Here We Go! Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro for Clean Safe Drinking Water

Beau and crew - headed for Kilimanjaro

Friends! I’ve sent out a few social pings over the past couple days about being in Africa, but this is really the first time I’ve had more than a moment to share the lay of the land.

I’m here on a passion project with a group friends and educators (summitonthesummit.com) to learn more about the global water crisis, share what I learn with the world, and… to climb Africa’s tallest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,380 ft), as a signifier of this effort we need to put in to overcome this problem with our water supply.

We’ve all got mountains to climb in our lives, whether its work or school, relationships or personal stuff, but few if any of us living in the mostly privileged western world understand what it’s like to struggle for access to clean water everyday. More than 1 billion people on our planet — 1 in 6 — drink water everyday that makes them sick. It’s the largest killer of people on our planet, and it’s 100% curable via education, technology, and awareness.

I’m climbing with other artists, renowned educators and guides who share my interest in the cause… Mark Foster (Foster the People), Kenna, Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds, Shameless), Beau Garrett (Tron) and many others. It’s been a blast to come together around a great cause

We’ve got a satellite connection with us as we climb and I’ll do my best to update over the next week via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and here on the blog. We are using hashtag #SOTSK #CleanWater among others. I have programmed in advance some additional content for the blog to break up the daily reports from the mountain, but I’m hoping you’ll follow along these social channels and tune in to www.summitonthesummit.com to follow along.

Here’s some photos from road yesterday and the day before as we arrived and traveled to a village and several Masai homes to learn about their particular issues with water.