(Editor’s note: This story is among the 17 submitted for this year’s Travel Tales supplement in this week’s paper.) By CINDY SIMON My husband came home from work one day last November and casually said, ‘I’m climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro next year. Can you join me?’I was not too enthusiastic. As someone who has been hiking for many years, I thought of myself as being in pretty good shape. But climbing a mountain in Africa”one with an altitude of 19,340 feet; to go seven days with no shower? It just didn’t sound all that appealing. I listed a bunch of reasons to my friend, fellow Palisadian Donna Fol. She was totally unconvinced by my plea and said, ‘You should not miss this chance of a lifetime.’   And so we departed from Los Angeles on February 6 and flew overnight (about 11 hours) to Amsterdam, then south to Tanzania (another 10 hours), landing at night at Kilimanjaro airport, just outside the town of Moshi.   The next morning I awoke early and grabbed my camera. I could see Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s coveted Seven Summits in the far distance, but what struck me at that moment was the ebb and flow of the morning people traffic. Ladies in their bright and colorful traditional dresses strolling along, some with straw baskets on their heads filled with bananas, and some with babies on their backs. There were groups of young children in their navy and white school uniforms, carrying heavy backpacks and jugs of water, and men riding bikes into town to work at the small shops and open-air food markets.   The next morning, we woke up ready to climb. Our guide had picked the Umbwe Route, one of six ascents to choose from. I looked in my trekker’s book, which described it as ‘a very steep, wild, exhilarating climb.’ This was not the first time I found myself mumbling, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’   The Umbwe trailhead started at about 6,000 feet elevation. Soon, we were hiking through dense forest with giant trees draped with thick green moss and bearded lichen hanging over every limb. It was hot and humid, and seven hours later as we approached our first camp, Cave Camp, at 9,300 feet, I was pretty well spent. The next day, we continued our climb up through the dark forest zone, and, after several hours, we broke into the sunshine and before us was a striking view of the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro. Before long, the fog started coming in and we couldn’t see far ahead of us. We were now surrounded on either side by the most unusual trees”giant senecios. They look like tall thick sticks with a burst of green cabbage leaves shooting out of the tops.   We reached our second camp, Barranco Camp, at 12,926 feet. After a long hot day, I was ready to relax and enjoy a delicious dinner. To my surprise, we were served an African delicacy: sliced banana soup. At this point, I started dreaming about In & Out Burger and Jacopo’s pizza. Day three was an ‘acclimatization hike to altitude’ day, and we stayed overnight at the same camp. On day four, we set off for Karanga Camp, which ironically would be about the same elevation as the one we had just left. We wrapped around the mountain and had to attack the infamous and much dreaded Barranco Wall, a giant vertical gash in the hillside full of jagged boulders and uneven rocks. Even the porters slowed down as we all worked our way along the zig-zagging trail, often groping our way up the side on hands and feet. The views behind us were of a vast valley dotted with tall, rushing waterfalls and the giant senecio trees. But mostly we kept our eyes focused on the Barranco Wall, not wanting to make the wrong move. When we finally reached the top, it was high-fives all around. Then our guides gave us the good news that the next five hours would be spent hiking up and down small rolling hills. We continued through a dry, dusty lunar-like landscape, the ground full of dull gray rocks that looked like they’d been sliced with a cleaver. We never saw any wildlife except for a few tiny alpine birds and a monarch butterfly. Finally arriving at camp, we were weary with exhaustion. We woke up with renewed good cheer: it was Valentine’s Day! The ladies had come prepared with paper valentines from home, and small heart-shaped rocks that we had obsessively started collecting during our trek. We set quite a fancy breakfast table with our valentines. This was an exciting day, as we headed to Barafu Camp (15,100 feet), where we would go to sleep early, then wake up in the middle of the night to begin our final ascent to the summit. It was a long day of climbing along dusty wide-open trails surrounded by nothing other than the occasional grasses peeking through the boulders and rocks. When we arrived at camp, there was a porter who had a carton of Coke. We bought one for $5 and it was worth every penny. Soon we were off to our tents, as we would be sleeping only a few hours before being awakened to begin the final climb. At 10:30 p.m., our guide shined a light into the tent. The night sky was clear and the winds were calm. We had slept in our hiking clothes, so we put on our headlamps and quickly made our way to the food tent for a light breakfast. Everyone was quiet around the table. By 11 p.m., we set off in a single file with our layers of coats, gloves, scarves and hats. It was cold, but we knew we would soon be working up a sweat, as we were pretty much going straight uphill. The sky held a million stars but it was still pitch black outside. All you could see was a string of headlamps winding up the mountain. Due to the altitude, we walked very slowly, taking deep breaths to get enough oxygen into our lungs. We climbed up ledges and over boulders on a narrow path that wound back and forth. Sometimes a boulder was so high and difficult to navigate that one of the porters had to push me up from behind while Sara, our guide, had to pull me up over it. Many people have asked, ‘Why do you begin the ascent in the middle of the night?’ and it’s a valid question. My answer: ‘If you saw what we were climbing in the light of day, you’d never do it!’ But the actual reason is threefold: 1) to ensure you arrive on the crater rim or at the summit in time for sunrise, 2) in case the weather turns at any point, your chances are better that you will be descending in daylight, and 3) by setting off early, you guarantee you will have sufficient time to descend from the summit not only to Barafu Camp, but five hours further down to the next camp (i.e., you don’t want to spend another night at 15,100 elevation). After climbing seven hours, daylight came upon us in a beautiful and dramatic sunrise over the African plains. By this time the switchbacks had ended, and we were walking up a direct ascent on fine, loose gravel”almost like a sand dune. We paused a few times to catch our breath and take in the incredible red and gold colors before us in the horizon. We stood before enormous glaciers that were the whitest of white; gigantic sheer walls of white. Now we were in arctic conditions in the summit zone: barren and icy cold. We reached what seemed like the top, but wasn’t, rather it was the crater rim, called Stella Point, at 19,000 feet. At this point, you mentally feel like you’ve done it, but you still have a ways to go. We walked ever so slowly around the rim, which gradually climbs upward for well over another hour to the high point called Uhuru Peak at 19,340 feet. There were some in our group who knew they’d make it. They were mentally and physically prepared, and were confident from the very start. Then there was me, who told everyone ‘I have no intention of going all the way to the top’I’ll go as far as I am comfortable, and then will relax in my tent and do my needlepoint until the rest of you come down.’   But here I was at the very top of Mt. Kilimanjaro’Once again, my husband had quietly pushed me out of my comfort box, and I’m a better person for it. (Cindy Simon and her husband Bill have loved living in Pacific Palisades since 1990. They have four children: Cary, Willie, Lulu and Griffith. Cindy is active in local beautification projects, and enjoys volunteering for special projects at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA. She loves to travel and hopes to go on many more journeys far and wide.)

(Editor’s note: This story is among the 17 submitted for this year’s Travel Tales supplement in this week’s paper.) By FLORENCE ROSENBLOOM While pondering which ‘memorable trip’ to submit to the Palisadian-Post travel writing contest, I realized that within the diversity of my many travels–from Mother Teresa handing me a religious medal in a Calcutta orphanage (‘my business card,’ she announced), to drinking Zam Zam in the dried mud-brick citadel of ancient Bam–something connects all my trips. That common thread is the recording of what I see into a sketchbook. Drawing forces me to look more closely, to help me to see and remember what I’ve done. My trip becomes more personal. I feel more connected to all around me. The lone act of drawing seems to arouse curiosity in people of all ages (regardless of where I find myself), often providing personal interaction, which takes my enjoyment up to an even higher level. I’m often surprised, too, by the recipient of that universally recognized expression, the ‘thumbs-up,’ particularly in unusual locales, such as the Louvre! In Myanmar, while I quickly sketched a temple at the edge of a river, a group of locals gathered around me. When I looked up, I was amazed to see a monk giving me the thumbs-up, with a big grin. A small boy among them turned to his friends, pointed to my sketch, and then to the temple. He had never seen anyone drawing before, but it was obvious that he ‘got’ what I was doing. Our guide confided that he also sketched and took us to his home to see his work. He had very few art supplies, and only rare opportunities to obtain more. I felt lucky to be near the end of my trip, only because I was able to add to his treasured collection by giving him my pens, pencils, watercolor set, and brushes. Wandering the world, I receive so much pleasure simply by observing locals enjoying the sight of their well-known sites and familiar objects evolving in my sketchbook. Perhaps they wonder what value I find in drawing their everyday places and things, but it is exactly those specific subjects that draw me. For example, the local ‘market,’ common to most habituated areas, large and small, is one of my absolute favorite venues for capturing: the food, the stalls, the people. Once back in the familiarity of my own home territory, each sketch vividly revives my memories of years of fascinating adventures. (Florence Rosenbloom, who doesn’t consider herself an artist, taught first and second grades until she married Arnold (now deceased) and then stayed home to raise her two daughters and a son, who are now grown. Rosenbloom has five grandsons. She has loved living in the Palisades since 1991, the year she retired from UCLA Extension as coordinator of the Extension Advisory Service.)

Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club’s Women in the Arts presents writer and novelist Carolyn See, who will talk on the subject of memoir and family history at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 28, at the clubhouse, 1210 Fourth St. A book-signing and reception will follow. A Los Angeles native and former Pacific Palisades resident, See is the author of seven novels including ‘The Handyman,’ ‘Golden Days,’ and most recently, ‘There Will Never Be Another You.’ She serves as a book reviewer for The Washington Post and is on the board of PEN Center USA West. See holds a Ph.D. in American literature from UCLA. Her awards include the prestigious Robert Kirsh Body of Work Award (1993) and a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction. She is currently working on a new memoir titled ‘The Very Rich Hours’ about getting old in an extended family. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Women in the Arts Program Fund of the Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club and the Santa Monica nonprofit Daybreak, a project of OPCC. A selection of See’s books will be on sale courtesy of Village Books. For advance tickets ($8) visit [ http://www.smbwc.org/ ] or at the door ($10).

Hot on the heels of a Neil Simon comedy, Theatre Palisades will switch gears next week when it presents David Auburn’s award-winning drama ‘Proof,’ on stage from April 2 through May 9 at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. The piece, which in 2001 won both the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, is directed by Tony Torrisi and co-produced by Martha Hunter and Sherman Wayne. ‘Proof’ tells the story of Catherine, a college student, driven to the brink of nervous exhaustion from caring for her ailing father, a brilliant math professor. Tensions increase when Catherine’s sister Claire comes to visit; a groundbreaking mathematical proof is discovered in the house; and Hal, a graduate student, tries to make sense of it. Matters of madness, trust and love ensue. ‘It’s a brilliant play,’ Torrisi says of Auburn’s masterpiece. ‘The blocking was a challenge. Getting away from talking heads. There are only four people in the play, and it takes place in the backyard.’ Those four people are portrayed by David Kunzle, who plays the math genius Robert, father of Catherine and Claire; Lisa Marie King, who portrays Catherine; Carly Reeves as Catherine’s sister, Claire; and Timothy Sands as Hal, a student of Robert’s. Wayne says that audiences will enjoy the ‘supercharged dysfunctional dynamics of the characters. ‘The play has so many themes and conflicts that we found it very interesting: mental illness, heredity, family,’ he continues. ‘The conflicts between characters are terrific. We decided to do one drama and this seemed to fill our bill.’ Only recently were the people behind Theatre Palisades allowed to pursue staging Auburn’s acclaimed play. ‘The rights had not been available [to the community-theater circuit] until a year ago; they weren’t going to let us amateurs to do it,’ Wayne says, chuckling. The last production mounted by Theatre Palisades”Simon’s ‘Chapter Two,’ directed by Wayne”also featured a four-person cast. He says the material dictates the productions, not the size of the acting ensemble. ‘Obviously, a bigger cast brings in a bigger audience,’ Wayne says. ‘The bigger the cast, the more tickets we can sell, but we do try to balance the season.’ He adds that there will be 10 characters when Theatre Palisades stages the farce ‘Cash on Delivery’ in June. ‘The technical side was making it interesting for the audience,’ Torrisi says of ‘Proof.’ ‘When you’re in an apartment or two, you have doorways and couches and bookcases whereas here, Sherman’s building a beautiful set. We put a table down, the porch steps, the yard left and right, the trashcan.’ ‘It’s a big undertaking,’ says Wayne, who was on a ladder painting a window on the University of Chicago campus-set on Friday.   Torrisi’s professional relationship with Wayne goes back a couple of decades.   ’Sherman and I worked together while I was artistic director at Palos Verdes Players for 12 years,’ says Torrisi, a resident of Westchester. ‘During that time, I did two shows for Theatre Palisades’an Agatha Christie play eight years ago and ‘The Cactus Flower’ five years ago.’   ’When Sherman retired from teaching [at Palisades High School], he became involved with the PV Players,’ Torrisi says. ‘When it shut down, he came up to Theatre Palisades. Being an acting teacher, he has spent a great deal of time dealing with [character motivation]. With his experience helping acting students, he brings a great deal of understanding.’   In preparing to direct the drama, Torrisi purposely avoided the film version of ‘Proof,’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal.   ’I stayed away from it,’ Torrisi says.   He wasn’t the only one. The $20-million John Madden film, with a screenplay by the playwright, bombed at the box office in 2005, barely earning $14 million at the box office worldwide.   ’I did not see any of the stuff on the Internet either,’ Torrisi continues, instead placing his faith in his actors’ interpretations of the material.   ’These actors are professional,’ the director says. ‘I come in, all I have to do is show up and guide them.’   Performances run Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets (Friday and Sunday: adults $16, seniors and students $14 Saturday: adults $18, seniors and students $16), contact the box office at 310-454-1970 or visit theatrepalisades.org.

  The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s will perform the music of exiled composer Hanns Eisler on Friday, March 26 at 8 p.m., at the church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave.   The program will also include Aaron Copland’s 1944 ballet score, ‘Appalachian Spring,’ along with an arrangement of Mahler’s ‘Songs of a Wayfarer’ by fellow exile Arnold Schoenberg. Admission is $35 at the door.   Eisler in Hollywood and the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings are the subjects of Villa Aurora’s afternoon roundtable on Saturday, March 27 at 3 p.m. At 7 p.m., mezzo-soprano Kristina Driskill and pianist Mark Robson will perform excerpts from Eisler’s ‘Hollywood Songbook.’   For tickets and information, call 310-454-4231 or email infola@villa-aurora.org.

The Edward Zwick movie ‘Defiance,’ starring Daniel Craig and Leiv Schreiber as the Bielski brothers, is one of a few recent Holocaust movies that portrayed Jews as fighters, not victims. But unlike the Quenten Tarantino hit ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ a purely fictional piece of revenge fantasy, ‘Defiance’ was based on a true story. Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Synagogue on Sunset will screen ‘Defiance’ as part of its monthly Movie Night on Thursday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m. Longtime Pacific Palisades resident Chana Messer, whose parents lived through the ordeal portrayed in the film, will participate on a panel at the screening, along with ‘Defiance’ screenwriter Clayton Frohman (he co-wrote the movie with Zwick, a Rustic Canyon resident), and Sharon Rennert, granddaughter of Tuvia Bielski (portrayed by Craig in the movie). ‘This year, unlike in years past, our movie night committee (which consists of congregational lay leaders, Rabbi Jon Hanish, and me), chose to create a lineup of six films all with an interesting Jewish theme,’ says Matt Davidson?, program director at Kehillat Israel. ‘We slotted ‘Defiance’ in preparation for Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 11.’ Released in December 2008, ‘Defiance’ depicts the Bielski Brothers’ seemingly impossible task of hiding, sheltering and feeding a small village of several hundred Jews””women, children, and seniors included”while on the run, hiding in the deep forests of the German-occupied Poland and Belorussia. The group spent three years surviving horrendous weather and living conditions, ultimately concluding in a rare happy ending coming out of the Holocaust. ‘Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben was approached by the film’s screenwriter a while back to gauge whether we might be interested in doing a screening,?’ explains Davidson. In addition to Frohman, Kehillat Israel has congregational ties to Rennert and Messer, who may also bring some cousins, one of whom was 5 or 6 years old in the forests, if they are healthy enough to travel from Northern California. The Palisadian-Post caught up with Messer last Friday at her ‘office,’ the Starbucks on Swarthmore and Sunset where the local web designer can often be found working on her laptop. Among her freelance gigs: for 18 years, Messer has taught digital media to employees of Disney Feature Animation. Messer’s father, Hertzel Nohomovski, fled from a ghetto in a small town in Belorussia. ‘The town my father is from is Navaradok, my mother [Gutke] is from Korelitz,’ Messer says. ‘They are both from towns next to the Belarus forest, where the Bielskis were hiding.’ A friend insisted that Nohomovski meet his beautiful cousin. ‘My father fell in love with her, and demanded that she go with him [into the forest] or he wouldn’t go,’ Messer says. ‘They married in the forest and after the war, they [renewed] their vows with a rabbi in Israel.’ Until the movie ‘Defiance’ and the book that it was based on (Nechama Tec’s ‘Defiance: The Bielski Partisans’), many were unaware of this remarkable chapter in Holocaust history. Messer recalls that her father used to tour schools in Israel to talk about this little-known event. ‘My father was a wonderful, energetic storyteller,’ Messer says. ‘All the people depicted in the movie, they’re like my family. ‘I liked the movie a lot. For once, they told the story of Jews fighting for their lives in the Holocaust.’ Messer knew the real-life Tuvia and Zus (played by Schreiber) personally. After living in Israel, the Bielski brothers and their families (each brother had three kids with their respective wives) lived in Brooklyn, and Messer would often dined with them on the Sabbath. Messer points out the movie’s small fallacies that resulted from the story being streamlined for dramatic purposes. Contrary to the film, Tuvia’s wife did not study music, and she and Tuvia had been aware of each other before they were introduced. Tuvia and Zus did not butt heads as much in real life. ‘He was very kind, very good-looking,’ she says of Tuvia, who ‘did not get the respect [from the Jewish community]. He was a hero.’ After surviving the Holocaust, Messer’s parents moved to Gedera, Israel, then Rishon LeZion (today Israel’s third biggest city), where Messer grew up. She graduated from Tel Aviv University’s theater/fine arts department, then lived in Israel until she was 25. She resided in New York for 12 years before moving with her husband, Stephen Messer, who works in TV production, to California, where they’ve lived in Pacific Palisades since 1990. Messer and her husband have two girls: Gilli, 21, who currently attends Columbia University, and Romi, 15, a 10th-grader at Palisades High School. Gilli, who also attended PaliHi, was voted Miss Palisades in 2004. Messer says Pacific Palisades ‘is a great community and I love being an active part of it, especially with the schools. I volunteer a lot with art.’ Like clockwork during her interview with the Post, a pair of passing Palisades High teens exchange greetings with Messer, who is currently donating her artistic services to graphics for an upcoming PaliHi play. The Bielski brothers did not live to see the release of ‘Defiance.’ Tuvia died in the late 1980s and Zus passed away five years ago. But in the wake of the movie, Messer has noticed a lot of reaction and awareness to the event depicted in Zwick’s movie. ‘I got phone calls in the Palisades from friends who were not Jewish but who went to see the movie,’ Messer says. ‘They were fascinated.’ Messer’s father died in 1996, but her mother is still alive at 90. ‘She was invited to the ‘Defiance’ premiere,’ Messer says. ‘Surprisingly, she loved it. She has the DVD. ‘I joked with her and I said, One of the girls peeling the potatoes was you.’ She said, ‘Are you kidding? I’m the chef!” For information on the ‘Defiance’ screening, visit kehillatisrael.org. Visit ChanaMesser.com. Michael@palipost.com