano climb.

Our crew!

8:30am me and 4 other French speaking people arrive at the agency. We get our stuff, and into a crammed SUV to go 3 hours up up up to about...I donno. 4,500 meters? Anyways, we start our what seemed to be tough trek to base camp--not even 2 hours. I thought it was so tough. Oh if future Meg only knew what was coming for her. 

Base camp.

This is what I wrote before laying down for the night.
I literally laugh at myself for being so dramatic. 

Our guide, Ronnie, mentioned that sometimes people can't sleep at high elevation. Our base camp was almost 17k feet (5k km)--serious elevation. So ladies and gentlemen, ya girl slept a total of ZERO hours that night. Wake up was around 12am, for breakfast at 12:30am, for departure at 1am. We stuck to schedule pretty well, and off we went into the night for what was going to be a tough morning. We started going up and real quickly I realized this was going to be tough. I started telling myself that I should just quit now; that I couldn't do it, but all the while I was still trekking. Poles in hand, big bookbag behind me. Next thing I knew it was time to stop and get water. We stopped about every 50 minutes to sit down/drink/eat.

One guy had to turn around about 2 hours into it because he just couldn't. So now there was no turning back--there was only 1 guide and 4 of us. A low point that is funny now, is one guy had just left from being sick, one girl was throwing up, and I was having a panic attack-at the same time. My panic attack occurred because of the negative thoughts of that I am not good enough to do this-but I worked through it. The poor guide had no idea what to do. So, we all gathered ourselves back, and off we went again-into the night. It was dark about 75% of the trek, which made it mentally TOUGH. Physical darkness is breeding ground for mental darkness. And darkness came. I had negative mantras playing in my head, but didn't stop. Crying yes-stopping no. I kept wanting the sun to rise, because I knew that meant we were getting close.

I looked behind me once the sun was up at a stopping point and started to cry because of how majestic the view was. It was truly stunning. Seeing yourself at the level of a mountain top is something that cannot be described. We weren't quite at the summit, so off we went. I kept turning around to see the view to remind me why I was still going; to see the view from the top-to be able to see 360 degrees of mountains/volcanoes under me.

I had a million layers on clearly. 

Me and the other girl were STRUGGLING our way up. I thought we had reached the summit, but turns out we had another 30 minutes to go; it was a false summit. I was so mad but had made it that far, ain't no way I was stopping there!

My fist bump buddy!

We could see the cross finally, and wow it was such a time of excitement. I reached the top with the 2 guys and our guide there congratulating me. The other girl was about 10 minutes behind us so we cheered her on. I looked around me and just started to cry because of how majestic it was. Y'all. There are no words to describe how breath-taking the sight is to see the entire world under you. There is nothing around here taller than Chachani, and wow was it incredible. There are no words available to be able to communicate the intimacy with the Lord during this time; it made all the hardships reaching the top endlessly worth it.

#nofilter

We stayed at the top for about 30 minutes then headed down. I had NO idea how tough that was going to be. It was way sandy. As in, sand went up your leg with every step you took. I had to learn new ways to walk, but could't figure it out so well. I fell about 50 times-no less, because it was so slippery with rocks and sand. At one point we SCALED the volcano. It was pretty scary. If you lost footing and fell, down down down you went. I honestly reached a low point where I needed the two guides to hold me and help me down this one tough part. It was humbling because I wanted to do it myself, but every time I tried, I would fall. Pretty sure we were all aggravated with me because they walked a little bit ahead of me because I couldn't get myself together from crying so much. It wasn't a pretty sight. Base camp was no where in sight, but I knew the longer I sat there crying, the longer I was going to be on the volcano, and I wanted OFF!

Check that out. 20,000 feet in Strava recorded!

Base camp finally came; we picked up, organized our stuff, and set off for the parking lot. Boy was the part I thought was so tough, so simple! Besides this one rocky part that got to me mentally, it didn't last long, and back to the trails we were. We reached the parking lot and yes, I cried again because I knew I was done! A small wind storm actually occurred and it was crazy. It was like a hurricane on the beach, but up on a volcano. It was blowing away our stuff, and the guys were chasing it, all the while sand was blowing by us. I personally sat there with my hat on, head down, because I was DONE.
We got back into the SUV and headed back to the agency. I felt like I was in such a daze all day because I had no idea what had happened. I had just witness the glory of God like never before, and didn't know what to do with it. I had thought about everything, yet nothing. I had moments of song lyrics, moments of repeating with every step 'better, stronger' *cred to Dave Hollis*. Moments of sadness, and joy. Unbelief I am climbing a volcano as my first climb.

This is my 'DONE!' picture. I asked the guide to take my pic and he said here? I said well I am not getting up so YEP.

So speaking of, where was God in all of this? Where was He NOT? A big crazy thing is, elevation sickness was my fear and my friends' fear for me. But, it didn't happen; not once. My head started to hurt the moment we got back to the parking lot. I literally laughed to myself and was like thanks God for making it happen now and not during any park of the trek-He knew I wouldn't of been able to handle that.
Another thing is despite my panic and tears, I didn't need any of my extra anxiety medicine. I was doing so much physical activity that I didn't even ponder needing this one specific one I couldn't take while on the volcano. Thanks God!
He was there in my darkness. While telling myself I couldn't do it, occasionally God would whisper to me to rely on Him for my strength; to fall into His arms with my tears because He can handle it. He is what started me on this journey up the volcano, and He saw it to completion with me.
When I think about the journey up and down, all I can do is praise the Lord for His goodness to let me experience it all. The intense darkness made the Light at the end have so much more goodness.

A cute small volcano. They were all around!

So folks I guess that's everything. I am sure I am forgetting some stuff, but that is the gist of it. If you are still reading thank you! Thank you for caring about my life and what all I experience moving abroad. This is one of the many reasons it's so cool. I can't wait for the next adventure, but for now I am catching up on my sleep.
Cheers!