The Nile is a River in Africa

                This past weekend, my University of Minnesota co-workers and I traveled to Jinja to raft the Nile.  Our group consisted of Melanie and Brandon (med students at the University of Minnesota and Harvard), Dave (an Infectious Disease physician at UMN), Tihana (a Croatian physician working in the UK who will be staying with us for the next month), and myself.  I feel a little out the loop, not being a physician and all…once we arrived in Jinja, three other Americans who are living in Rwanda and a local Rwandan joined our rafting team.  Our river guide was named Tutu, a Ugandan.

November 13th, 2010 - Rafting near the source of the Nile, Jinja, Uganda

                We rafted 31 km and went down 9 rapids – 4 of which were class 5 (to give you some perspective, a class 6 is a waterfall).  It is pretty much required that every raft will flip at least once before the day is over.  Given our rafting skills (we had an ex-rafting guide and an avid kayaker in our raft); we only flipped once – but only because of Tutu. 

An easy rapid to begin our day



The rapids became a little more intense...



I'm pretty sure I'm completely submerged at this point.  I should be in the 2nd row - I think you might be able to see my helmet if you look close enough.  Surprisingly, I didn't even fall out!



Where did our raft go?!?  Again, because of incredible rafting skills, we were able to survive the rapid and continue on our way down the Nile.

     Anyway, our day of rafting ended up being a great day.  We survived the rapids with no broken bones - just a few cuts and bruises.  By the way, I have a pretty sweet DVD of our day if anyone is interested in watching it over Christmas...

     To help relieve my sore muscles, the next day Tiffany Russell (a volunteer working just outside of Kampala who is from Steamboat, Colorado) and I went to Emin Pasha where we treated ourselves to a spa day.

Seriously - who would expect to find this oasis in the middle of Uganda?!?

     To top off the weekend, I went to my roommate Ann’s basketball game.  Ann is playing for A-1 Challenge, the national basketball team of Uganda and is the only mzungu in the entire league.  Her team has made it to the semi-finals.

Game 4 of 5 for the Ugandan National League Semi-Finals