The Best Birthday Weekend Of My Life Thus Far

June 26th

This morning I woke up really early so that I could talk to my family for my birthday. It wasn’t a long talk, but it was still really nice to get to talk to mom, dad, and Ally. After I finished talking with them, I couldn’t go back to sleep so when it was finally time to start driving I ended up sleeping most of the way. Our safari group was small compared to others, most groups have 5 to 7 people, my group had me, Emily (a girl from Ohio), Jessie (a girl from Oregon), Gabby (a girl from Texas and a proud member of the UT marching band), and Jayan (the Ugandan girl who runs the sarfari part of Empower A Child and who took care of all the details the whole trip). We stopped on the side of the road again to get more of the roasted goat I love so much and Jayan also bought us some roast bananas-also extremely good. For lunch we stopped at a tourist hotel in Masindi. I had somosas (the Ugandan version of the hot pocket) and fried tilapia both of which we were really good. It took us about 3 hours to get to Masindi and it took us another hour to get to the park.

Murchison Park is huge-our guide told us on Saturday that it is approximately 4,000 square kilometers. After we got to the entrance to the park, it still took us almost an hour to get to the falls we were going to hike. After arriving and quickly applying some sunscreen, we headed out to hike to the top of Murchison falls. Our guide’s name was Simon and first he took us to the bottom of the falls and then an easy 30 minute hike to the top. We got to see 2 different falls and part of the Nile. It was absolutely breathtaking! We took a lot of pictures, but I really don’t think the pictures did it any justice at all.

When you look at something like that, it really shows you the glory and awesomeness of God. When I was looking at that waterfall all I could think to myself was, “How could someone look at this and doubt the existence of God?” It really was a view that left me awestruck by my Creator.

After the hike, we drove almost another hour to get to our campsite, The Red Chili Camp. We stayed in these cute little two bedroom cabins. Emily and I stayed together in Civet cabin. There were also community baths, but the showers in them actually had water (cold) that fell on you and toilets that flushed all the time! It was great!

For dinner I got some really good spaghetti and some banana custard for my birthday. The food at the campsite was so good!

Overall, today was an absolutely fantastic birthday. I honestly feel bad for my future husband-its going to be really hard to top this birthday. I really am so blessed with everything that God has given me. Thank you guys so much for supporting me and this trip so that I could have this opportunity. You guys are awesome!

June 27th

The Red Chili Camp turns off their generator from 11 at night to 8 in the morning. This means that: 1. I had to walk in the dark by myself to go to the bathroom last night (scary!) and that 2. Emily and I had to get ready by candlelight this morning. It was very Little House On The Prairie.

We headed to the ferry about 5 minutes from our campsite at around 7. The ferry takes you across the Nile to the game drive. We had to wait a little while for our turn, but while we were waiting, we got to see a beautiful sunrise. I love the sunrises here, they are always to beautiful! Or, it might just be that I actually take the time to notice their beauty here.

On the other side of the Nile, we picked up Frank, our guide and a park ranger. We also had the manager of Red Chili, Emma (Immanuel), driving with us. A little ways into the drive, Frank and Jayan let us pop up the top of the van and get on top. Emily and I sat in the front and the rest of the girls sat in the back. While the seat wasn’t the most comfortable, the view was incredible. The park literally goes on farther than your eyes can see. It’s just miles and miles of trees and grass and hills and the Nile. God’s Creation never ceased to amaze me this weekend.

The very first thing we saw on our safari was giraffes. I am pretty sure it was God’s birthday present to me. Giraffes are my favorite animal and in the US, it was still my birthday, so I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. The giraffes were literally less than 100 yards away from the van. It was incredible and I got some great pictures!

While we were in the park, we went on a hunt for lions. They are the hardest animal in the park to find. Frank took us to all the places that lions might be, but unfortunately they weren’t out because it rained a little the night before.

While on our hunt we got to see all the animals you typically see on a safari in this park: Monitor lizard, baboons, warthogs, Jackson heartbeast, Waterbuck, Ugandan Kob, Oribi, Water Buffalo, and Egrets. We also saw a bunch of birds, but the only 2 whose name I can remember is the Kingfisher and the Snake bird.

The animals were literally right next to our car. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

A little while into our hunt we found another herd of giraffes, and these ones were even closer to our van. Less than 50 yards. I almost peed my pants with excitement. I can’t wait to show you guys the pictures.

Towards the end of our safari, Emily and I begged Frank to let us have some bones. Technically, taking bones from the park is illegal because it is a national park, but Frank loved us, so he said it was alright as long as we didn’t tell any of the other park rangers. Frank found us a lion kill pile and let us pick some bones out-Emily tried to take a giant leg bone and I tried to take the skull, but Frank made us go for something smaller, so I took a jaw bone, a spine bone, and what appears to be an arm bone. My mom (the biology nerd) is going to love them.

It was good that Frank didn’t let us take the big bones anyways, later on we gave a Ugandan military officer with a giant gun a ride back to the ferry. We were able to hide our small bones in our bags, but I don’t think I would have been able to hide the skull from him. We would have gotten into huge trouble!

