Week 7: The People (and Whitewater Rafting)

Last I wrote, I mentioned that it was a great end to a great week. This week, it was a crazy end to a crazy week. That's because I got to catch up with two of the Columbia people I ran into briefly in Tanzania, Dan Yurt and Whitney Horsey-Sherin. They have been here in Jinja a few days volunteering with Soft Power, so this past weekend we got to catch up in the midst of their crazy travels. For some reason (namely poor planning) their itinerary started in South Africa, went up to Kenya, down to Tanzania, over to Spain, across to Greece, back down to Uganda, and up next to Italy. But regardless, it was great having them around. The highlight of our weekend hanging out together had to be whitewater rafting on the River Nile.

Rafting here is absolutely insane -- we went through 12 rapids, including 4 class 5s. The first and last rapids were waterfalls, but our boat only capsized once (in another class 5 called the G-Spot). The biggest highlight for me was on a rapid called 50-50 (50% of boats usually flip). Our boat was just about to flip on top of a rapid about 6 feet high when I found myself standing on top of the boat, which was more or less at a 45 degree angle, on top of this wave. Somehow I managed to surf for a few seconds until the boat settled back down...a total rush. Dan was also able to stay aboard though Whitney went for a swim! Another big highlight was a rapid called Overtime, where our raft went down backwards off a 10 foot waterfall. I really can't imagine rafting any better/crazier than this!

It's funny though -- I just realized that in my blogs so far, I've spent so little time talking about the most important part of my experience here so far: the people. So this time, I'll talk about my co-workers and fellow interns.

First, my co-workers, starting with my supervisor Henry. Henry is a great guy who is always so soft spoken, but occasionally, he comes up with an unbelieveably funny, inappropriate joke that cracks up the whole crowd. Then there is Ali, the resident playboy. My other co-workers say he has psychological powers that are the root of his success -- having seen him in action, I think it may be true. Eric is the resident jokester and news reporter. He somehow knows everything that is going on in everyone's life...even finding pictures from another intern's camera at an internet cafe and printing them out for everyone to see. Chris, the supervisor, is a crazy guy and generally the life of the post-work party. He comes from a really well off family and is doing NGO work because it is his passion. His wife Barbara also works at OGLM and is always on my case about trying to get married. I told her to give me a few years...

Then there are the other interns. Will, the only other guy, is a master guitarist and singer. Unfortunately, we don't see much of him because he is usually working till about 11 at night. Marion and Jennifer go to school together back home and are the resident party animals since their NGO also runs the big rafting campsite while Lauren from California started a trend of speaking with a strange British-ish accent that I and a few others unfortunately have picked up on even as she dropped it. So now she is always making fun of me -- I have no idea why we talk this way but I think it is an attempt to enunciate more so people understand us. Mary from Notre Dame lives on my side of the Nile, so I often get to hear stories of her crazy host family, while Lisa is a Whartonite who works Saturdays even though we don't have to. Finally, there is Maureen, who is always jetting off to one place or another so much so that we barely see her.

Aside from that, work is now in full gear, but I will save those details for next week!