The Fun Side

The Fun Side (for those of you who are Madagascar fans)
After many deep and profound brain things inside our head (also Madagascar…you should see the movie if you haven’t)…we’ve decided to share with you the lighter side of life in Kenya. As business majors, we all have enjoyed seeing advertisements (they call them adverts) that promote Kenyan businesses. Here are a few that that made us laugh:
“The people that walk through these doors are the nicest people!” (Barclays Bank, at the door)
“Hurry whilst stocks last!” (Addidas Store)
“We deliver smartly!” (Debonaires Pizza)
“Supa Fresh” (A fruit place)
“Powapoint” (on side of a mutatu –which is a bus that is really a van driven by insane people)
“The Brat Pack” (a kids meal at Steers- a Kenyan interpretation of McDonalds)
“Watch for headbutts” (giraffe park)
Speaking of the giraffes, we saw this last advert at the giraffe park that we dodged CRAZY traffic to get to. It was awesome. They had an elevated deck that allowed you to feed the giraffes. They would walk up and lick the pellets of food off your hand (or out of your mouth if you preferred.) A Kenyan walked up to Matt and I (Erin) and asked if he could take a picture with us. We found that kind of funny. He didn’t want pictures of giraffes, he wanted pictures of white people. One of the workers there showed Matt and I how to hug the giraffe which we got some cool pictures of. After the giraffe park, we went to an elephant orphanage. It is was around 11:15 when we arrived there and they only had the elephants out for visitors between 11 and 12. The youngest ones were there when we got there. We went to the very end of the crowd of about 100 people. Then, one of the workers called me to cross the rope and come take a picture with one of the baby elephants, less than a year old. Matt came over too and we just felt so blessed that out of all those people we were called to come and take pictures with them. When I hugged the baby elephant in the picture it was awesome to feel their skin. Its unbelievably thick. I just imagined how sharp the teeth of a lion would have to be to penetrate it. And this was a baby. Its amazing how God has designed such an amazing array of animals, so different and all so cool.
Another cool animal we experienced for the first time was the chameleon we found on a tree at the Langstons’ (another missionary family). We have named him Ulimi (Swahili for “tongue”). He’s awesome. Actually we are really not sure whether it is male or female, but it is awesome. Everything about Chameleons is slow, except their tongue, which shoots out to capture flies and other insects. One day, in the span of about 10 minutes, he ate about 12 flies. Its feet are sticky in a weird way, for lack of a better description. So when they crawl on you it’s an interesting feeling. Ulimi has been a lot of fun to play with, but we had to give him away to some of the missionary kids so that they could take care of him because we would be traveling and unable to take him with us.
This last weekend has been pretty exciting. We woke up early Friday morning and caught a “Charter Bus” with a group of 9 other people from Nairobi. Two of them, Josh and Mina, have been friends of ours since we arrived here. We met the others just a few days ago. So, we got on this “charter bus” around 7:45am and headed out of Nairobi. The bus was definitely past its useful life by American standards, but it amazingly got the job done in Kenya. Never have we ever before seen a bus do what this bus could do. The driver was either incredibly gifted or insanely crazy. The first few hours of the trip were pretty normal (by normal we mean flying down pot-hole ridden highways weaving in and out of traffic in a giant bus). It really got interesting when our driver decided we should spend the next 6 hours off-roading, through ditches, dodging various live-stock and slower moving vehicles while playing chicken with on-coming traffic, with dust and carbon-monoxide billowing as we careened through the Great Rift Valley. If that sounds exaggerated, its not. You would have to have been there to understand. The interesting thing was that there was a relatively nice paved road that ran parallel to our off-road course, yet neither our driver nor any others seemed to want to take it. TIA! The last 6 hours of the trip was a combination of hard road and dirt roads, although there really isn’t much of a distinction between the two. We made a few stops along the way to eat and use the “restroom.”(We would elaborate on the term “restroom” but this blog would not be suitable for younger audiences and you would probably throw-up) After 14 hours on the “bus” we finally arrived in Jinja, Uganda around 9:30 that night. We all piled in the back of a flat-bed truck for the next 30 minutes until we arrived at our accommodations for the weekend. It was a quaint little resort over looking the NILE River. Actually it wasn’t so quaint. It was the Nile River Explorers campground, but it was overlooking the Nile river which was awesome. We were all pretty tired so we went to sleep.
