End of Safari

Sorry for not posting earlier. The internet service was too slow and I couldn't get to the blog. In a previous post I had stated we would be taking a safari in Jinja. I was wrong. The safari portion of our trip took place 186 miles North of Kampala on the shores of the Nile River. The place where we stayed is known as Paraa Safari Lodge. I know many in our team whom would have preferred skipping the safari portion entirely and dedicate this time to working with the children we came to visit. However, it seems it is common to do a safari once people are in Africa. There were also some logistic issues that prevented us from visiting the kids earlier. The safari portion of our trip was nice, though I can't imagine spending thousands of dollars to travel from the US only to do a safari.

I do want to share, a few extra special moments that will stay with me forever. These special moments didn't occur when we finally saw a lion, or when we found ourselves in the middle of a heard of elephants, in the dark of the falling knight. What was truly special to me was being still before God's magnificent creation. Last night we were going back to the lodge, late enough that we couldn't see animals. We came across a few giraffes, we knew they were there only because we could see their silhouettes against the horizon. We stopped the car and we asked the driver to turn the engine off. That's when it happened. We could hear and smell Africa and nothing else. It seems for the first time I realized where we were. We were still before God and his creation, in the middle of Africa. That was a special moment I couldn't capture with a camera and I can't even begin to describe in writing. It is one of those moments that I will take with me until I die.

Once I began to see the safari from this perspective, I began looking for such special moments. The following morning (the 31st) we got up early and went on another drive. Again, we found ourselves still before God at sunrise.

The last part of our Safari adventure turned out to be eventful. We took a boat ride on the Nile River, upstream towards Murchison Falls. We saw lots of hippos, a few crocodile, a couple of elephants, etc. The eventful part was when seven of us decided to go on a hike to Murchison Falls and ride by car back to the lodge, rather than going back to the lodge on the boat. As soon as we said goodbye to the rest of the team heading back to the lodge on the boat it started raining, then there was thunder, then, there was laughter. For some reason we thought it was hilarious to be caught in a storm. For some reason, the falls look small in this picture. The fact is there were too falls and they were both very impressive.

There is so much to tell about this one hour hike but the highlight may have been being at the top of the water falls and getting drenched by the powerful mist blowing up from the falls. To get back to the Lodge we needed to catch a ride to the river and then catch the last ferry at 7PM. During our drive we came across these mischievous guys. They were on the side of the road, about 15 feet from our van. They didn't seem to care we were there.

The red dirt road was slippery and a bit dangerous but we had to go fast or miss the ferry. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. Again and again we are reminded how blessed we are to be here. Big smiles and friendly faces are everywhere.