Adventures on the Nile River

Greetings again!

I survived my whitewater excursion on the Nile-- it was an absolute blast. However, I have committed the ultimate dermatologic faux-pas-- I am ridiculously sunburned! I probably shouldn't admit that in a public forum, it could be blackmail material someday.... FYI to all my derm colleagues, mexoryl is NOT waterproof! And yes, I reapplied about every hour, but to no avail. Even the folks wearing waterproof sunscreen got really burnt. I guess our latest technology is no match for a sunny day on the equator. And I am paying the price, let me tell you.

I wish I had pictures of the trip, my camera is not waterproof so I didn't bring it. We left from Kampala at 7 am for the town of Jinja, about 90 minutes away. The river (which originates here in Uganda) is so beautiful. I would guess the river is about three times as wide as the Mississippi in Minneapolis, and very deep, so it appears midnight blue, and surrounded by tropical rainforest. There were monkeys in the trees, and their dragonflies here are cherry red, hot pink, and lime green (no, I was not on drugs, they really are). Little Ugandan kids were on the banks everywhere, playing in the water. There were 4 sets of class 5 rapids, plus many slower ones, pretty scary, but somehow we managed not to flip over and I was one of the few who never got ejected from the boat. At one point, we went over a 15 foot waterfall! Our boat sanwiched in half when we landed, but everyone was OK. The whole operation was American run and the guides were really well trained. Our guide was a Ugandan named TuTu, who is a world class river kayaking champion, and his favorite expression was "SWEEEET"-- I think South Park has finally made its way across the Atlantic, it was like Eric Kartman was in the boat with us. We got to swim for about half the trip as well, where the water was calm, floating down the river in our lifejackets (and hoping their assurances about the lack of crocodiles in this part of the Nile was true-- don't worry, no one got eaten). I went with some other residents who are here from Yale, Harvard and UCSF, they were a lot of fun, and it is nice to get to know some other people my age who are living here.

No real birthday plans today, I need to get some studying and grocery shopping done, but again would love to hear from any of you!

TTFN
Erin