The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, jumped in the back of another flat-bed truck, drove over a dam across the Nile, where we saw some crocodiles, pulled up on the bank on the other side of the dam, climbed into a 14 foot raft and white-water rafted down the Nile river. Our boat had 7 people in it; Myself (Matt), Erin, Matt S., Josh, Mina, a guy from Montana named Ian who was “just hangin’ in Uganda” and our guide Elias from Tasmania. There were 4 class 5 rapids and 4 class 4s. Although their class 4 and 5 rapids are much bigger than the ones in the US. This river was nothing like any river we have ever rafted in the States. The volumes of water moving through and over the rocks was massive. The morning was a lot of fun. We made it through a few 4s and 5s. One was called Bujigalli falls and was a class 5 rapid. It was about a 10 foot drop followed by some big waves. It was a lot of fun, and we were one of the only rafts to make it through without flipping over. The good thing about the Nile is that its deep, so you don’t have to worry too much about hitting rocks. We had a few chances to get out and swim, we even swam through a small rapid (We went swimming in the Nile before you Sami!). We had lunch in the rafts as we floated through a large pool were we saw lots of birds and some Nile Monitor lizards. For lunch we each ate half a pineapple. After lunch, we kicked things off with a giant class 5 called Silverback. It was another huge drop followed by 4 massive waves, between 6 and 10 feet high. Again, we were one opf the only rafts to make it through without tipping. After that, we came up on a big class 3 (more like a US class 4.5) called Total Gunga (we have no idea what that means). About half way through we flipped the raft. In the process our friend Mina caught a paddle grip with her eye and got a little swollen, but she was fine. I think we still have some of the Nile river up our noses from that one. We did a little body surfing with some low hanging branches and fast moving water which was fun. As we neared the end of the trip, our guide kept telling us about a class 6 paid that we would walk around and then we would talk about the final series of rapids and how we would navigate them. As we came around the bend of the river, the roar grew louder and louder. All we were told was that there were a few rapids called the Bad Place and the Other place that we had left. When we saw the class 6 rapid we were incredibly thankful that it was not a part of the rafting trip. It was absolutely terrifying to imagine going down in a raft. Our guide told us about on rafting guide who decided to take his group down, then right at the beginning when he realized it wouldn’t end well he bailed and made it to the shore while his group went down and all ended up in the hospital. So we pulled up on the shore, walked around the rapid, which was as beautiful as it was terrifying, and got back in the rafts with about 1/3 of the rapid left to go. Here, we decided that as a group we would avoid the Bad Place, and try to make it through the Other Place. From where we were, we could see the Bad Place. It was a huge hole and vortex created by some large waves and the massive amounts of water. We were told that if we went in, we could get sucked in for about 30 to 45 seconds and then eventually be spit out, and the chances of us flipping were pretty much guaranteed. So we jumped in, paddled by the Bad Place, praised God and headed into the Other Place. The Other Place was a little better. It was a giant wave, about 10 feet high created by rapids. We hit a few small waves( 5-6 feet) and then before we knew it, we were swallowed by the Other Place. Luckily, we didn’t flip. The next minute was one of the most petrifying, exciting, and overwhelming experiences of our lives. For those of you familiar with rafting, there is a term called “surfing.” It is where you intentionally position your raft so that it is “trapped” by a wave. Basically, you ride the wave without really going anywhere. (If this sounds confusing we have the whole experience on DVD so you can watch and see.) Well, we didn’t plan on “surfing” but we did, for more than 30 seconds and probably more that 45 seconds. To us it seemed like at least 10 minutes. So we get sucked into this massive wave, the raft is filled with water and spinning around and bouncing up and down while riding this 10 foot wave in the middle of a class 5 rapid. After the first few seconds went by, we were waiting for instructions from our guide. When none came I (Matt) looked behind me and saw that we no longer had a guide. All we had was the guy from Montana, who was most likely high, yelling about how “sick” this was and acting like he was riding a giant bull in the back of the raft. Up in the front, Matt and Josh discussed in a very calm manner how we might escape this experience. In the middle, Erin and Mina were riding it out and hanging on for dear life. I had lost my paddle and was wondering if it would ever end. Our options were limited. We could wait and see if the rapid would spit us out, wait and tip and see if we made it out, or try to jump out. The rapid seemed rather reluctant to let us go, and exiting the raft in the rapid seemed to be a bad idea also. I didn’t really see how individuals floating in the river would be any different than the raft. The last thing I wanted was for us to be cycled back and forth by this wave out of the raft. I guess the best way to describe it is like a giant washing machine, except we would be under water, and that’s not too good. So, this all happened in the span of another 30-35 seconds. I finally decided that if we had the chance, the next time we rode to the top of the wave, Erin and I (I didn’t have time to run the option by her yet) would climb to the high side of the raft and jump out and away from the wave. About the time I was evaluating that option, the wave finally released us and we were in calmer waters. And that was the end of the trip. We later found our guide about 100 yards away in a small eddy. He told us that our “surfing” experience was the most epic one he’s ever seen and he was mad that he missed it. We still have no idea how we lost him. For the remainder of the evening we were all on an adrenaline high, while Ian and some of the other guides were on their marijuana high. That evening we had a huge BBQ dinner and watched the sun set over the Nile river. All in all, it was an awesome trip. The very next day, we got up and did the whole “charter bus” off roading, livestock dodging trip trhough the Great Rift Valley again. This time the driver was even more skilled, code word - insane, than the first and we made it home in 11 hours.
These are just a few of the more adventourous things we have done. Still, these blogs can never fully portray our actual experiences. You’ll just have to come and do it yourself. We’ve only got 2 weeks left here, but they are 2 jam-packed weeks. We will be doing some evangelism with the Masaai in a few days followed by a trip to Tanzania. We can’t wait to see you all soon. Please continue to pray for us. We love you all.