Lessons From Ngong Hills

I remember like it was yesterday the day I hiked through Ngong Hills with my schoolmates at Naru-Moru Primary School. It was on a Saturday way back in 1999. That day, I woke up early eager for the hike which had been organized by some of our teachers in the school.

Before heading to Corner Baridi (a place on the southern foot of Ngong Hills where we were to converge), I packed a bottle of soda and a loaf of bread in my bag. Then I went to the home of a classmate named George Gitonga to pick him up so that we could walk to Corner Baridi together.

Gitonga and I arrived at Corner Baridi in time. After waiting for other schoolmates and teachers to also arrive, we began our hike through the hills.

Now, Ngong Hills consist of a series of hills that make a ridge. We ascended and descended each of those hills like a yo-yo. And wa! Climbing the hills turned out to be taxing.

The exhaustion I felt while climbing the steeply hills made me look forward to when I would be done ascending and start descending. But alas! Descending the hills turned out to be equally taxing.

Fortunately for me, the daunting hike through the hills was spiced up by my love feelings for Veronicah Kitmet, a pretty classmate I secretly admired. I must have felt like carrying her on my back.

After what seemed like an eternity of ascending and descending the hills, we arrived safely in Ngong Town, which is on the northern foot of the hills, where we partook whatever we had carried for lunch. As for me, I wolfed down the bottle of soda and loaf of bread I had packed in my bag.

My friend Ngishili Njuguna, in a story he posted on his now defunct blog, made me realize that the hike we had on Ngong Hills in 1999 has some valuable lessons to teach us. Let me tell you what the lessons are.

Firstly, like hiking through Ngong Hills, we are always experiencing ups and downs as we journey through life. The ups are those moments of excitement we feel when we achieve something; the downs are those moments of pain, conflict and disillusionment we feel once in a while.

In the same way the low points of Ngong Hills were the starting points of our next climb, the low moments we have after experiencing a disappointment are where we need to be in order to taste our next victory.

Secondly, hiking through Ngong Hills required us to carry some snacks to keep us energetic. In life, we also need education if we are to endure the ups and downs without becoming totally deflated.

Thirdly, we fare much better in life if we have someone to love and share experiences with, just like the way my taxing hike through Ngong hills was spiced up by my love feelings for Veronicah Kitmet.

Lastly, we need to enjoy the little pleasures of life just like some hikers do when they drink in the spectacular view of the Great Rift Valley while hiking through Ngong Hills. And there are many little pleasures for us to enjoy such as food, books, music, sports, movies and sunsets. Adieu!