One day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Velez-Green and Clement attempted to take a taxi to one of their destinations. After being told that a taxi should only cost six birr, the Ethiopian unit of currency, the duo agreed to pay the taxi driver 20 birr, and left the car after arriving at the location, thinking that all was well.

Instead, the driver demanded that they pay 150 birr, following the students and latching onto Clement’s backpack. As locals tried to mediate the argument, the duo decided to pay the driver 100 birr to end the discussion. Although the disagreement was settled, there was still a sour taste in their mouths.

That experience did not characterize the whole of the experience in Addis Ababa, however. At 4 am, the duo along with their Australian friend, Yanush, went to a muddy and rundown public bus stop with people everywhere. The three were at a lost as to what to do, but a man volunteered to take their money and purchase the tickets for them.

“We really had no choice if we wanted to get anywhere,” Velez-Green said. “We gave him the money, and I told Yanush to stay next to the guy, and I got behind him if he started running.”

Luckily enough, the man procured the three tickets for Yanush, Velez-Green, and Clement, while refusing to accept any payment for his services.

“Out of nowhere, by a crack of luck, he got us where we had to go, and he didn’t ask for anything,” Velez-Green said. “That has happened so many times on our trip. I’ve learned that if things are grim, you just have to roll with it, and especially smile at people.”

KILL’EM-MANJARO

After enduring an overcrowded, twelve-hour bus ride through the Semien Mountains, feeding hyenas, and going on a safari, one of the duo’s biggest tasks was to climb Kilimanjaro. Despite feeling ill in the days leading up to the climb, Velez-Green was determined to complete the climb and not give up.

“You start the final ascent at around midnight to make it at sunrise,” Velez-Green said. “[It] was okay for a while, but I guess halfway through, the headache got much worse, and then you get this overwhelming feeling that you have to sleep…. You’re just so groggy, and your mind can’t really focus at all. It became increasingly difficult even to walk.”

“Alex was no longer walking anymore,” Clement added. “He was just stumbling along. It looked like he was walking upstream through a really, really heavy current.”

At his weakest moments during the hike, Velez-Green was rendered unable to move. Sitting on a rock, he mumbled about how he could not feel his hands anymore and how the numbness was seeping higher up into his arms and legs.

“The guides were worried, and then they took off their own jackets and put them on Alex, and then he started feeling better,” Clement said.

Despite his illness, Velez-Green was determined to reach the top. He told himself that as long as he put one foot in front of the other, he’d eventually make it up there—and he did.

DANGER AND WORRIES

Despite the hazardous experiences that Velez-Green and Clement had through the trip, the journey was still safer than it could have been.