While we were stopping to get bones, I really needed to pee, so I squatted behind a tree. I tell you this so that I can tell you the following: I am probably one of the only people (if not the only person) who has ever peed behind a tree next to a lion kill and then taken a few bones illegally from said lion kill. You should feel honored that you know me.

We had to head back to the ferry around lunch time so that we could make our boat trip. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in finding lions or elephants today, but while we were waiting for the ferry, a baboon came and took our driver, Patrick’s, donuts from the van. It was hilarious. We gave him some bananas too.
Lunch at the camp was tropical burgers-hamburger with bacon, cheese, and pineapple. I know it doesn’t sound good, but it was incredible. Do me a favor and try some pineapple on your burger this 4th of July. You won’t regret it.

After lunch, we headed out the boat part of the safari. The boat ride was 3 hours to the bottom of Murchison falls. It was really nice and relaxing. Our guide, Captain Nelson, also loved me and Emily. He would point out animals to only us and whenever he saw that we were trying to take pictures, he would slow down or sometimes even stop the boat.

Along the way we got to see a few elephants from a far off distance, a ton of hippos, a few crocodiles, the Nyamisiki cliffs, and a ton of birds. We got to go really close to the bottom of the falls-only 700 meters away. We got to stop and get out on this small island and take some pictures. It was a really beautiful view.

Dinner was pork sausage and cinnamon and sugar pancakes for desert. The food continued to not disappoint.

I also accidently ripped off the scab on my elbow. It bled everywhere. I tried to find hydrogen peroxide and some band aids. It was like trying to pull teeth. Africans don’t believe in hydrogen peroxide and I don’t know what their problem with band aids is, but it literally took me an hour to get it all cleaned up.

I also took a shower in a different bathroom than the one I used last night. Tonight’s shower had bugs and birds flying everywhere. Also, last night’s shower was separated into boys and girls showers. I didn’t know that this one wasn’t until I walked out of the shower in my towel and found 2 boys staring back at me. It was embarrassing.

Lastly, when I got back to the cabin, there were probably 50 or so dead bugs on my bed. It was disgusting. Emily and I couldn’t figure out what killed them, but I’m sleeping on whatever it was that did them in. How comforting!

Besides these minor mishaps, today was seriously one of the coolest days of my life. I am so outrageously, incredibly, awesomely blessed. Words can’t even describe it.

Some fun animal facts I learned today:

• Egrets, although they look like baby deer, are actually fully grown.
• Jackson heartbeast have a 10 minute memory-they can literally have a lion eat a member of their herd and go back to the same location 10 minutes later because they don’t remember what happened there.
• Sausage trees are trees that have these fruits that look like sausages (creative naming I know) hanging from them. Elephants and rhinos like to eat these fruits and get drunk.
• All the palm trees we saw were not native to the area. The elephants pooped the seeds for the palm trees when they were migrating from Sudan.
• Giraffes live to be approximately 35 years old. At 20 their spots start to turn darker and they start to separate from the herd until they are living completely alone.
• In crocodiles the males are a darker green
• Elephants can take in 200 liters of water

June 28th

This morning we got up early and got ready by candle light again. We had some breakfast and rode the ferry across. We convinced (although I’m pretty sure he wanted to) Henry to be our guide again. Only about 15 minutes into the drive we saw a group of 5 lions-2 boys and 3 girls. They were just lounging around. It was awesome.

A little while later we saw a female lion by itself. Henry taught us how to tell if lions are around. If Kobs start to walk in a straight line, then you know lions are around. After that, Emily and I were able to find another female lion by itself a little later. Although we couldn’t get super close, Henry did let Patrick drive off the trail (also against the rules) so that we could get a closer look. We got as close as we could without it being dangerous. It was awesome.

After our lion encounter it started to rain, but we were still able to find some elephants getting water from the river. One of the elephants went and hid as soon as we pulled up, but we got right next to the other. He was a huge (Henry said he was the alpha) male. We literally were about 30 yards away. It made him a little unhappy that we got so close because he ended up charging after our car. We had to get out of there fast-but it was still awesome!

We also saw 2 more herds of giraffes. We were less than 30 yards away from both. One of them had 18 giraffes-and a few of those were babies. They were so cute!

Henry also saw a leopard. He tried to show it to us but it jumped out of the tree before he could. It is very rare to see a leopard on safari. Jayan takes people on safari 2 or 3 times a month and she has only seen 2.

On the way back to the ferry, Henry let me take a picture with his gigantic gun-my dad is going to be so proud!

After the drive I had another tropical burger for lunch and then we made the 5 hour drive back home. I finished Ragamuffin Gospel on the way home. You should really read it. It is one of the best books I have read in a while.

When we got back home, the foam at the bottom of the waterfalls had left me and Emily craving coke floats, so we went to the store and got some ice cream and coke and had coke floats while we watched the USA take on Brazil. Ivan found a TV and hooked it up to the cable for me for a late birthday present. Even though the US lost in the last 6 minutes, it was still fun to watch the game with everyone.

This was definitely one of the best birthday weekends ever!