White Water Rafting on the Nile

I rafted the Nile! Yesterday, we spent all day on the Nile River, swimming, laughing, paddling, and conquering over 10 separate rapids. The rapids ranged from class 2 to class 5 and one even had a 10 foot vertical drop that we flew over in the raft and plummeted into the angry waters below. The river chewed us up and spit us out, capsizing the boat, hurling us over board, slamming us into rocks, but it was absolutely amazing! It was 7 hours of sheet adrenaline, punctuated by periods of calm that made time for diving and flipping off the side of the boat into the refreshing river. Towards the end of the day, we were overtaken by the rain clouds and got caught in the midst of a relentless African rainstorm. The sky blackened and released huge pellets of rain, turning the surface of the slow, calm river into a dramatic and energetic dancing water show. The rain intensified, continued, and didn't let up. The sky continued to darken and visibility was reduced to just meters. We paddled and paddled and paddled, partly in a vain attempt to escape the rain and partly just to stay warm. Exhausted and with no end in sight we took a break and jumped into the water to warm up. The river felt like a warm bath tub compared to the cold rain. With the thunderous raor of the next set of rapids growing louder, we struggled with shaky arms to pull ourselves back into the raft and prepared for the upcoming rush of adrenaline. We went over the rapids in pouring rain and even though it was only a class 3, the boast was slammed by a wall of water, flipping us over and throwing us into the water to tackle to rapids on our own. It was awesome. Banged up knees and bruised shins met us at the bottom, but I've never felt so alive, so aware of my present, my reality. I'm in Uganda, swimming down rapids in the Nile River, in the midst of a fantastic rainstorm. Eventually the rain clouds passed and the sun pushed away the cold that was taking hold on our exhausted bodies, as we mentally prepared and pumped ourselves up for the last rapid of the day, "The Bad Place."The name alone ignites a flame of fear in the pit of your stomach, but the anticipation and sense of accomplishment that comes with getting through such a massive, angry outflow of water subdues any lingering fear with pure, absolute excitement. "Stay to the right, if we go down on the left you'll be in a class 6, paddle hard and hold on tight!" These were Jeffery's last words to us as the water speed increased and the river dipped sharply downwards. Bring it on! One girl got thrown out and another got slapped in the face with her paddle, splitting her lip open. Half way down the rapids blood began pouring from her mouth, but she made it down to the bottom like a champ, never complaining once. In celebratory glee, I threw off my helmet and dove into the water, basking in the thrill of just having white-water rafter 22km down the Nile River!