Mom, You Might Want To Skip This One

Today was an awesome day! We woke up at 6 and left the house at 6:30. We went to the white water rafting office and got on the bus. All of the rich tourists get picked up by the bus at their hotels, so we had to spend about an hour going from hotel to hotel.

The part of Kampala they put in the tourists in is much different from the part I’m used to seeing. The streets are cleaner, the buildings are nicer, there is landscape around the buildings, and they even have professional street cleaners around. Today a woman with a Coach bag and Marc Jacob’s sunglasses was shocked by some of the slums we drove by. I don’t understand what part of Kampala she’s been in the whole time.

I know that was a very judgmental statement of me, but it really upset me.

Anyways, after we had picked everyone up, it took us about an hour and a half to get to Jinja, which is a city close to Lake Victoria, where the Nile River ends. The drive there was so beautiful! Hills and trees and untouched jungle areas. I didn’t take any pictures because we were driving, but it doesn’t matter, pictures don’t do it justice. You really just need to come see it yourself.

There were 7 of us white water rafting: Me, Louise, Jen, Brittany, Ashley, Anna, and Carissa. Ashley and Anna were also bungee jumping, so first, we watched them go. I am so glad I decided not to go; just watching them made me sick to my stomach. After they finished jumping we got our gear and met our guide.

Our guide, Nathan, was awesome! He is an Olympic kayaker and has also trained various military troops on how to raft at night. Additionally, many kayaking video companies have paid him to do films on famous falls around the world. In short, the guy knows what he is doing. Don’t be fooled either, because not all of the guides were that good. Our guide was the head guide of the all guides which made me feel a lot better. He was also very nice and funny. He did make some really vulgar jokes and comments, but mom asked me to keep my blogs PG, so I won’t share them with you.

Rafting down the Nile is awesome awesome awesome. There are Grade 1 through Grade 6 level rapids when white water rafting and today we got to do mostly 3s, 4s, and 5s. The girls who had been in the Colorado before said they only got to do 3s and a few 4s. Also, before they dammed up part of the river for energy producing purposes, the spot we were rafting in today was one of the top 5 rafting spots in the world. Finally, soon the entire river will be dammed up and rafting won’t be offered here anymore. It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

(Mom, you might want to skip this part)

The rapids were incredible. There were literally times when you are floating along and it looked like the river stopped, only it was just a big drop off. The rapids honestly didn’t look that scary when we approached them, but after finishing them and looking back we would all kind of look at each other and say “Holy crap I can’t believe we just did that”.

We bought a video today, so once I get back home, I’ll be able to show them to you. You won’t believe some of the spots we went down. If I hadn’t done them myself I probably wouldn’t believe them.

I really only had 3 incidents. One rapid I lost my paddle, and another I almost fell out but the guide pulled me back in.

The last one, our raft flipped over. The rapid we were going down is called 50/50 because on average, 50% of the rafts flip over on that rapid, and we were one of the 50%. You know when you dive into the pool and you try to come back up, but there is a floaty above you and you panic for a few seconds because you think you are drowning?

This was like that. On a much larger scale.

I didn’t have time to catch my breath before we flipped and when I tried to come back up the raft was on top of me. There were a few seconds (maybe 3 max, but it felt like a minute at least to me) where I didn’t think I was going to come to the top.

I really thought I might be meeting Jesus.

I think though that that is just the feeling that being underwater in rapids gives you, because everyone in our raft felt the same way.

With the exception of those 3 seconds, it was a blast. The only part that I didn’t like was waiting. Since Nathan was the leader of the guides, we were almost always the first group to arrive at the rapids and one of the last groups to go down. This meant that we waited at the pool above the rapids for a while. Waited and stared at the rapids we were about to go down. It was rather nerve racking.

At one point, we went down a 4 meter (I don’t know the conversion to feet) waterfall backwards! It was so awesome!

We also got to do some swimming in the Nile during the flat parts.

Include in our charge was all you can eat lunch and dinner. Lunch was sandwiches. Sandwiches with real cheese and real meat and real bread and real mayonnaise. I never thought I would appreciate a sandwich so much. Seriously. Dinner was chapatti and grilled meat and pineapples. We also got to try some Nile Special (African beer). It was awesome.

On the drive home, we went through more beautiful backcountry and saw an amazing African sunset. The drive was almost 2 hours long and on the way home I had a great chat with Brittney about life and ministry and our experience so far with Empower A Child.

Overall, it was a great great great day. A day that makes you really appreciate God’s creation. Every inch of the Nile River is beautiful!

Rafting does, however, take it out of you. I am completely spent and headed to bed.

Today’s word: Mazzi (ma zee) which means water.

Definitely swallowed plenty of Nile mazzi today,
Jenna