Extreme Weekend in Jinja!

Hello again!
Well we just got back from Jinja yesterday, and luckily we have done so with our bodies fully intact! Rafting down the Nile was so much fun.. we caught some class 5 rapids, which were scary but awesome :) It was a 30 km distance that we covered, with enjoyable lazy stretches in between the rapids where we could bail out of our rafts and just lazily float along in the nice warm (slightly crocodile-inhabited) water of the Nile and enjoy the scenery and a slice of pineapple. The scariest part of the trip was the final rapid - we were meant to paddle past the class 5 rapid, aptly named The Bad Place, as the water levels were low that day, and aim instead for a neighboring class 4 rapid. Unfortunately, as we had to pick up two stranded tandem kayakers without paddles, and the importance of paddling as hard and as fast as humanly possible was not sufficiently emphasized, we all (unknowingly) entered the class 5 rapid, which caused our raft to do a huge flip, giving us all some air time before we got sucked under. Yours truly was caught under water in what's known as the "washing machine", which spins you around in circles so fast you don't know which way is up. I was seriously scared because it felt like i was down there forever and i almost ran out of air. Luckily when i did manage to surface, a safety kayaker grabbed me and took me to shore.

Having survived rafting, next on the agenda was bungee jumping into the nile! It seemed like a good idea until they made me hop to the edge of the ledge (because my feet were tied together) and gave me a countdown. You have to overcome all your natural survival instincts and convince yourself that jumping off this ridiculously high precipice is a good idea. They say 3... 2.... 1...bungee! and you better jump the first time or you psych yourself out and it's even worse. I managed to do it and gave the most blood curdling scream as i went down! which luckily was caught on camera and hopefully i can upload it on here soon! It was beyond scary, but a lot of fun once i realized i wasn't going to die :)

Another adrenaline-filled first this weekend was that magz and I took our first bota bota rides. A bota bota is one of the most common means of transportation here.. second only to the taxis. It is a motorcycle and there are no helmets. At first i was so scared I think i left bruises on my driver but by my third ride my biggest fear was falling asleep on it.

The annual kayaking competition that was taking place was really impressive, as kayakers from all around the world showed up. The first day's event was freestyle tricks and they did things like "double helices" and "air blunts" and "pistol flipping" and a whole lot of other tricks that i don't fully understand the details of but were quite impressive none the less! The second day was a long nile race, and the third day was a short nile race, followed by a bota bota land race back to the camp, where there was an obstacle race made from upturned rafts which both the kayaker and their bota bota driver had to go through, and then both chug a bottle of Nile Special beer.... and those were the actual requirements of this reputable competition! Ugandan won in the men's division, which made the locals really happy and there was a huge celebration.. mind you, everynight at the camp was a celebration, with everyone including competitors staying up until at least 4 in the morning - I'm not sure how they managed to go extreme kayaking in the morning but there you have it! and they organized their own extreme events at night like fire dancing and one guy, supposedly one of the best kayakers in the world, had injured his ankle from flipping backwards off a table in the bar and so they made him a cast out of an old waterbottle, plastic bags and some tape and he still competed.

The only downside of having been there during the competition is that the people who normally put together a tape of the rafting expedition were competing so we don't have a dvd of the day... so I want to go again next weekend as a re-run is only half price and it's so hard to explain what the rapids there are like - it's supposed to be the best rafting in the world.
My body is happy to be back to the teaching routine in Lugazi as it replenishes its adrenaline and alcohol dehydrogenase stores.

Oh, and if you hear about the current ebola outbreak in Uganda, fear not - I'm aiming to avoid those areas... thanks to Jinja i've had enough adventure for one trip.
=:0)