Dear Mom, Remember I am Still Alive Part 2

May 28

Rafting day! Kristen here… Moms, remember, we are all still alive …and there were many safety precautions in place! ;-)

We woke up after a sleep infused with dreams of Rihanna and 50 Cent music… We had some coffee outside and met our new friend Antonia. She has a heart for Africa and is back in Uganda to complete her undergrad in International studies. Her boyfriend also just happens to be one of the guides at the rafting company. she also loves rafting and has guided before in California so it was almost as if we had 2 guides!

We make it to the Nile and our group is: Katie (the other FIMRC volunteer that was with us), Michelle, Lyndsay, Emily (living a year in Nairobi as a writer), Miles (friend of Emily's visiting for a few weeks), Antonia and our trusty guide, Paul (Antonia's boyfriend). The Nile is an interesting river in that it is really wide and quite calm in most areas except for the spots where there are rapids (we had a total of 8 on our full day float). So a good majority of our day was slowly floating down the Nile. The water is unusually warmer than most rivers you can raft which is why you can raft Class 5's over here without any rafting experience (you can't in the states). It's also much safer because there aren't as many rocks around the rapids. Paul gets us all in the raft and immediately tells us all to jump into the water. We look confused for a minute and then do as he says. Paul runs us through a series of drills: get back in the boat, tip the boat over, swim out from the tipped boat, swim completely under the boat, etc. I have been rafting before and there was NEVER this extensive of training. But I went along with it. Lyndsay somehow managed to knee Michelle in the face potentially breaking her nose. There was a pop and some blood…but no x-ray to confirm or omit.

So we start out and basically Paul keeps saying stuff like "Yeah, well, it's pretty likely we'll flip the boat on this one" or "Don't worry if you fall out on this one." I, of course, ended up falling out that first time. So we cruise along in the morning and have a great time with all the rafting and eventually we are nearing a Class 6 rapid. Paul starts to get all serious and snippy with us since he doesn't want to mess up. Basically we would all be in big trouble if he doesn't dock us in time to jump out of the raft so we can walk around the class 6 and put the boat in elsewhere.

At the bottom of the Class 6 we put the raft in and immediately have a rapid that is named "The Bad Spot" (with good reason!!!!). Paul is giving us our pre-rapid instructions and saying stuff like "When (notice how he doesn't say If) we flip, don't hold on to the boat! Just swim to the right and get a safety kayaker! Just get to the bottom where there is a calm pool and we'll get back in the boat!" So we are watching the rafts get back in the water and it's like…one boat…oh ok, they're go- FLIP. 8 people in the water. 2nd boat so far, so goo- FLIP. 16 people in the water. 3rd boat made it down in one piece. 4th boat…. FLIP. 24 swimmers. Next was us. Paul is semi freaking out. To me, it's definitely NOT GOOD when your guide is freaking out about the rapid you're about to take on.

So we start off and Paul is yelling "FORWARD FORWARD FORWARD HARDER" and I'm thinking things are pretty good so far… we're traveling down the rapid pass and then it was warp speed…we FLIPPED over. All 7 of us were flushed into the toliet bowl of a rapid. Swirling and trying to surface, I was panicking surrounded by white, whirling water (which is of course the first thing they tell you not to do…). I made it to the top, took a deep breath, thanked God for my life jacket and was sucked back under the water. I resurfaced a second later right by Paul who helped me to a safety raft and I was pulled to stable ground. Lyndsay and Michelle were both grabbed by safety kayakers and placed in rafts. (Later on finding out Michelle took in way too much water and is now growing parasitic pneumonia (yes, it is a newly discovered disease….). All of our raft was accounted for and eventually all made it back to our own raft for a much needed break of freshly picked pineapple (Words don't even describe how good the pineapple is here!)

The afternoon continued with another half-raft spill. We took on a wave sideways and half of us spilled out (almost including our guide too!)… which made it my and Miles' 3rd spill of the day (I happen to be unlucky when it comes to what side of the boat I'm on and which side plummets into the water). The final rapid series sounded intense. Paul said, "Ok, we can either take it on sideways and probably flip to the side or try to go over top of it and flip over backwards but we're probably gonna swim." Great…. another quick prayer for the life preserver! So as a group we decide to hit the wave head on and try to go over top of it and we take off. The whole time, I'm looking ahead and anticipating a huge, full boat flip…but it never happens! We conquered the last rapid! (Apparently, it had nothing to do with our AWESOME- which they are-rafting skills but because the water level has been extremely high).

The very fabulous rafting day ended how every evening on a river should, with a BBQ and beer. Another delicious meal and the drinks tasted fabulous! That night we hung out with our new friends Paul, Antonia, Emily, Miles, Nash and a few others we met at our hostel. And we didn't mind the Rihanna music mix so much that night! ;-) We went to bed absolutely exhausted from our time on the river!