Summit Murder Mystery Series

by Suzanne Ahearne Monks with EEG monitors. Credit: University of Victoria For decades, scientists have brought monks and others into their labs to measure their brain activity while meditating. Now, for the first time, scientists trekked to the remote Mt. Everest region of Nepal to record the brain activity of meditating Tibetan Buddhist monks in their own monasteries. They came back with new findings about the human brain—and the benefits of meditation. The study was conducted in May of this year as par...

Moshi tour guides, porters speak out Tourists and their guides during one of the trips to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro   Kilimanjaro climbing is a tough task. For one to trek this snow peaked highest mountain in Africa he has to be physically fit and forbearing. But it is soothing when one manages to climb the mountain up to it’s highest point-the Uhuru Peak (5,895 meters above the sea level),” says Boka wa Boka (not his real name) a tour guide working with one of the Moshi-based Tourism and mountain hiking tour companies. Speaking at different times with the writer of this article on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisal by tour operators some of Mt. Kilimanjaro tour guides and porters said that, in spite of the difficulty of their work, most tourguides and porters are underpaid. This is regardless of the routes they use to reach the peak, explaining “all mount Kilimanjaro routes are hard, but other routes are most hardier that ot...