Walking With Us: 5 Years On
In 2017, Tom David and I set out to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and walk 6000km back to South Africa, through six countries, living on the food poverty line of $2/day. In a story of extreme pain and even greater kindness, overcoming challenges and lessons learned, we have a story to share.
A 6000km walk through Africa; a crowdfunding campaign; making sense of it all in the mind of a mid-twenty-year-old; a book, and multiple talks. We were young, passionate and dedicated. It was a whirlwind of new experiences, lessons learned and many mistakes made. Five years on, it’s time to reflect.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting content about our journey. Starting chapter by chapter, we’ll be releasing the book online, making it free and accessible. We’ll include a few corrections, add a few reflections and above all, we’ll write about what you want to hear. Whether it’s about the walk, the fundraising, the lessons, the mistakes, the book or the talks — we’re here to share.
One of the questions I am most commonly asked is: are you and Tom still friends? Let’s start there. The answer is unequivocally yes. We may not see each other as much as we would like to and I believe we have dealt with the walk internally in different ways. However, I have more love, respect and pride for him than ever. Sharing this content is also an opportunity for us to remain connected to the experience, and to each other. Despite being friends we don’t speak about it often. There’s the occasional anecdote and reminisce over a beer but other than that, very little. We can unpack that too.
When we got back there was this mindset of needing to keep the story relevant. Just five months after we finished we began the journey of writing the book and published it in the following November. While we have numerous mistakes to unpack, I believe that was one of them. I probably pushed a bit too hard from my side and with that we sacrificed quality to meet deadlines. At the time I was proud of having published a book and was comfortable doing it under the guise of ‘not being a writer but having a story to share’. With more time, I believe we probably could have paid a little more respect to the reader. Don’t get me wrong, it was honest and a true reflection of where we were at the time. I do however believe that there were key truths that we were not yet aware of that add value to this story.
Whether you are 18 or 80, we are all in search of purpose. When we set out to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, I was undeniably dedicated to what we were aiming to do. I was full of passion and had full belief in the cause we were doing this for. While it is a privilege to experience this level of fulfilment even once in your lifetime, I didn’t realise the challenge it would be to experience this as early as 24. Like a highly addictive drug, I am left chasing that first high. I have committed myself to work that I enjoy, embraced experiences that I loved and gained immense enjoyment and satisfaction out of new learnings, but I have not since felt the same level of fulfilment and purpose. I know it exists and I believe it is out there to be discovered, but I am now on a new journey to find what, where or more importantly, why that is.
We embarked on this adventure because we were dedicated to making a difference in Ga-Dikgale, to make life easier for the caregivers and contribute towards the safety and care of the children. We wanted to spread awareness about the Early Childhood Development needs of rural communities and we wanted to hopefully inspire people to be more conscious in contributing towards a more equal society. Did we achieve that? This, too, we will explore.
We will share our story. As it was and how it continues to unfold. You will hear from Tom and from myself, both separately and sometimes together. We will do our best to be honest and vulnerable. We’re asking you, again, to Walk With Us.
