Rejoice and Francis Tapon: A love of life, travel and each other

SALISBURY — The longer I live in Salisbury the less I feel the need to travel. As one local friend said, there is no need to go anywhere else because eventually everyone you will ever want to meet will come here. Of course they will — even travel champions Francis and Rejoice Tapon, who climbed nearly all of the tallest peaks in Africa before arriving in Salisbury last week. 

When Lloyd Baroody of Lakeville asked the Rev. Diane Monti-Catania if his friend Francis Tapon could give a talk, she graciously invited him to speak at the Salisbury Congregational Church. He spoke on Sunday, July 22, about the importance that travel has had in his life. 

I interviewed Tapon and his wife, Rejoice, at the home of their hosts, Lloyd and Zeina Baroody, in Lakeville. They had just arrived from New York after a month in Europe to acclimate Rejoice to the world outside of Africa. Rejoice said she could not understand why anyone would live in New York City if they could live in a place like Salisbury. We became fast friends.  

Francis, son of a French father and a Chilean mother, grew up in San Francisco, Calif., and  was educated at Amherst and Harvard Business School. He was in the middle of an unfulfilling career in Silicon Valley when he decided to change his life. Since leaving the corporate world he has walked across the United States four times via its three major mountain ranges; hiked  from Mexico to Canada and back on the Continental Divide Trail; thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail; did the Appalachian Trail from north to south; walked across Spain twice; and traveled through every country in Eastern Europe. He wrote a self-help book about hiking the Appalachian Trail, “Hike Your Own Hike,” and a travel narrative called “The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.” 

At Harvard Business School, Tapon said, the question was “How can I make a billion dollars?” What Tapon is more interested in now is how to spend your time if you had made a billion dollars ( he has not) and the answer for him would be travel. 

After traveling the U.S. and 40 countries in Europe (his 2012 TEDx talk, “How and Why Travel Transforms You,” has more than 500,000 views), Tapon left the U.S. in 2013 with the goal of climbing the tallest peak in all 54 African countries. 

After climbing 19 of these peaks he met his future wife in Cameroon. Rejoice is an unusually brave and independent spirit who had escaped female genital mutilation and a marriage arranged for her when she was 12. She endured hardships unimaginable to most of us in the United States, was orphaned at 14 and eventually changed her Muslim name to Rejoice.  

After marrying in 2016, the couple climbed 31 African peaks together.  Tapon nearly achieved his goal of reaching the summit of the tallest peak in 54 countries but four of those countries would not grant him entry. 

Tapon is most at home in nature but he has not ignored the internet. He has a presence on Twitter, Instagram and an interactive website at www.francistapon.com. When Rejoice said yes to his proposal at the top of Victoria Falls and they both took the bungee plunge, it can be seen on YouTube. Pictures of their wedding in the clothes that her family meant for her arranged marriage are also online. 

His hiking tips and more can be found on his website — but the most important advice is to travel light so you can be fast on your feet.  

Rejoice told me that she hiked those mountains wearing her normal sneakers and regular clothes (no special Patagonia gear for this true adventurer) and she said that in all of her travels she did not fear any animal danger — only the danger of other human beings.