On November 18, 2022 John Coyne wrote in Peace Corps Worldwide, an entry on his site talking about the give away books at his public library. I was inspired to follow up with this piece.
John,
I too forage for books on the give away rack in our library in Courtenay, British
Columbia. Recently my Peace Corps experience came into play with those free
books. But to see the connection you
will have to be patient and let me tell the lead in to acquiring a free book at
my library.
In the Peace Corps I was stationed in Moshi, Tanzania at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1966-67 and often climbed the mountain with an aging Italian doctor Giovanni Balletto. Dr. Balletto ran a small health clinic on the Marangu Road that led up to where most of the climbing expeditions started in those days. During WWII along with many Italian civilians living in Ethiopia Dr. Balletto had been interned in concentration camps around the British colonies in Africa. His camp was at the base of Mt. Kenya in the town of Nanyuki. During his almost six-year imprisonment, Giovanni and two other inmates dreamed of freedom and climbing mountains. They spent months preparing an escape from the camp to climb Mt. Kenya. They had no route map of the mountain. The only map they had was from a tin of bully beef that had a picture of Mt. Kenya in its logo.
They cold forged an old hammer into an ice axe. From a running board on a car they fashioned
crampons to walk more safely on ice. Climbing
ropes were woven from the netting in the bed frames that they slept on. They hoarded food, and fabricated
rucksacks. I’m not sure what they did
for warm clothing. They probably received packages from home via the International Red Cross. When all was
ready they escaped and went on the mountain for seventeen days. I highlight that time frame, because it is almost unimaginable to go anywhere for seventeen days with only what you carry on your back. Unable to reach the main peak they managed to
climb to a secondary peak, Point Lenana, on the mountain and placed an Italian flag
there, then not having anywhere to go, and totally worn out, they broke back into the camp and turned
themselves in to the camp commandant. When the story got back to Rome, they became war
heroes. As punishment they were sent to another camp
where all the hard core fascists were being held, but Giovanni said the food
was better there, because the fascists were screaming about their rights under
the Geneva convention, so the British were treating everyone somewhat better. After the war, Giovanni remained in Africa
and settled in Tanganyika. Years later
one of the three climbers, Felice Bennuzi wrote a book about the adventure, No
Picnic on Mt. Kenya which became a popular boys’ book in the Commonwealth and
was an inspiration for the creation of the Outward Bound Schools. Though heavily fictionalized, the story was
made into a film The Ascent starring Ben Cross of Chariots of Fire fame.
Giovanni in Medical School
During my time in Tanzania our friendship developed. He took me climbing and literally showed me
the ropes. Dr. Balletto was very old
school, so I didn’t learn much of the modern technical techniques. He said, “If you can’t get up a pitch with
more than a piton, a rope and a carabiner, you shouldn’t be climbing on
it. He showed me how to do an abseil on (descent or rappel) a rope without any hardware. There’s a
saying that you have to have leather balls to play rugby, the same goes for
that kind of abseil.
After I finished my term in the Peace Corps we continued to
write, and I even sent an army buddy down to Tanzania who wanted to climb
Kilimanjaro with an introduction to Dr. Balletto.
Years later in 1972 I was planning a trip back to Tanzania to help a father from my hometown in Ohio to look for his son who had been lost and presumably had died on Kilimanjaro. A few months later I received news that Dr. Balletto had
committed suicide. I knew he had
suffered from depression for years after his wife had left him. But I didn’t know the depths to where it had
taken him. I later learned that he had
fathered a child with a local woman, and when he went to the bishop to get
permission to marry her, he was refused, because his first wife had divorced him. In those days there was no way around canonic
law.
So when I did get back to Tanzania I took the opportunity to visit the mother of
Giovanni’s child and little Giovanni who would use the name John as an adult.
She was kind enough to give me some of his photographic collection. Below is a picture of the three of us.
Thirty-five years later in 2007, I had the opportunity to return again to the Kilimanjaro area
and decided I would visit Giovanni’s gravesite.
I was writing a small travel blog for my family and friends.
Here is my entry from that blog:
Sitting at Dr. Balletto's Grave
I walked out at 10am this morning after doing
some errands in town, bus ticket to Dar, Swahili dictionary, library, etc. I
had come out part way last night by taxi but didn't go far enough and so did
not make it to the graveyard. This time when I asked directions my version of 'cemetery' makbunini was slightly
different from the local makburini.
There were some gravediggers hard at work near the entrance and I asked them how well they knew the 'makburini' , and one right away knew where Dr. Balletto's grave was located. People seem to be buried chronologically, because there are few if any family plots. No wazungu (European) families are very prominent here. The grave had a white terrazo roman cross and stone plaque: Dott Giovanni Balletto 1906-1972. He was 66 when he died. I knew him when he was 60 and I was 23. He seemed much older than that to me. There is a rectangular planter over the grave. The dirt in the center allows for planting of flowers. I cleaned out weeds as best I could but left undisturbed some straw flowers that come from the alpine zone of the mountain that some kind person must have planted. This man was important to me. He showed me patience and caring. He had lived a good adventure, but he was human with his depression. He seems to have found a way out of it with his lover and child, but the rules of Rome did not allow a marriage of this sort.
