BEST SAFARI EVER!!

So Safari started a bit rough. We woke up Saturday with 4 green-looking sick people who were frequenting the bathroom to either puke or 1.5 (not a 1, not a 2, basically diarrhea) We were a rugged-looking bunch and I honestly questioned whether or not we would all make it to Murchison Falls. We loaded into two Mutatus and drove out to Anaka... this is about an 1 1/2 drive on dirt roads that have crazy potholes and ditches from the rain and it's insanely bumpy! We were so happy to see them all... and get out of the Mutatu!

Anaka was amazing – Pope Paul is a school that was displaced to Gulu 16 years ago. Earlier this year they moved the school back to the original location. It’s been an interesting transition as many teachers still have their family located in Gulu and travel back on the weekends. This transition has caused many teachers to have to balance teaching responsibilities in Anaka with household responsibilities in Gulu. Many have missed classes on Monday and Friday since they are still traveling back and forth. This has been frustrating for our Anaka people, who hurry back Sunday night only to be met with no teachers on Monday morning.

I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be forced to move from your home, settle in another for 16 years, and then have to uproot yourself again to move back to a home that is no longer yours. Some of the students at Anaka would have been small children when the war displaced them. They are moving back to an area they have no memory of. I often wonder if they are resentful of leaving Gulu town or if they are happy to return to their smaller village.

Awere is another school that is planning on returning to its original village next year. Awere is located right outside of town and the students live very close to town center. They will be moving back to a village smaller than Anaka’s. (Anaka’s main street is one dirt road block with all the shops on it… there is also a hospital and a parish and that’s pretty much it!) I am interested in seeing how their transition plays out next year.

But wait… back to Safari!

After the Anaka visit, we then piled back into the Mutatus…sigh. (plus our Anaka peeps) We continued on for another 2 hours on much the same bumpy roads until we came to the Nile in Murchison Falls National Park. We dodged the aggressive baboons looking for food while we waited to load onto a two-story boat and cruise the Nile for 4 hours. It was so wonderful to be on the water… so relaxing and lovely. (some of us were downstairs throwing up over the railings…maybe not so relaxing or lovely for them!) Those of us feeling well sat on top and some of us even napped after a while. Apparently there is a limit to how many hippos you can get excited over.

The boat ride felt a little like the Jungle Boat ride at Disneyland, except the animals were real and no one was telling those amazingly unfunny jokes that I used to be able to repeat from memory!

After the boat ride we climbed back into the Mutatus and drove to Red Chili campground. They are about a kilometer from the Nile and we were warned about warthogs roaming and searching for food. I thought they meant it was a possibility until we saw three hanging out as we ate dinner. Warthogs were more of a guarantee. We ate dinner, had another one of us go down with the sickness, and turned in. We slept in tents with cots. They were great until we realized that the mosquito nets were so low they grazed our faces and feet. It completely defeats the purpose of the nets to keep the malaria mosquitoes away from you if they can still bite you through the net!

I found a three by three foot square that I could curl up in and actually had a really nice night of sleep. Despite the net and the shower cap… oh yes, we all slept in shower caps that night. There was a small lice outbreak after safari last time. We aren’t really sure where the lice came from, probably not even there, but we were not taking any chances. Shower caps for all! I also slept through the warthogs grunting around our tent for about 40 minutes. Though I’ll take the warthogs over the hippo that was outside Brit and Sarah K.’s tent any day! They described the noise it made eating as a trash compactor outside their tent. They peeked out the window only to see a broad back and two tiny ears. They both jumped back into one bed and whispered scared nothings into each other’s ears until it moved away. They then watched as it crossed over to Eric’s tent and ate some more (Eric slept through this!) and then as it walked away. I guess that’s what we get for sleeping so close to the Nile!

The next morning we woke at 5:20 and stumbled down to the Mutatus. We had to get up early in order to get a good spot in line for the ferry across the Nile, which is where we had to pick up our guide. We watched the sunrise-ish over the Nile. I say rise-ish because it was so overcast it rose behind the clouds… still beautiful. We finally picked up our guide and climbed on top of the Mutatus. This involved climbing up, using the window ledge, onto the luggage rack, sitting on a pillow and holding on for dear life as the Mutatu bounced over rugged dirt roads. Dust and wind numbing your face, your hair whipping around your head, and you can’t shake the giant smile that spreads from ear to ear. It was breath-taking to see the landscape and animals from a luggage-eye view. We saw elephants, giraffes, tons of deer, (Kobe, Club, Heart beasts etc.) warthogs, (and then promptly sang Hakuna Matata) birds in amazingly bright colors, water buffalo, and of course LIONS!!! It is actually rare, at least for Teacher Exchange peeps, to see lions on Safari. We missed them the first time, but our guide, Simon, took us back and we were about 50 feet from them. I have to say that I suddenly felt very exposed, perched up on that luggage rack. There were two females who promptly flopped down and napped and one male hiding in the bush. The safari was amazing to begin with, we so close to so many different animals, but somehow the lion made it complete. We were all silently cheering and trying to snap pics before our batteries ran out. Mine ended just as we left the lions and it was my last shot. It was a great way to end the day!

After that we climbed back into the Mutatu and reversed our drive from the day before. We sadly left our Anaka peeps and tried to sleep on the bumpy road back to Gulu. We showered, ate, watched a movie on Brit’s laptop and crawled into bed. A successful Safari, but I woke up sore from trying to keep myself upright and unbruised on the luggage rack. Totally worth it!

This weekend is our trip to Fort Patiko with our teaching partners. Irene and her husband are coming so it should be great fun. I also saw Charles (teacher’s husband from last year) on the way to school today and we have tentatively planned to meet up some time on Sunday. It’s been a pretty good week! My time here this year is flying by so much faster than last year, though they days seem so much more full. Can’t wait to see you all, but don’t want to leave yet!

But Maber,
Jolene