The Waterfall Sparkled
The waterfall sparkled. I mean it literally sparkled. The ground is naturally rich in mica and my skin couldn’t stop sparkling for days. I got to carry a bit of Murchison Falls around with me for a short time.
Our trip started out in typical African fashion. Did you get anxiety when I said that? Because you should have. African fashion is usually synonymous with a beautiful disaster. Our driver was supposed to arrive at 4 p.m. He showed up at 5:30. We had to go and switch cars because one is a company car for Krochet Kids (an awesome nonprofit in Gulu), so we wouldn’t have to pay for it. After switching out the cars, we went to the gas station where men began to change our tire, we had to replace a couple of parts and buy oil for the clutch. An hour later, we departed from the gas station. Our driver had to drop off something with his brother, so we proceeded to go to two different locations to track him down. At this point, it was 7:30 and the gate into Murchison closes at 7:30. We called and attempted to offer the gatekeepers money to keep the gate open for us. The woman on the other end said, in a Ugandan accent, “That is called a bribe. And it might work.” And then, all of a sudden, our car was broken down and our dreams of heading to Murchison that night broke with it. We were about an hour outside of Gulu, the sun was minutes from completely disappearing, and I had my Taser out and at the ready. 4 muzungu (Swahili for white person, literally translates to “aimless wanderer” or “white person who walks in circles”) girls in a broken down car in the middle of Uganda at night is a recipe for disaster. We were in good spirits, though, laughing at the outrageous situation we were in. One girl even poured us all an adult beverage (I’m talking whiskey out of plastic bags). 30 minutes later, we were back on the road (the Ugandans can fix anything with whatever they have around them) and headed home to Gulu Town. Tomorrow we would try again.
My alarm went off at 5 a.m. and we had rounded the troops by 5:45. I went with Natasha from Krochet Kids, who is here for the summer as their photographer. She’s from Canada and has a sick accent. Stephanie and Devon also joined us from Bicycles Against Poverty. Stephanie is here for the summer doing research and Devon is here for 6 months as an intern. One of my favorite parts of being here is that you get to meet people who are like you. These people gave up precious time and their lives to come and fight for something they believe in. There were times in Chapel Hill and San Diego that I would think to myself “why do these people not care about what I care about?” But these people do.
We were on the bumpy road for about 2 hours until we finally reached the game park. We took a boat across the Nile and saw hippos and crocodiles. Did you know a hippo is the most dangerous animal in the world? I think we were all low key freaking out that they were so close and our boat was so small. And then we saw it. The most powerful waterfall in the world. We hiked up to the top as my body collected glitter and I sweat about half my body weight.
It was one of those moments where nature makes you feel so small, you know the one? It’s like when you stand beside an ocean and it makes you feel utterly insignificant and yet inexplicably empowered all at once. This waterfall would crush you in a moment and yet it brought a peace about the atmosphere that I could never convey with words or photos.
We went to check into where we were staying and, as the employee was showing us to our room, he warned us about, and I quote, “the hippo that wanders around the campsite at night”. He proceeded to tell us about how to react if a hippo should threaten us. I laughed and insisted (multiple times) that he must be joking. No. This was very real. Welcome to Uganda, I guess.
That night and the next morning we went on a game ride. We sat on top of the car, which may or may not have been the best idea, but I’m still alive, so in hindsight it was worth it. We saw kob, giraffes, elephants, water buffalo, hippos, an antelope maybe?, warthogs and many others that I am either forgetting or don’t know the name of. We also got the absolute privilege of setting our eyes upon a lioness and her three cubs (thankfully we were inside of the car at this point).
I was sitting on top of that car, feet locked under the rail, my camera in my lap, giraffes and elephants around me, sitting next to people who I never would have met if I hadn’t said yes to this adventure, the Ugandan wind blowing in my face (as well as insects of all kinds), a little carsick and I had another moment. This was the kind of moment when you feel as though you can feel the edges of the world at your fingertips. The moment is nearly tangible and then it’s gone. But the memory of that feeling is adrenaline and hope and everything in between. It is God. It is Uganda.
"Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."
-Paulo Coelho The Alchemist
