Day 16: Jinja owes me a few breaths of air

3 July, 2010

We woke up around 5am this morning to head to Jinja for some white water rafting and to say goodbye to Hollie and Theresa.

The ride to Jinja was not too interesting, but we did see an accident that involved 3 18 wheelers turned over and crashed on the side of the road. White water rafting is so much fun...and a little terrifying. I had to take off my glasses and I started the day by accidentally dropping my contact in the toilet (not taking it out, definitely not here), so I saw blurry colors most of the day. I even missed seeing the monkeys jumping from tree to tree :'( But at least I didn't lose my glasses, as I most definitely would have. At one point, though I saw birds flying just above the water. Absolutely beautiful, with or without good vision.

Oh, did I mention that we did all this rafting ON THE NILE?! Absolutely amazing! Mi jeung and I got thrown from the boat on the biggest rapid of the day. I was pretty calm at first and just kept thinking, "this isn't THAT risky. I'll be up for air in a few seconds," but then I couldn't find the surface. I started runnning out of breath and completely freaked out. I started panicking and then I found air. During all this, my shorts fell off (was wearing my swimsuit underneath) and I managed to grab on to them. I came out of the water with my shorts in my hand. I tried to climb on the nearest kayak, which I promptly tipped over, and then the safety boat came for me. One of the guys asked what I was holding and I yelled, "my shorts!" While they were taking me back to my raft, I had a lovely conversation with one of the guys who saved my life who was from Denmark. I later found out that Mi jeung and I were very close to each other after we fell out of the boat.

After that, there was only one other scary rapid that was really shallow, but we were wearing helmets. The other rapids were really fun. There was one where he told us not to close our eyes. The water looks like it is all coming straight at you and then you go over the wave. It was so awesome! We got to eat lunch on the raft and I was not thrown from the boat again. Our guide was really funny, and I still claim that the reason I fell out was because his girfriend jokingly told me I could jump out of the boat on Silverback.

After the awesome rafting we got to ride to the hostel we stayed at in Jinja inside a truck with no top. We stood up the whole time and it was really bumpy. We rode through the village and through a market. Oh, and we (minus the driver) drank beer the whole time. My first drink in 2 weeks, and first drink in Uganda!

Once we got to the hostel we got dinner. Ham and cheese Paninis after 2 weeks of foreign food was so tasty. I hadn't had cheese in 2 weeks!!!! Not complaining about the food by the way, most of what I've had is pretty good, especially the fruit. We were going to go back to the bar and watch the World Cup with our British hostel-mates, but now I'm too tired. Plus, I couldn't care less about soccer/football. Sorry, my European friends ;)