You Can't Do That in Canada

There is another new post below this one, but it is less happy than this one - so you may want to read it first!

So we arrived in Kampala after an incident at the Tanzanian border! That will be saved for another discussion, since there's so much going on and so little time to write. From Kampala, after defying death walking through the wickedly jammed-up streets, we boarded a bus and headed to Jinja for our group activity - white-water rafting on the Nile! Geoff went ATVing along the shores instead, while the seven of us prepared for a real adventure.

Adventure started in Jinja. Following include the things you can't do in Canada - that we DID do in Jinja!

* Ride a boda-boda (tiny motorcycle) side-saddle without helmets through the streets. 8 of us on 8 motorcycles, like a little gang. Kim's broke down eventually and so she sat on the back of mine with me - three of us on this tiny little thing! Can't do that in Canada!
* Ride in the back of a truck, standing up and holding onto metal bars. 8km of crazy bumps through fields of sugar-cane and banana trees.
* Eat real western food in a real western restaurant over-looking the Nile river and listening to monkeys as they chattered about in the trees.

Nile experience - you can't do THAT in Canada either!
* Boarded a 14 food red vessel with a lifted nose and paddle off into the river
* Spun the boat, flipped the boat, swam around the boat, swam UNDER the boat when it was upside-down, floated on our backs in the Nile looking up at the blue Ugandan sky
* Hit class 5 rapids, the highest level you can take even professionally. They are almost completely safe because of the incredible volume of water, but that doesn't mean they are without thrills! First set of class 4 rapids and I was up and out of the boat, floating rapidly downstream with my paddle in hand. My knight in shining kayak rescued me at the nice safe part.
* Next set of rapids - our whole boat flipped and we crashed helmets, paddles, arms and legs as the churning water tossed us around, plunged us down into the waves and spat us back up, sputtering and coughing. Laughter abounded as we reboarded our righted raft later on.
* Hit Silverback Waterfall, 3 meters high, and watched the other rafts simply disappear over the edge. Our hearts pounded as we paddled toward the edge of what we could see, soared rapidly around a rock, and dove nose first into the boiling, frothing hole below. Right-side up, we paddled into a class 3 rapid and came out staring as another raft dove over the edge. Incredible.
* Second flip was more fun for everone else - less fun for me, since something collided with my face and left a pretty Nile Tatoo on my nose (OUCH!). This particular rapid was like being in a washing machine and we grabbed air where we could before smashing into waves again. As we finally drifted - individually - into a smoother water, I caught someone's paddle and then was hauled back into our raft as we rammed into a tree on Bat Island. Bats galore flying overhead, woken up by the smashing of paddles on the calm waters at its shore.
* I wimped out at "The Bad Place" - the last grade 5 waterfall, a converging of three rivers with enormous volumes of water. I've done it before - four years ago - and besides, my face was still hurting from the last toss. Carole and I ran over to a huge rock and watched as our craft expertly crested the wave, dove into the hole and soared safely over the top. Bob's face registered total disappointment that they hadn't flipped - but not to worry, our trusty raft-guide steered them into "the other place" and the boat tossed them like salad into the water there.
* And we even have a video to prove it!

What a team building exercise! It was fantastic to spend time together doing something that didn't require emotional energy but rather caused a healthy physical strain and brought laughter and joy.