Nebaza Katonda: Part I

"Just being here is really epic"

At the tone, it will be 1:05pm and the call to prayer will have already sounded from the hill. As a team, we keep on realizing we've only been here a little over a week, but it seems like AGES! A week is an age and a semester is a lifetime.
"We're going rafting tomorrow!"
I was really concerned about going rafting on the Nile. I've been white water rafting before on class III's and IV's, but the Nile was class V, and apparently a lot of people had flipped with the company we were going with. To put things into context--class VI's are unraftable. Julia, our R.D., was hesitant about us going and Julia and Kenny the most hardcore married couple I have ever met. Julia was proposed to after sky-diving, and after this couple tied the knot, they hiked the Appalachian trail. THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL. If Julia was hestiant about it...
Class IV's are a blast, but I didn't even know what class V's looked like, let alone what it was like to go down one. So we looked it up online: And I quote:

"Extremely difficult. Long and violent rapids that follow each other almost without interruption. River filled with obstructions. Big drops and violent currents. Extremely steep gradient. Even reconnoitering may be difficult. Rescue preparations mandatory."

((sigh)) We're going rafting tomorrow. The bus picked up at the guesthouse to take us to Jinja and an hour and half later we met the other British, Irish, Aussie, Kiwi, Canadian, French, and American Mzungu's at the company's base located on thesource of the Nile. Apparently, such sports are only preferred by westerners. [Observation: All of the westerners I meet are doing development or medical assistance. It seems like the whole western world is out to "help Africa". I wonder where are all the Africans?] If there was a Ugandan around, they were photographers and guides. We split up into teams of eight, and I rafted with a few Brits volunteering in a medical clinic in Kenya, an Irish girl tagging along with them, an Aussie geophysicist (the only male) taking a vacation on someone else's dime, and Allison and Rebecca from the GoEd team. No joke: my boat spent about 6 hours talking about tanning. I kept quiet and watched birds. Our guide was Tou Tou, an energetic, ugandan man with huge biceps and several missing teeth. I wondered if this was from dental hygiene, or a few unsavory encounters with the rapids. I never asked.
Rafting was intense, but sOo fun! The forest and wildlife, to say the least, were stunning. Children waved to us from the bank. We went over a waterfall, paddled through eddies, had lunch on an island, and at the last serious rapid, we opted to do "The Bad Place". The Bad Place is a V rapid with 100% flip rate, and when you fall out, you can be sucked down for 15-19 seconds. After watching everyone else flip on the "Big Brother" and "Overtime", I just couldn't miss out! And I figured, (shrug) if I died on this, at least it would be cool. oh, youth.

"HOLD ONNNNNNN!!!" Tou Tou shouted. We fell straight into the rapid and I could feel the back of the raft lift. Being in the front, gallons of water splashed into my face and I was launched into the surge. I flipped around a bit and came up to the surface quickly (thanks life jackets!) but met walls and walls of waves every time I came to inhale a good breath of air. I kept my legs up like a canoe ("straight like a canoe!) to avoid getting scraps on unseen rocks. As I was swept further down stream, to where the rescue kayaks awaited, I began laughing. It was the most insane thing I have ever done in my life. I felt like I was drowing for a minute but I survived. I am a crazy person.

"Roe, we did it!"

On the bus home, I felt nothing but exhaustion and contentment. I rafted the Nile.

"Just being here is really epic," Allison quipped in a conversation going on in the back of the bus. I took note and shut my eyes.