Week 8 - Blisters and Bungee Jumping: A lesson in spontaneity

Well, I don't consider myself an extremely spontaneous person, but lately I have found that sometimes it pays off to do things without thinking about them too much.

On Wednesday, I was about to eat lunch at the small restaurant across the street from our flats when I received a phone call from the director at the Epilepsy Support Association of Uganda (ESAU). That morning, I had contacted him about the possibility of attending a general assembly meeting. I have become interested in studying epilepsy in Uganda, particularly the psychosocial aspects of the disorder, and I thought that attending this meeting might be a good way to show the organization that I was interested in their cause and would like to work with them further.

Now, I received this phone call around 1:40 p.m. The director explained that the best meeting for me to attend was that afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and that it wasn't that far from the university. Of course, I questioned briefly whether or not it was worth it for me to go to this meeting. I wasn't really sure where it was or how useful it would actually be for me to attend. I could have easily said that I was sorry and that I wouldn't be able to make it, eaten my lunch, and worked on my assignment due that evening. Instead, I ran to my room, changed into a nicer outfit, and googled the location of the meeting. I ran back to the restaurant, left money with the others ordering food, and took off to find the meeting.

I let the director know that I would be late and began walking in what I thought was the direction of the hotel where the meeting was being held. Let's just say that I asked at least fifteen people for directions on the way to this meeting, and I certainly walked twice the distance that I actually needed to. This whole time I could feel the blisters forming on the bottoms of my feet, but I kept walking. Eventually, I got to the meeting (about an hour late) and was introduced to everyone in the room as I tried to quietly take a seat in the back. The meeting was informative, but more importantly, I met many of the people involved in the national operations of the organization face-to-face. They were all very nice to me, and I knew that this would be an organization that would want to work with. Since the meeting, I have gone to the national office and found that the impressions I gained at this general assembly meeting were correct.

Overall, I'm glad that I made the split-second decision to go to the meeting. Even though I got terrible blisters (my feet are still recovering), I made great connections with people at ESAU and showed my enthusiasm for working with the organization.

Lesson two in spontaneity is a little less serious. This past weekend, we went to Jinja for white water rafting. We also had the option to go bungee jumping. Now, I have never really had a desire to go bungee jumping. I do love roller coasters, the giant drop and the like, but jumping from a platform with just a rope tied to my feet was never something I felt particularly inclined to do. But I thought, 'Hey, when am I going to get the chance to bungee jump over the Nile River again in my life?' And that pretty much sealed my fate.

Deciding to jump off of a 44 meter-high platform while standing on the ground is a lot easier than actually making that jump off of that 44 meter-high platform, though. I would say I remained pretty calm as I climbed up to the platform, and I was even pretty calm as they tied my feet together. I started to freak out a little bit when they asked me to hop to the side of the platform. I was even more freaked out when they told me to shuffle so that my toes were hanging off of the edge. I looked down when I was told not to, and then all of the guys yelled, "Three, two, one, bungee!" and I just had to jump.

I'll admit, it was pretty amazing, and I'd certainly do it again. I'm glad that I didn't let my fear prevent me from signing up to jump and that it didn't prevent me from jumping when I was standing at the edge of the platform.

So again, I'm glad that I did something spontaneous, something outside of my comfort zone. I'm already planning my next daredevil stunt. Bungee jumping has certainly made me brave.

Location: Kampala, Jinja