Newest installment

A few more happenings… Soon everything will seem a lot less new, so I will likely have less to report. In the meantime, however, here goes!

The last email update covered through Monday… But, as per usual with my experiences here, the last two and a half days have been fairly full of new things. (As an interesting tidbit… where I email from is called “The Source” Café. Most people think that this is for the “The Source” of the Nile. But no, it is for “the Source of life” – Jesus Christ. This place is run by, and hopping with, Latter Day Saints folks and plenty of other non-denominational people – almost all from the states – all on missions. It is a very interesting place to be! I can feel folks eyeing me – wondering if I need saving!)

On Monday, I did emails for six hours. The internet is slower than even dial-up. If that isn’t amazing… Then, I headed back to Nile River Explorers to do some laundry. Betty – the laundry lady – is a real sweetheart. I had her show me how to do laundry – by hand. Ladies here really do a much better job cleaning clothes than I do! So, there is no better time or place to learn. Betty was a kick – she thought it was so funny that a mzungu (white person) would want to learn how to wash clothes – and still pay her for her services! Anyway, she was quite taken with me (and I with her!), and we had quite a good laugh over the course of the evening. She charged 3000USh for two weeks worth of laundry – appx $2. Hand washing clothes is hard work. It is no wonder why people are in good shape! Everything takes such work to do – get water, have electricity, clean floors, wash clothes, make food… From that point on, she kinda’ took me under her wing. Every time she saw me Monday, Tuesday, and this morning, she came over to give me a hug and kiss… hold my hand… do motherly reminders (don’t forget to do… you should…).

That evening, the group of 30 high schoolers decided that it would be a good idea to get smashed after their chaperones went to bed. The problem was that I knew they were drunk – they were throwing up by my tent, talking about how drunk they were, and having lots of mini-dramas. Rather than deal with it that evening (I was sure a chaperone would wake-up!), I decided to try to sleep. Needless to say, I did not sleep well but turned the group into the lead chaperone in the morning. Wowsers – what a talking to those kids got! Most were sophomores and juniors… As my new friend Susan says – this means that they will get smarter about when and where they drink. Probably! But that is not a good reason to act illegally.

Tuesday brought the Nile. This was one of those experiences which is marked by continuous adrenaline rushes. We rafted down 30 km of the Nile (something like 15 miles?). There was no time like the present to experience this for three reasons:

(1) In two years, these rapids will be gone because they are building a dam,
(2) my friend Susan, a doctor, was going – always good to have medical care readily available, and
(3) how cool is to raft the head of the Nile and cruise the foot of the Nile on the same trip?

For those of you who think you have power over water or nature – try whitewater rafting here. I have rarely felt so small and at the behest of some other force than yesterday. We did something like 16 – 20 different rapids, ranging from grade 2 – 5. We did four grade 5 rapids (the highest
classification that anyone can raft down), something like six grade 4 rapids, and the rest were grades 2 and 3. The grade 5 rapids flipped the raft every time save the last one. It is fairly intense to be speeding down the Nile only to come upon an 8 – 10 foot “wave” or pile of water…

Our guide would say something like – “hard forward, hard forward, hold on and get down!” Just typing those words makes my heart speed up. Weird. The goal was to ride the rapid with everyone still in the boat… But that is a tough one when the raft flips entirely and everyone is dumped out and into the water. For those of you worried about safety (Dad!), here are some
factoids to calm the nerves:

(1) There were four safety kayaks waiting at the base of each rapid, trained to come into the rapid and/or spot us ASAP. Each kayak can hold two people, so all people could be rescued if need be.
(2) In addition to the safety kayak, there was also a safety raft.
(3) The most common injury are broken fingers – from people holding the raft incorrectly. No one has died rafting down the Nile.
(4) The most serious injury was a broken femur. Within 20 minutes of the break, the man was in helicopter being airlifted to Kampala, hooked up to IVs and being treated.
(5) All guides and safety personnel are highly trained in standard CPR/first aid, water rescue, white-water rescue…
(6) My guide grew up near the Nile. He spent his youth going down the river (swimming) and over the rapids, holding only 20-gallon containers (no helmets or life preservers, as we were required to wear). He is currently the #1 kayaker in the world on the Nile. (They just had an international competition here, and he won. He also ranks top 20 in the world – even had
a magazine (with him on the cover) to prove it!) So, he knows the river pretty well. And he has been guiding raft trips down the Nile for 10 years.

Needless to say, I was anxious about the safety of the Nile. But, after doing a bunch of talking and research, I felt VERY confident about the safety of the experience. And, if anything went wrong, there were plenty of folks and resources to help.

Rafting down the Nile is likely something that I do not need to do again. While I felt safe, prepared, and secure, being at the mercy of such a powerful force is humbling and frightening. It is something like “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” and very influenced by the experience.

That evening, I headed out with a bunch of Soft Power volunteers to “2 Friends Café” to watch the England Sweden World Cup game. Soccer dominates life here. Most of the Soft Power people are British, so it was fun to watch it with them. I was fairly tuckered after the day, so I headed home early. After checking about the safety of walking home alone and getting directions, I headed off on foot. Expecting streetlights but finding none, my mind quickly got the best of me. It is REALLY dark here. I could hardly see my feet, let alone the turns! So, after trying to walk and getting a little turned around, I made it back to 2 Friends. Luckily Bright, the
chef, was heading home and lives near me. He took me home and everything seemed quite a bit less threatening with him there. The mind is a powerful thing!

Today has been about email and getting ready to head to Bujagali tomorrow and start volunteering… I am really excited but feel pretty comfortable here in Jinja… It will be nice to have the SAME base for four weeks. But, all the same, Jinja is a great little place. Very small, easy going, and not too much traffic (save the boda bodas!). Bujagali is appx 6 km from town. So, it is not impossible to get back – just a bit harder. We had dinner at Bujagali last night (as part of the raft experience), and it is beautiful.