'Nowness'

The title is not an exact reflection of what this post is about but as it develops so will you begin to understand.....let us begin.

This weekend was a spontaneous decision to fly to Uganda for the weekend and add some spice to the entree. Myself and three colleagues ducked off work an hour early on Friday to catch the 6:45 flight to Entebbe, Kampala. It was actually a fantastic flight, left on time, good service which are both nearly impossible to come by around here.

Sat next to a very interesting lady on the plane who used to work for Clinton and Bush Senior and has now started her own consultancy which bridges the gap between Western Capital and African opportunities...fascinating business and definitely going to be staying in touch.

We landed in Kampala late on Friday after a rather pleasant 40 minute flight and the first thing that smacked me was just how small Kigali is. Suddenly there were advertising boards all around me and the transition to a more consumer driven economy quickly became apparent. The next noticeable difference during the drive back to the hotel was the wonderful energy this place seemed to have. It was 10:30pm but the markets were buzzing, the clubs were packed and the shoe shiners were polishing away. When I started thinking of how this reminded me a little bit of Tel Aviv it became clear why the UN had first chosen Uganda to be the land of the Jews.

The next morning we were awoken early by the rafting company tour guide to take a trip to the mouth of the Nile which is where our white water rafting journey would start; the purpose of the trip to Uganda. The drive was beautiful; we drove through small villages and vast countryside, always attracting the small army of children as we cascaded through the dusty roads.

On arrival into Jinja we were briefed and split into teams. Some bananas, a life jacket and a helmet later, we started our descent to the base of the river. Adrenalin flowing, paddles poised and nut sacks small we hopped into our rafts and embarked on our one day adventure down the Nile.

The first couple of rapids were warm ups just getting a feel for the flow of water and being in the raft. The next five were pretty serious fellows. We did a few grade 4's a couple of grade 5's and two grade 5 pluses. One of the scariest things was trying to anticipate what the rapid will be like based on the name. With contenders like 'Big Brother' and 'The Bad Place' you can imagine it didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Without going in to too much detail, there was lots of dunking, flipping, jumping around the raft and general wildness..needless to say it was a whole lot of adrenaline fuelled fun. I felt so free on the rapids, like the little reckless boy within had been awoken and allowed to run wild.

Above the obvious fun element, there is definitely some value in doing extreme sports because its about pushing boundaries. Every man in that boat was fearful but pushed on never the less. The concept of fearing and doing is very powerful and the atmosphere after conquering a huge rapid was as tangible as the white water in which we rode.

There was also something about being fully present. Modern lives are so entirely bound by time that only when we break from that pattern of thinking do we realize it. There was a beautiful moment towards the end of the day where the setting was so utterly spectacular that it rendered me speechless. And for that brief and blissful moment nothing seemed to matter; not yesterdays argument with the taxi driver, not what i was going to eat tomorrow for breakfast or where the hell my career was taking me......nothing but the sound of the rapids, the vastness of the dramatic African landscape and the calm feeling of surrender...surrender of the mind to the beauty of the present.

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