Weekend in Jinja: Rafting the Nile and Bungee Jumping

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you had an amazing weekend! My weekend was one of the best so far. The USP (Uganda Studies Program) students planned a white water rafting/bungee jumping trip to a town called Jinja (where we’ve visited before, but for class reasons). We left on Friday afternoon and went to a hostel in Jinja. It was surprisingly nice. The beds were comfy, the rooms weren’t too crowded, and we were practically the only group there. 26 students went on the trip. We were a mix of students staying in host families and students staying on campus, so it was a good opportunity to hang out with some people I haven’t really gotten to know this semester.

We arrived on Friday night and had dinner and hung out in the awesome bar/hang out/pool table room. Dinner was super good, and then we just chilled out. Chilling is a very American college student thing to do, especially when you live on campus, but living in a host family this semester hasn’t left very much time to just “chill” with my friends. It was really relaxing and liberating not to have to worry anything or anyone. Early Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast. It was toast, eggs, pineapple, watermelon…I was in heaven!

After breakfast we headed out to the Nile River to begin our day of rafting. We split up into groups of 5 and 6 and each group was sent to a raft and a guide. Our guide’s name was Paulo. He was a world championship kayaker and rafter, so quite the professional. This was comforting considering this was most of our first time white water rafting, and we were going on a grade 5 trip, which means we were starting at the highest level. Nothing like jumping right in. After some basic training, which consisted of learning some of the commands Paulo would be shouting at us and learning how to get back in the raft/help a friend get back into the raft, we were on our way. We conquered twelve rapids in all; several of them grade 4s and 5s, with a couple of grade ones and twos or threes. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time.

My raft flipped over on three out of the first four rapids. I got hit in the face with the paddle, thrown so far from the raft that I had to have a kayaker come and rescue me, and pushed under the water so far that I ran out of breath before I could surface. The worst flip we had some of my teammates landed on top of me and unintentionally held me under for a while. That was the only time I was seriously scared. Otherwise, it was a lot of a fun and I would definitely do it again, especially since I know what to expect now. Some of the more fun parts were when we successfully made it down a waterfall going backwards, without flipping over, and when Paulo had us all stand on the edges of the raft, bend our knees a bit, and hold onto each other while he steered us through a level two rapid—and we actually held our balance! He said we were one of a few groups who had ever succeeded in doing this. We also had the opportunity between rapids to swim in the Nile.

On Sunday we went bungee jumping. I didn’t think I was going to go initially because they tied the cord around your ankles, and I didn’t know how that would affect my knees, but then when we were getting ready to leave, I found out you could use a harness to jump and I could actually go. I raced up the platform and asked if I could still jump. The guys working the platform said yes and immediately began to hook me up. I hardly had time to think or psyche myself up (or out)…so maybe this was a good thing. When jumping with a harness, you have to take a running start and leap out from the platform as far as possible holding the cord in front of you…if you don’t leap far enough (or falter and fall) or if you let the cord go, you will get smacked in the face with the metal karabiner. I backed up to the corner of the platform, and then heard “3-2-1 BUNGEE!!!” On 1, I took off running, hit the edge of the platform, and pushed off into the air. The platform was over the Nile River. It was around 160 feet high. The best part by far was the initial running, jumping, and flying. The fall itself was so scary. It was like roller coaster times fifty. But I am glad to have the experience. I knew if I didn’t go after finding out about the harness that I would regret it forever.

So that was my sweet weekend. I would love to raft again, and think I could probably talk myself into jumping again in the future as well. Time here in Uganda is winding down. I just want it to go slower! This is week ten of 16. We are travelling on an Aids trip to Luweero (a town a couple of hours away) this weekend, so it will be a rough trip. Then the first weekend of April we are going on a weekend safari (like 8 hours away!). I only have 3-4 weekends left with my host family, which is hard to think about. I am just now starting to feel like a true part of the family, falling in love with all of the people, accepting them unconditionally and feeling the same kind of acceptance. It will be hard to leave them. At the end of April, we are going to spend 1-2 weeks in Rwanda studying the genocide and doing some work with some churches. Then it’s time for a couple of days of debrief before heading back to the States. I can’t believe I’m already more than halfway through the semester and these last weeks are coming so fast.

Alright. That’s all for now. Sorry I haven’t been able to load pictures for the past several weeks. Internet here just hasn’t been working very well. It takes forever just to write emails and post blogs and facebook picture uploader fails every time. If I don’t get them posted while I’m here, I’ll post a bunch when I get home in May so you can see them.