In de-Nile of the craziness my life has become

On this trip, I realized that I really do have a psychological need to not be landlocked for a long time. I grew up on an island, a thin strip of land on the sea called Cebu. We went to the beach all the time with my family and friends, and riding boats was just another ordinary way of life. So was driving around the city and seeing the sea right by the road, as well as the silhouettes of other islands in the distance. Sure, it was scorching hot all the time, but you could easily get into a pool whenever, and water was in abundance at home.

Theoretically speaking, I could live okay without running water, having to fetch it from somewhere whenever I take a bath. As long as there is air to breathe and food to eat, I could physically live in a landlocked country. However, I guess I’ve come to take the presence of water everywhere–or at the very least nearby like I have it in Oregon and Boston–as a sign that all is right with the world. (With my world, more specifically, because I do realize that some people don’t care much for the ocean or being on boats, and that’s fine. As another example, at home in Kigali, I quite like washing my own clothes, because I get to work with water.) So as nonsensical as it is to say, my being sick for most of the Uganda trip up until the end was probably a result of periodically being sick, the intense heat, and the lack of large bodies of water and of easy accessibility to water at home in Kigali and at times on the trip I had been facing. There’s just something about seeing the ocean or spending time in/on water that’s so rejuvenating to me, and it’s always been that way for as long as I can remember, so of course, the cruise that our group took on the Nile River was a game changer for me.

After our week-long visit to Gulu, we drove to the western part of the country to a place called Murchison Falls National Park. It’s a huge park, around 1,500 mi2, and the Nile River cuts through it. Though it’s not exactly the ocean or even a lake, it was still a significant body of water. I mean, isn’t it the longest river in the world or something? It’s a very famous body of water, so I got really excited to see it. After driving through savannah and already seeing various antelope and an elephant crossing the dirt path in front of us, we arrived at the edge of the water. I over-eagerly jumped off the bus and ran towards it, also standing by this metal globe with a label right by where we were. I reminded myself that I was in the middle of East Africa, which was an interesting thing to think about, looking at all the other places on the globe I’ve found myself in. While waiting for the boat to arrive, it started raining. As I took shelter underneath a gazebo with with some of my friends, one of them told me she wanted to hear the ukulele and offered to take it from the bus. She then walked in the rain over to where the bus was, grabbed my ukulele, and brought it to me. I enthusiastically started playing and singing with some of my friends. Soon after that though, the boat arrived, so I decided  might as well take it with me on board rather than walk back to the bus.

It was one of those boats that had an open air upper deck, so I immediately headed up there. When the boat started moving upstream and I could feel the breeze, I couldn’t help but think to myself that that was the happiest I had felt the entire semester. Even when it started raining, I stayed up, the rain on the river a huge relief after the intense heat of Gulu. As we cruised, we could see hippos lounging in the shallows, the tops of their heads and ears just visible. We even saw a crocodile, and on a hill above us, an elephant eating leaves from a tree. It was all so peaceful. I’m not a huge nature fanatic, but anything to do with water works magic on me.

Hippos, and an elephant on that island in the background!

More hippos

Another elephant

Some of the locals and a park ranger

We shared the group with two Dutch girls around my age (or very slightly older), so naturally I started talking to them. I commented about how much I like the Netherlands and mentioned the airport for some reason. One of the girls was impressed with my pronunciation of “Schiphol,” saying she hadn’t heard a foreigner pronounce it that well before, so I credit my Dutch pen pal for teaching me the proper way to say it last summer! They asked me what I study at college, and I replied with the usual, “anthropology” and didn’t know what to expect back as a reply. However, I heard the best possible response when one of the girls told me, “Hey, we just got our bachelors in anthropology from the University of Amsterdam!” We were amused at the connection because anthropology people are hard to come by, but I suppose you’re most likely to meet them traveling, like we were. One of them was just visiting while spending time after getting her diploma figuring out what she wants to do in life, and the other one was doing her field work for a masters in African Studies in Gulu about child soldiers. It was such an unexpected encounter, but considering the people I somehow meet on my travels, I’m not that surprised. It reminded me of how I met up with a German girl in Leipzig who had also spent significant time in Bolivia (we were connected through mutual friends from there), and she asked me the same what do you study question, and she replied, “That’s so funny, me too!” Needless to say, I’m proud to consider myself as part of that quirky group of anthropology students and am always happy to meet more, and can’t wait to tell my anthro friends back home at Harvard about it all.

Somewhere in the middle of the ride, I couldn’t resist taking out my ukulele and strumming a few tunes. For some reason there’s a certain subset of people who really love the song You and I by Ingrid Michaelson, so I sang it with two other girls from my group, complete with funny interpretive dance moves. Someone took a video and I need to find who has it! I also sang some songs in Spanish with my friend in the group who’s from Panama, which she loved, and then by request also did La Vie en Rose. One of the girls is super good at harmonizing, so when I sang it in English it sounded just beautiful. The other people on the boat, including a group of local men, all really enjoyed it. They looked excited whenever I took it out and started singing with my friends, and even asked me at one point if we were part of a band. I told him no, we were students, we just liked singing.

Isabelle from Panama and me singing some songs in Spanish, taken by my friend Isa

One of my favorite photos of me ever taken, credits to my friend Dani

Needless to say, being on a boat on this impressive body of water and having my ukulele with me to make music with my lovely friends was a blast. I’ve spent many happy moments in my life doing these particular things individually (just not on THE NILE) or in different combinations, but that particular instance will stay engraved in my memory as one of the most happy.

The next day, we went on a game drive around the safari. I wasn’t even aware we were doing the 4-hour long excursion until the night before, so I got super excited. What kid at heart wouldn’t want to go on safari? I got really excited seeing all the animals. Here, let me post some pics and let those speak for me.

Sunrise on the Nile, since we started the day super early

Road blocks 

Our wonderful bus, which took us all over Uganda and around the savannah

Having fun literally on the bus

Elephant spotted

Some giraffes sadly running away from us

I came across the Nile again when we took a break by the Albert Nile from driving around on our bus. It was a very clear sunny day, and at the edge of the water we could see hippos lounging about. I also noticed some people on rowboats, who our tour guide told me were local fishermen. I couldn’t help but appreciate the brief glimpse I got into their everyday life, much of it spent on the river which to me was so grand. Not very many people get to say that they encounter hippos on their day jobs, and I vaguely imagined what it would be like to be on those boats with them. I suppose no matter what, deep down inside there’ll always be the anthropologist part of me, which is something I’m glad to never lose.

Lovely picture of the fishermen, also taken by Dani

As of writing this entry it has been many days since I left the Nile River. I don’t know why I feel like it's so special, but to me it just is, and being able to experience it was definitely a high point in this semester. The happiness I felt being by it will certainly carry me through the seven weeks that I have left in Africa. I’m so ready!

(As a side note though I’m definitely seeing it again when I visit Egypt. Just wait.)