Traveling Adventures
By Sarah Brunsberg
Uganda
After completing my scope of work I left the small town of Ssembabule to travel around Uganda. First I went to the capital of Kampala, which after spending over a month in a small village was incredibly overwhelming. Ssembabule is the Thief River Falls as Kampala is to Minneapolis, except picture Minneapolis with twice as much traffic (and pollution from diesel fuels), more people, and sans traffic signs (of any kind%u2026so no stop lights or signs). I was able to go shopping at the craft market downtown, which was my first time really haggling as a consumer. I had heard that to buy the item at the price it is worth you should be able to bargain down to one-third of the original asking price. I was never even able to bargain down to half price so now I realize how difficult it is to haggle. I feel pretty fortunate that I was able to make it through the day without being hit by a mutatu (public taxi van) or a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and also left with some cool souvenirs for my family.
My next adventure consisted of a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park which is the second largest national park in Uganda. I saw baboons, elephants, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, antelope, monkeys, lions, and buffalo. The first day we went on a chimp-tracking and unfortunately did not see any chimps. It was still an adventure hiking through the African jungle though, and at one point we had to walk across a tree trunk as wide as me to cross to the other side of the river. We also went on a game hunt in Ishesha which consisted of driving around the savannah until we found lions. Ishesha is known for having tree-climbing lions and fortunately we actually did see one lioness climb a tree. It was interesting to see a lion climb up a tree. I am not sure why they do it, but I assume it has something to do with escaping the heat and finding a better view for scoping out prey. I decided that Queen Elizabeth is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Some of the views were so incredibly beautiful and I will be posting pictures as soon as I get home.
My last week I went to Jinja which holds the source of the Nile. Here Lake Victoria (the third largest lake in the world) turns into the beginning of the Nile River. My travel companions and I took a kayake trip which started at Lake Victoria and floated down through the source and into the Nile for a few kilometers (no I still don%u2019t understand kilometers but when in Rome%u2026). Our guide for the kayake trip is one of the best professional kayakers in the world and it was fun hearing about his experiences. Our other big reason for the trip to Jinja was to go whitewater rafting, which is something I recommend everyone who is not afraid of water try. We rafted 30 kilometers and through five class five rapids. Class five rapids are the highest people can raft through without being a professional, and anything above class five could very well kill people if the raft flipped over. Our raft flipped twice throughout the trip and many of my fellow rafters fell out more than once. We had safety kayakers near to pick us up and bring us back to the raft after we flipped so it felt as safe as you can feel rafting through class five rapids. After this experience I now understand the power of water and what water is capable of. After flipping the rapids would hold me under for a few seconds and there was nothing I could do but wait to pop up to the surface. Even Olympic swimmers could not swim through these rapids.
I am excited to leave for home tomorrow and see my family, friends and fellow SPHers! I have not even started reflecting on my experiences here but one thing I do know is that I will never regret coming, but am ready to go home!
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