Paddle Through

June 15th, 2008 by ehamsher

Good morning all, and Happy Fathers Day to all of you dads. I’m currently sitting in Kampala at Garden City, so the frustration that usually comes with internet use in Mukono has been washed away by the more up to date (in Ugandan standards) internet cafe here.
I am beat up and sore from rafting yesterday, but still feeling the exhilaration. I have done a handful of rafting trips before in WV, but the whitewater we faced yesterday on the Nile was brutal. We hit a good deal of Class 4 and Class 5 rapids, two of which flipped our raft, leaving us to fend for ourselves in the brute of the whitewater. There were a couple of scary moments when I would get pounded underneath the water by a rapid, then just when I thought I could finally grab a breath I would be pushed back under. No worries though, the safety precautions were high. The rafting company had about 25 kayakers that stayed with us through rapids, so when we were flipped we could get pulled up out of the water more quickly by a kayaker who would get us back to a raft. Our guide was a man from Zimbabwe, and he was probably one of the most chill people I have ever met. He got a kick out of our raft, which consisted of Robbie, a very white Englishman who is as red as a tomato today from the sunburn, Jay, a strong Englishman/Canadian who went to school in the states, Yui from Japan, Gen from Australia, Courtney and Tama from Kentucky, Kira from Canada, and then me. Our humor was relentless. As we rafted through the more still areas of water, I found myself looking around and getting hit with the “I’m sitting on the Nile River in the middle of Africa” realizations. It all seems so surreal. I think everyone had a really good time though, despite bumps, bruises, cuts, and sore bums from sitting on the side of the raft all day. I took a good chunk out of one of my finger tips on what I would assume was a rock at one point when I was out of the raft through a rapid, so my hand looks a bit gruesome. Hopefully it would fix itself up though, I’m just keeping it clean and sanitary.
After the rafting finished up we jumped in the back of one of the company’s pickup trucks and rode the 45 minutes back to Jinja to a campsite for a barbeque. I drank a good bit of Nile River water during the day though, so I wasn’t feeling up to par. The ride back to the campsite was an experience. I felt like we were on parade as families came out of their homes to watch us drive by and wave.
I think yesterday was a really challenging experience for me. Some of the rapids were really intimidating, but I feel really refreshed today. I find myself growing stronger as a person each day I am here, and becoming more grateful for everything that I have in my own life at home. Time is flying by here, and I was I could extend my time to fully experience everything that Uganda has to offer, as cheesy as it sound. I already know that I will be back.
Tomorrow Gen and I are not scheduled at Our Lady, so we will be heading to Tama’s site, a center for kids that have physical or mental disabilities. It is much more of a day care than an actual school, so it should be fun to just play with kids who know nothing but the simpleness of life. I should have some good stories to follow up on that trip, so I will talk to you all soon. Wishing you the best. Love.