The Nile River

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After a long week of working I spent the weekend with other interns from ELI and headed for Jinja, which is about an hour west of Iganga. We left early Saturday morning and met up with the interns who are living in Jinja. From there we headed to the Nile River Explorers. There we signed up to go white water rafting down the Nile River. We had to drive about a half an hour to get to the launching place where we got onto the rafts. Before we took off we were all briefed on how to get back into the raft if it flipped and how to flip the raft back over once we were through the rapids. Instead of telling us they had us do it ourselves which meant they flipped the raft on us while we were in the water so we could be prepared. Once we got going we came to the first rapids with about a 5 meter drop water fall. That was pretty awesome and we didn't flip which was a plus since it was our first one. The second rapids we came to was not so successful. We made it through the first half but were hit by a pretty big wave and our raft flipped backwards. Lets just say the practice flip in the nice, calm waters was not sufficient preparation for flipping in the rapids. The first flip we were all totally unprepared for. It happened so fast that by the time you realized you weren't in the raft anymore you were through the rapids. It was definitely a little scary since you are being thrown around by very rough waters but with a life jacket on it was not too bad. The second time we flipped was much easier to deal with since you knew what it would be like. Finally we got the hang of it and were able to make it through the rapids without flipping anymore. In between rapids we were just floating along the Nile and it was absolutely beautiful. Afterwords, we had a barbecue and then drove back on the buses to the camp grounds where we had an amazing view of the Nile. At 9:30 they showed the video they had shot of each raft going through the rapids at the bar which was pretty cool. Seeing how our raft actually flipped was crazy because it was hard to believe that was us flying through the air! They also took some pretty awesome still shots as well. On Sunday I headed back to Iganga to hang out with some of the interns and rest before heading back to work today. Next weekend I am hoping to head for Murchison Falls, so we will see if that pans out!

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