One of our favorite stories from our Peace Corps service happened to a friend of ours.

At dinner one night, Josie was served a heaping plate of rice, beans, ugali … something starchy. The details of what was on the plate are foggy, but the point of the story is that it was stacked high, and, as is common when visiting many countries, it is impolite not to eat what is on your plate. Josie told us that the copious amount of food was daunting … definitely more than she could eat in a sitting. Noticing her wide eyes examining the overstuffed plate in disbelief (maybe even fear?), Josie’s mama told her, “Pole, pole. You will climb the mountain.” Pole translates to slowly … and bite by bite Josie conquered that plate of food.

As we embarked on our latest adventure — this time in Great Basin National Park in Nevada—these words swam through my head, and rightly so. We were actually climbing a mountain … and it was definitely a slow and tedious process.

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