Naked in the Nile

What a wonderful weekend I had! Friday afternoon a group of seven of us headed out to Uganda to go white-water rafting on the Nile. I hope all you know what that is, because I'm tired of explaining it. Kenyans have no idea what rafting is, let alone "rapids," or "white water," or even "water fall." In general they stay away from that river and any type of excess adventure.

We had a great, and safe, time. Uganda is significantly less developed than Kenya, but far more lush over all. Everything is green and over-grown and incredibly beautiful. It's unlike any type of landscape in the US that I have seen so far.

We had an amazing dinner in Jinja on Friday night. It's always so nice to get a break from ugali and kale and have some American-leaning food. Saturday morning we had another amazing breakfast then headed out to the water. There was a big inflatable but very sturdy raft with seven of us Americans. Then of course there is a guide; someone who steers the boat and directs us on how to paddle, when to "GET DOWN!!!" etc. He was actually Australian and very cool. The first day there were about 8 rapids. It's pretty nerve-racking, because if you fall out, you're in for a swim. It's not necessarily unsafe to fall out, because the Nile has a lot of warm water but no rocks. But it's that warm water that will really get you. For instance:

On Silverback, the rapid with the greatest volume of water flowing through it in the world, we had to nail a waterfall perfectly in order to not flip the raft. The guide is yelling, "forward! forward!" and we're all trying to paddle together in order to nail it perfectly. All of a sudden we see the big drop we have to hit. And we hit it. Of course I close my eyes so I'm not really sure how we fall, but all of a sudden I'm in the water. I get pulled under for quite a while, and then I can feel the water spinning me in circles. I get up for a breath of air, and pulled down again. Slowly I get pulled out of the rapid and can get a few breaths of air until finally I'm back with the boat. I was the only one to fall out! I was fine and apparently I had a giant booger on my face.

The only downside to this was that I really didn't want to fall out for the rest of the trip. We had a relatively easy day, then stayed at The Haven, which was a sweet resort along the Nile. The view was gorgeous. We ate an amazing three-course dinner. That night one of the Americans got pretty sick though, so she had to go back the next day (maybe too much sun, maybe a stomach bug).

On the second day of rapids (Sunday), I had to really psych myself up for all the rapids and the knowledge that I might fall in again. But this time I decided to hang on for dear life and to keep my eyes open. When you're going through a rapid, you can see water crashing up in all directions. The raft goes nearly vertical, and you're thrown around. It's amazing when you can see what's going on - and the victory is so much sweeter when you know how crazy the rapid was and the fact that you're still hanging on!

I didn't fall again on the trip, but everyone else fell at least once except for Ashley. All in all it was amazing! I ate great food, I saw amazing scenery, and I kicked ass on the river. I didn't even get sunburnt.

And of course what you're probably wondering: why naked in the Nile? Skinny dipping, of course!