Notes on the Ascent of Mount Kenya
I. Erasmus Syndrome and the Geopolitics of the Visa For years, the idea of climbing Mount Kenya had floated around in my head with the consistency of a poorly defined ectoplasm. It lurked there, crouched among my unfinished reading and that vague conceit that one is, deep down, a man of action who lacks only the right moment and the right boots. The catalyst for the adventure (as tends to happen in modern life) was not some epic impulse but the European Union budget. David, a former colleague from my days at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, reappeared on my radar thanks to the funded miracle of the Erasmus Plus programme. He was coming to Nairobi to teach a course at Strathmore University, and with the preposterous idea of climbing Kilimanjaro. For my part, the mere mention of Tanzania brought on an unbearable bureaucratic drowsiness. "Listen, David," I told him, adopting the learned and vaguely condescending tone of someone who has been on the continent ten minutes ...