THE BAD PLACE...

Last weekend we went rafting down the Nile! I can't even begin to express how fun/terrifying it was. If you know anything about rafting, they rate each rapid on a number scale according to it's intensity. Class 5 is pretty much the highest class possible to raft and make it out alive--that's what we were rafting. Our team was split up onto two rafts. One of our guides was from New Zealand (what ever jungle fever we were starting to get was definitely washed clean in the river when we met him ;) and the other guide, the one on my raft, was a Canadian who was in the process of adopting a Ugandan orphan and had to stay in the country for three years in order to get custody of the child in Canada. He was a really cool guy and had been a guide for 10 years in Canada which was comforting. The first 4 hours of the trip I was having the time of my life! We were joking and playing and getting a thrill out of each of the rapids and waterfalls we crashed through. Swam in the Nile, accidentally drank some of the Nile, peed in the Nile, ate Pineapple in the Nile... But then we hit "The Bad Place."

The last rapid was literally named "The Bad Place." How terrifying is that! My raft renamed it "The Fluffy Bunny" to alleviate some of our fears, but it didn't help much, and in hind site, "The Bad Place" is the only name that fits. "Hold on guys, we're approaching the bad place, and just so you know, I've never made it through this rapid without flipping the raft." Well that's just peachy. Our guide pretty much told us flat out that we were going to get wet and rocked by the rapid. No lie, we did. No more than three seconds into the rapid we had flipped over and gotten sucked into the waves. Paddles and limbs were flailing everywhere. I felt like a rag doll spinning in a washing machine. Thank goodness I didn't get sucked into a whirlpool like some of the others. They were under for so long that one of them contemplated breathing water. I think I would have gone into shock and died. Fortunately, I got tumbled around for a while, popped up and took a huge gasp of 1/2 air 1/2 Nile water right as another wave crushed me back under again. This happened for a few minutes until finally I had floated out of the rapids and back to the raft. Whew! I survived the bad place with nothing other than a small scar of fear.

We ended on a slightly scarring note, but it really was sooo fun! Despite the layers and layers of sunscreen we caked on, we all got varying degrees of sunburns on our lips and thighs. Luckily mine wasn't too bad, but it's still crumby. Some people got fever blisters though, and they look terrible. Man, this equator sun is intense!

After rafting, we stayed overnight in Jinja, watched two of our team members bungee jump into the Nile, ate delicious American burgers and chocolate cake, cheered on the USA in the world cup, and hit the sack. It was a stellar weekend. Wish you all could have been there!

PS: Just want to let you all know that as I was near to death in "The Bad Place" I was thinking about all of you and how much I love you all!