Tibani! Tibani! Tibani!

So Saturday morning, we woke up early to travel to Jinja to… raft the Nile!!! My new favorite hobby is white water rafting. Why have I never done it before? Probably because I would never accomplish anything and just want to raft all the time.

Anyway, the bus took us to Jinja where we signed our life away and ate a scrumptious breakfast of pineapple and chapatti (f.y.i. the pineapple here is delectable). We strapped into our life jackets and helmets, grabbed our paddle, and selected our raft mates. I was privileged enough to be in the all -girls raft consisting of Blythe, Kaile, Megan, Melissa, Nicole, and Jessica. Our raft guide’s name was Tibani. Oh how we loved Tibani. He had been navigating the Nile for longer than I’ve been alive so I felt pretty secure. Did I mention that the Nile is a Class 5 Rapid? Because it is. And the highest is a Class 6.

Anyway, he asked for the strong ones who didn’t mind getting wet to sit in the front. My lovely raft-mates volunteered me. Great, let’s put the rookie in the front. So Nicole and I took the helm, full of psyche, quoting epic movie lines like “You shall not pass!” and “For Aslan!” to pump ourselves up. If you ever want a raft partner that will keep you excited enough to not be scared, go with Nicole. She rocks. But we decided we needed an official war cry to chat while going down rapids. It was in honor of our trusty guide: “Tibani! Tibani! Tibani!”

Our first Class 5 Rapid was called Silverback, alluding to Gorillas. Tibani told us that there were 4 waves to this one. The left side of the boat had to lean in on the first to waves while paddling hard. “But then,” he said, “we get to the third and fourth waves… which are disturbing.” Disturbing? Bring it. So we hit the first and second waves, and then this mountain of water rages in front of us and Tibani yells, “Get down! Get down!” We pull ourselves into the raft as the waves crash on top of us. Afterward Tibani said to me, “It was like you didn’t see what the rest of us saw.” Apparently, I was the last one to pull my paddle in. Yes, I claim to be hard core, for once in my life.

We conquered the first 4 rapids without tipping (which we might or might not have rubbed in the faces of the rest of our team who had tipped twice J). Tibani said we were good paddlers and we were feeling pretty confident. Then came the Falls. Tibani gave us specific instructions like he did for every rapid. We had to paddle hard to make it over the Falls or we would get stuck. So we went for it, paddled hard, and… ended up vertically on the face of a rock. “Don’t move!” Tibani shouted at us. I assure you, I had no plans to the contrary as I hung vertically at the top of the raft. Eventually, we got unstuck and took the route next to the Falls.

Lunch was more pineapple and the African special of Glucose Biscuits. Yummy. We then had a long stretch of flat water so we got to jump off the raft and swim in the Nile. The setting was absolutely gorgeous (the clouds here are breath-taking), the company fantastic, and all I could think at this moment was: “Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.”

In my opinion, Tibani was getting a little bored and decided to make the next rapid interesting. Since I was in the front, I always got a great view of the wall of water that would shortly descend upon us. And on the Rapid “Bugobo,” that wall of water won. We tipped and we tumbled through the water for what seemed like a few minutes. That was quite a thrill. But I didn’t try to swim like Tibani advised and shortly saw light and caught a breath of air. The supply boat was right next to me and the guide used one hand to pull me up into the boat. So our pride was broken because we flipped, but it was such a rush that it was worth it.

It was an amazing day! We hit two other rapids that were pretty threatening or “disturbing” as Tibani would say, but we didn’t flip again. We were all sunburned, bruised, and some of us had battle wounds by the end. As we gazed out upon the Nile eating our barbecue dinner, we wished we could do it all again. We completely agreed with the slogan of the organization that led the tour: “Probably the best rafting in the world.”