I wrote a note to his son, Giovanni and put it in a plastic box.
To Young Giovanni
If you visit your father's grave, someday, you may find this note. I was 23 when I met your father in 1966. He taught me many things about climbing, and about Kilimanjaro, and about his native land. He was a good man and good for Africa. I hope that you understand his greatness and that you can accept his choosing to leave you before he could teach you the things he taught to me when he was a happier man. George Brose
After writing the note to Giovanni, I walked through the cemetery some more and found the WW I graves of 88 Soldiers almost all from the South African Infantry. Black soldiers were buried beside the whites. March 19 and 21 , 1916 were particularly bad days for them as most of the deaths came on those two days. It was probably at the battle for Tanga on the coast. Why they were buried here (100 miles distant) is anybody's guess. I will have to confirm those dates. * see additional info on this below
From those three paragraphs, I received a number of queries about what I had written.
One of the questioners was an Italian writer Roberto Bui who publishes books in consortium
with two other writers. Their nom de plume is Wu Ming. I never saw one of their books until a few
days ago in the free rack at the library and grabbed it. The title is “Altai”. It takes place in 16th century Venice and Istanbul. It is a wonderful story of the politics of
the eastern Mediterranean in those days, clash and cooperation of faiths, the intrigues,
the changing of sides to survive for the Sephardim recently expelled from
Spain, the influence of all these faiths and cultures that is no less complex
today.
Wu Ming was interested in the Mt. Kenya adventure and asked for any details I could provide. I also received a request for similar material from the former Australian ambassador to Italy. He too was researching the story. He did finally publish a book about the adventure, but to my understanding it has not yet been translated into English.
But the most interesting letter came from an Argentinian law student, Juan Pablo Bassi, who confided that Dr. Balletto had been his grandmother’s lover in Italy in the 1930’s, and that they had climbed together in the Dolomites in Italy. He sent along pictures as proof. He related that his grandmother had told him many tales of climbing in Italy. She was still alive but now dementia had set in, and she could no longer tell the stories. In gratitude I sent him a Spanish translation of “No Picnic on Mt. Kenya”. His family now runs a touring business in Argentina if you ever want to go to the Andes or explore Patagonia.
Photos of Giovanni and Leila in Italy 1930's provided by Leila's grandson in Argentina
And so that is my story of how the free books at the library
have brought me full circle back to my days in the Peace Corps and the wonderful story of Giovanni Balletto.
In the past year, 2025, I learned that Giovanni's son, then using the English version of his name 'John' has died. He had run a successful safari business out of the town of Arusha in northern Tanzania.
Below are some of the pictures taken by Dr. Balletto on Mt. Kilimanjaro. He had a small darkroom in his camper and did the developing and enlargements in the shower stall. He used a Roliflex camera.
Below is a transcription and analysis of the letter by an AI source, Gemini on Google
This is a remarkable piece of mountaineering history. Dr. Giovanni Balletto’s role in the 1943 escape and ascent of Mount Kenya is legendary, and this letter captures that same enduring passion for the peaks.
The handwriting is a stylized cursive, and while a few specific local place names or Swahili-derived terms are slightly ambiguous, the intent is clear. Here is the transcription of both pages.
Transcription: Letter from Giovanni Balletto (1967)
Page 1
Himo [Top right, partially obscured] 27/6/67
Dear George,
Thank you for your letter of June the 9th and congratulations for your Toweri climb. I shall return the equipment and the Toweri hut book at the next club meeting.
I have decided to accept your kind invitation for the Loitokitok and I shall be at Loitokitok on Thursday the 6th sometimes in the evening. I’ll bring my own camp bed in case you cannot spare one. I would like to go as far as the Tarn so that we could leave on Friday morning and I have with me all my food for the mountain trip. Perhaps if you ask the Singh you could get a porter for me — just one.
Also I should be back from the mountain on Sunday afternoon early in order to be at my place in the evening.
Page 2 (Reverse & Aerogramme)
[Top Section - Address Details]
To: Mr. George Brose, c/o Outward Bound Mountain School, P.O. Loitokitok, (KENYA)
From: Dr. G. M. Balletto, P.O. Box 1512, Himo, Moshi, Tanzania.
[Lower Section - Letter Continuation]
So see you soon —
Yours, Giovanni Balletto
P.S. The Toweri Hut Book is most valuable because it contains the only record of Toweri via the East wall first climbed in 1965.
Contextual Notes
Toweri: Refers to Mawenzi (often spelled Mawentzi or Toweri in older records), the second-highest peak of Kilimanjaro.
Loitokitok: The location of the Outward Bound Mountain School in Kenya, a famous starting point for Kilimanjaro expeditions.
The Singh: Likely a reference to a specific local contact or organizer at the school or a nearby depot.
The East Wall: Balletto’s postscript highlights his meticulous nature as a climber, recognizing the historical importance of documenting new routes.
It’s incredible to see him still so active in the climbing community more than 20 years after his famous POW escape.
Above: A letter from Dr. Balletto dated Feb. 2, 1968
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