Connection between ataraxia and my time spent in Africa this summer.

During this past summer, my cousin and I travelled to Tanzania, Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. It was one of the best experiences of my life. The mountain was challenging, but making it to the top was very rewarding. Though the mountain was incredible, what has stuck with me the most about the trip are the attitudes of every local that we met while on the mountain. We had around 25 people in our group in total. We had seven tourists, three guides, and the rest were porters (the people that carry the tents, food, and pretty much everything except for your snacks and water and maybe some extra layers of clothing). When we discussed the Epicureans' idea of ataraxia, the porters and guides in our group is the first thing that came to my mind, especially the porters. Ataraxia is the freedom from distance, stress, and anxiety. According to Epicureans, it is the highest form of pleasure. The porters did not get paid much when compared to the amount of work that they did. They had the hardest job, yet every single one of them radiated positive energy. They would always greet you, ask if you needed anything, and have conversations with you even though some of their english was not perfect. Though they do not have a lot of material goods, they still seem to be stress free and have a way of building up those around them. Their favorite phrase is "Hakuna Matata" or "no worries." They basically used it for everything, and I loved it. "Thanks for setting up our tent!" "Hakuna Matata no problem!" "Can I please have some tea? "Of course brother, Hakuna Matata." They say the phrase often, and they seem to do their best to live by it as well. My favorite part of the trip came the second day that we were on the mountain. Once we made it to camp for the night, we had our formal introduction to the porters. This introduction came by way of singing and dancing in a big circle. You could tell that they all truly loved what they were doing, and it was an amazing experience for all seven of us tourists because none of us had seen anything like it. We had myself and my cousin from the US, a recently married couple from Spain, two cousins from Denmark, and a lady from Mexico who had been to over 120 countries. Despite us coming from all around the world, we were all enamored by the joy that the locals seemed to possess. These locals probably do not have near the amount of material goods that any one of us tourists have, yet they seemed to be happier than all of us. I believe this is what ataraxia is all about. The only stress and anxiety that existed in that singing and dancing circle came from us tourists wondering when the altitude sickness was going to kick in.