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

Week 8- Our last adventure

This past weekend we went to Jinja on our last trip of the program. The scheduled activities were white water rafting down the Nile and bungee jumping over the Nile. Rafting was good fun for everyone, except two of us who wanted the boat to flip the least each fell out of the boat. My flip happened on the very last rapid of the day and involved a few minor injuries. The experience reinforced just how much I'm not cut out for outdoor activities. I much prefer seeing and experiencing nature from a safe distance, not as up close and personal as being sucked underwater in huge rapids. But that's beside the point. Most of the day was fun and I'll simply be avoiding rafting for the foreseeable future. On Sunday, people had the opportunity to go bungee jumping. As you can probably guess from my previous comments, that's not an activity for me. I have absolutely no desire to leap off of a platform hundreds of feet in the air, feel like I"m going to crash into the water, or be jerked back up by the elastic bungee cable. Instead, I enjoyed watching my friends take this crazy leap from a safe distance. While they all really enjoyed it, my favorite part was hearing the screaming and cursing that occurred as they made their initial fall. One guy even touched the Nile river upside down--and by touch I mean he was dunked up to his waist. All in all, it was a fun weekend, but we all left exhausted.

As much fun as I had, the end of the weekend signaled the very significant reality that our program is almost over. We have been on our last trip with Dan and Centurio, taken our last drive out of Kampala, and are now down to 11 days of exams, papers, and presentations before our program in Uganda officially ends. Thrown into the last week are 3 birthdays which should be great fun! But aside from that, it's hard to believe that we've been in Uganda for 8.5 weeks and our time as a group is quickly coming to an end. It feels like I'm just starting to get the hang of this city and now the program is over. Luckily, most of the group is actually planning to stay for some portion of the summer. I think only 2 of the 9 of us are set on leaving Uganda for good next week. I'm looking forward to having people to spend time with once the summer is upon us. And, as much as I have loved this program, I'm also excited to finally be able to focus on my research. Our lectures and trips have been great, but it's hard to really settle in and get involved in a project when your time and focus are constantly being pulled in multiple directions. As our program comes to a close, I'm sad to see certain experiences end and people leave, but I'm looking forward to what the summer will bring.

Location: Jinja, Kampala