Adventure!

What an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime weekend! This past weekend we went white water rafting on the Nile River. It was a beautiful experience. I was in a raft with Joy, Jess L, Mindie, Jenny, Kristen, a Frenchman (Pierre), an Irishman (Steven), and an Englishman guide (Clarkey). We had a lot of fun together, as well as some interesting conversations about worldviews and beliefs. I also did my very first backflips off the raft into the water. It was a lot easier than I expected. There were some funny misunderstandings due to strong accents- it turns out that what Mindie thought was the “man falls” was actually the “main” falls, and the “bullflies” were in fact “butterflies”. We had some incredible class 5 rapids, and one was a legitimate waterfall! Our team didn’t flip until the very last rapid, called “The Bad Place”, where flipping is inevitable. I was underwater, being tossed around like a ragdoll for several seconds until I resurfaced and grabbed my bearings. What a thrill! I loved the entire day- there were some tense moments, but many relaxing and enjoyable ones as well.

When we got back to the Adrift camp we took hot showers ( heated by an outdoor wood stove), then bought some charcoal and worked hard to get hot coals without any lighter fluid. We roasted sausages and baked potatoes- they were delicious since we were so hungry! We were able to share some extras with our friends from the rafting company. After watching a video recapping the day 12 of us girls (Danielle was home sick with a nasty virus) piled into the lodge for a good night’s sleep on a rickety tower of bunks. I would’ve slept well except for my incredibly sunburnt knees! Yesterday morning several of our group bungee jumped, which was super fun to watch. I would’ve loved to do that, but I had already spent enough money on the rafting!

It was a good team bonding experience! It was, however, hard to reconcile the fact that I had spent more money on one day of fun than the many Africans doing laundry and bathing along the banks of the Nile would see in a year.

Today we went back to classes. For lunch today I had some good “Rolex”- fried egg wrapped in a chapati. After the afternoon class Tessa and I did a bit of exploring in near the taxi park and bought some fabric to have some African dresses made for us.