Yesterday we went white water rafting, my team is crazy so I thought I was too and we decided to take the extreme route. The Nile (I did not know this before hand) is known for some of the most extreme white water in the world. In the states the common rated rapids are 4’s. On the Ugandan Nile there are 6’s and above. Having never been rafting I thought, whatever, this will be cool. I got extra tough after the little tumble of a 3 which I thought was hard core and made me cool. We hit the 1st 5 and the raft flipped and dumped us all. 6 of the 9 of us managed to hold onto the raft, I was not one of them. So Jer, Salley and I floated helplessly through the rapids I hadn’t paid enough attention to the guide and was trying desperately to swim which had me in just the right position for waves to crash into my face. My life vest conveniently popped up like when a turtle goes in its shell and I was having trouble getting up in the water. Becks had managed to hold on to the raft and saw my sad state, called to me, extended his oar and pulled me in. Jer went after Salley even though he was struggling too and they both hopped on a rescue Kayak and came back to the raft. I was confused and kinda pissed off and didn’t wanna row anymore. I got over myself before too long and decided that was a fluke. We went down a 3 and a few more all successfully so I figured all was well, and then right before lunch there was another 5, the guide said he had never flipped a boat on this rapid, so I had confidence. His record is still clean, because the boat didn’t flip completely over and 3 people managed to stay on, I wasn’t one of them and neither was the guide. I am a good swimmer, I played water polo in high school, but for some reason the second I hit the water I panicked This was a very long and horrible rapid, and because the water is low this season it has lots of waves that basically bob you up and down over and under the water, it was at this point that I think I swallowed half the Nile. My helmet slipped over my eyes and I had managed to stick my legs up and go with it instead of trying to swim like the last time. Our raft was way past me after floating over my head and pushing me under and the Kayaks didn’t dare come to where I was, so I floated into the open where I could swim but I was too dazed and tired to try to swim with a life vest on, so I slowly doggy paddled until a kayak came. I was so far behind my raft by that point, he took me to a different raft, with strangers. There were 5 rafts of world racers and he took me to the only one that wasn’t.
I couldn’t climb in and they couldn’t pull me, then the Kiwi raft guide grabbed me and pulled me in, I landed on top of him, and he said “that’s why this is my favorite part of the day” , how cheeky huh? So I sat there experiencing the emotion of pissed as Miele would say and one of the girls asked, “what does your bracelet say”. I looked at it, then at her and replied “It says stay with the group, I failed”, they laughed and she said “oh, I thought it was your name” and I said “no, my mom had a dream I drowned because I didn’t stay with my group, so she gave me this”, there was a communal gasp and then silence. After a long pause, the same girl commented about how it was a cool story. The bracelet is on its very last string and is threatening to die but before it does it had to be a story. They dropped me back at my raft where fell in face first laughed and then tried quickly in my mind to hide and pretend I was dead.
Not long after, we arrived at lunch island and I ate a sandwich and a half, reasoning that if I was gonna die I was going to have a great last meal. I removed my head wrap and put it on the rock because I had a headache, when I returned I was super pleased to find that it was covered with the cutest teeny tinniest little ants, who appeared to be drinking the water from it. Angered by its defilement I left it there.
Waiting for the bathroom line made our raft the last to leave so we had to row to catch up. We floated down river for about 30 minutes with periodic swims for my teammates, I figured I had swam enough and wanted nothing more to do with the river water. I was very nervous and had knots in my stomach thinking about the 2 class 5 rapids coming up before we finished. I had decided on the island with a little pep talk from Jeremiah that I would finish for Jesus and to be part of my team. It was so hard for me that even writing this is making me want to throw up, thinking about going down the rapids. On the next class 5 the guide said, “there is no reason to have to go over on this one if you paddle hard”, I have never paddled so hard in my life, the boat went into the air but then back down again and everyone but Garrett managed to stay in. We got a lollipop for successfully navigating the rapid. I know there were some after that but they weren’t bad and then we came to the last section. It was a series of waterfalls that were 7 ratings , so we climbed over the hill past the waterfalls to the 5 rapid called 50/50, because that’s your chances of flipping. There is a slightly higher rated one right next to it called “bad place” but the water was too low so it was too dangerous, so our choices were 50/50 of chicken line. My team of course chose 50/50. I was praying loudly as we dropped in, a wave pushed the front of the boat up high but we managed to stay in and I was happy and relieved because it was over, the rapid was very long and I was terrified of riding it out in the water, then our guide instructed us to paddle backward, we were going toward the rapid, why? I couldn’t understand what was happening, we were done, I was free I had survived. Then I heard our guide say, I want to take that one. In the middle of the river there was a large wave just pushing straight up, it is called “other place” and is a class 3. I begged ” No please, no” but no one heard over the rushing of the water. We paddled to the middle and paddled hard but the raft shot up into the air and we were thrown like so many rag dolls into the rapids. I came up under the raft and was pushed under by the inflated tubes that are intended to create air pockets, I tried to come up again, pushed under, then a third time. I managed to find the air pocket with my hand and climbed in. The water from the waves would fill space as the raft floated down. I held on and screamed “I’m under the raft” terrified that it would be flipped and I would be under the water again. The guide climbed on top and said he was coming so when I felt someone in the compartment next to me I thought it was him. When the turbulence died down I announced I would be coming out from underneath and mustered up the courage to do so, as I went under I saw Jess who was the person in the next compartment get bopped on the head. The guide had us, Jess and I, hold onto the end, then the raft was flipped. He pulled me in first, I landed on my face again but didn’t care, I scrambled to my knees to find my teammates. People were piling back in, I offered to help J. Becks but he said he was fine he could stand. Everyone was in, Salley was injured and then someone said “where’s Garrett”, sheer panic struck me, long boy is my favorite, and I couldn’t see him anywhere. Jen said she had seen him floating and he was fine. We passed a large rock and found him on a kayak nose. We collected him and floated off down the river. My teammates loved it and THEY would go again, I am sure one day I will tell someone how fun rafting the Nile was but that day is definitely not today.
