White Nile, Shoebills and Chimps

I sat patiently for an hour at the café in front of the Speke Hotel beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning a few weeks ago, waiting for Nile River Explorers to pick me up and transport me to Jinga, Uganda, to begin my rafting trip up the White Nile. A personal goal of mine while in Africa is to learn to relax and let things happen as they may. I have been trying to contain my obsessive-compulsive need to confirm everything a dozen times, to insist on promptness, and to fret when things do not go as I plan. I already had phoned the rafting company once, upon my arrival in Kampala on Friday, to confirm.

So, there I sat guzzling coffee, watching women with straw brooms sweep the street, keeping one eye on the frightening Marabou storks hovering in the trees overhead, and pacing out to the curb every few minutes to take pictures while searching nervously down Nile Avenue for my ride to Jinga. One hour later and I burst, picked up my phone and called. AHA! I knew it! They forgot me and were now halfway to Jinga! I was almost happy with the confirmation that my compulsive behavior indeed is justified. But, I quickly jumped in a cab at the company’s insistence and on their dime (and thus, for once, did not even bother to negotiate the fare) and told the driver to get me quickly to Jinga, the town located 80 Km east of Kampala on the shores of Lake Victoria and right at the source of the Nile River. We drove fast and determinedly, stopping once so the driver could go to the bathroom right beside his car door and slowing down once so I could snap a picture of the Owen Falls Dam, at the start of the White Nile, which supplies Uganda with the bulk of its electricity. I arrived in Jinga an hour and half later, just in time for the launching of four 7-person rafts, into the Nile.

In my raft were a couple from San Diego taking 6 months off to travel throughout Africa, a researcher for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, two women from an AIDs charity in Canada and a woman spending time in Uganda on a traveling fellowship. As we pushed off the shore, nearly 25 young, scantily clad, children waved us good-bye. Many of the little girls had infants strapped onto their backs. It was a strange scene and, with my life jacket and helmet on, in the big orange raft full of travelers and development workers, I felt a bit ridiculous – a feeling I have a lot as I balance being a tourist in such a poverty-stricken environment.

We spent from 10:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. making our way 30 Km up the White Nile towards Khartoum, Sudan where it joins up with the Blue Nile and proceeds to Egypt. We encountered 14 major rapids along the way, including four Grade 5 rapids with apt names such as “The Bad Place” and “The Dead Dutchman.” We flipped over several times, but always felt safe since a safety boat and a dozen men in kayaks remained constantly near our rafts. During the trip, I was as intrigued by the life along the shoreline of the Nile and as I was scared by its rapids. We floated by a large baptism taking place in the Nile, by wooden “ferries” transporting men and their bicycles across, and hundreds of women and children washing their clothes in the water. We also passed long stretches without any sign of life other than the moving water.

Our day ended with a bbq along the shore and the purchase of a DVD of the experience, since I did not take my camera. The next day, Sunday, I rounded out my first trip to Uganda with a visit to the Uganda Wildlife Centre so I could see for myself the strange Shoebill Stork (pictured here), with its plastic Cheshire Cat-like grin, and to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where I sat for an hour and watched around 40 orphan chimps move freely about the small island eating, playing and grooming (pictured here). I'm still having a wonderful time here in Africa, and enjoying every minute of my experience, I thought, but watching these chimps really made me homesick, and miss my brother, sister and sister-in-law...for some reason!