Full Moon Paddle

There is nothing like paddling a run in the dark to see how well you know the lines. A full moon was the perfect opportunity to do a fun Silverback run. As I dropped down the entrance of the Hump, I realized it was probably the highest water level I have seen here in a long time. It was all good to go, but funny as I watched a friend disappear into the big foam pile down at the bottom.

After Bujagali, I floated on down, enjoying the view of the stars and the moon rising from the east. I thought back to all the fun full moon night paddles I have had over the years: midnight sessions on the Special, night rafting trips on the Nugget-Powerhouse run, or even kayaking the entire 34-mile wild and scenic Rogue River in one night. It has always been a test to see how well I know the lines, or just go with it, and hope for the best. Sometimes not being able to see things makes life easier.

My starlit daydreaming was put on hold as I floated through 50/50 to be greeted by spotlights and trucks hard at work. It was a reminder that Salini never stops. They are working 24/7 on the dam and it is one of the few Uganda projects that is actually making progress rather quickly. My friend and I looked at each other, wondering what kind of security they might be having on a night like tonight. We just realized we had to be faster than the one next to you. I figured if they did start pulling out guns, I would just flip and hold my breath as long as I could. We made it out alive, with a fun line down the new Silverback rapid at high water. No guns, no security that saw us, just maybe a few Salini workers wondering what these crazy kayakers were doing on the river at such a late hour. The first few rapids were under the moon, but the rest of the run was fully lit from construction work. Well done.

Staff Rafting Trip

After all these years of this project, which mainly employs Ugandans, none of our staff has ever been rafting before. Most do not even know how to swim, and generally still think we are crazy for being in the river. Some people avoid getting anywhere close to the river after the Idi Amin administration murdered thousands of people and threw the bodies in the river back in 1970s. The river was red with blood as the bodies floated downstream. I understand how these dark memories could haunt someone forever. Anyway, we finally managed to do a staff rafting trip. Everyone was invited to come, but only the brave ones were willing to go for the challenge. We took 8 of our staff members down the day 2 stretch, a mellower big water class 3 section. Only 2 of them know how to swim. However, by the end of the day, I managed to get Livingstone to jump out of the raft and swim downstream in the flats with me. I was impressed. They all had a great time and have already been asking about the next rafting trip. Who knows! Maybe everyone will leave us soon and start guiding for Nile River Explorers.

Salini Tour

Salini is the Italian company that is building the Bujagali dam, funded by the World Bank. Since the dam will flood out many of the homes of the villagers who live on the water, the World Bank is trying to be nice enough to help these people on a short-term basis. Salini has selected 4 surrounding villages on each side of the river to distribute free nets. Although this is against our protocol at Soft Power Health and we do not want any official affiliation with this project, we agreed to at least offer some training and beg them to at least educate the people about malaria and how to use their nets. We had a meeting with the woman who is organizing this project at the Salini construction site. Although she agrees in our subsidized net sale program, the big boss up top at the World Bank does not. Either way, Jessie and I were at the dam site for our quick meeting. Afterwards, we asked if we could get a tour, and sure enough, we were given our neon construction vests and a hard hat and off we went. We drove around the construction site to see the remains of our long lost rapid. The guy told us how cool it was that a particular part of the site used to be an island. I sat there, holding back my actual opinion, and looked down to see what used to be this amazing play spot called the Ugly Sisters wave. We then saw the turbines under construction, the rock-crushing site, and the hundreds of buses and Salini cars. The place felt like a city of its own. It was depressing, but interesting to see it from their perspective. We definitely did not tell them that we were kayakers. Silverback is still up and running. I have heard rumors that it will be around for a while, maybe even until April 2010. I am skeptical to believe what I hear, but we will see. I am enjoying it while I can.

More Flying at Sipi

After doing a few net sales outside of Mbale, we were able to go back up to Sipi. It turned into a good Valentine’s Day weekend of Jessie, Polly, and me. I was able to do a little flying again, which was good fun. A bunch of the kids have made their own mini parachutes now (small plastic garbage bags and some string). It is great to have them release their parachutes so I can see what the wind is doing. However, I am just hoping they do not jump off the mountain with their own homemade gliders anytime soon. Here are some more photos taken by Will Clark. Polly filming The mini parachutes Flying over launch Yikes Down at the landing zone. Quite a crowd!

Nomads #2

The last few weeks have been busy with work, play, and filming. Polly Green has returned to make her next video about the project here in Uganda. She made her film “Nomads” about 3 years ago, just when the clinic was opening. Now she is here working on a follow-up film and a little promo/fundraising video for us. It has been good fun, but always a little interesting to have a camera follow us wherever we go. Fortunately, I am just the sidekick, which makes me happy. Jessie, Polly, and I have been having lots of fun though; we have had plenty of net sales and family planning sessions, kayaking adventures, and dance parties. We have been trying to cram everything in to get those shots that Polly needs. We went down to Kalagala for a park and huck session and spent a little time at the Special before the low water started. Hopefully some of the footage turned out. I think Francis has been enjoying the camera as well (i.e. jumping on the roof of the car with the loud speaker before a net sale, or emphasizing the condom demonstration with the black dildo at the family planning sessions). I never thought I would become a stunt devil but who knew! Hopefully Polly has what she needs.

Inauguration

Today seems to be as much of a holiday in Uganda as it is back in the US. I sat down in the same place I was 11 weeks earlier, where I watched Obama give his acceptance speech in Chicago. There I was again, surrounded by plenty of Ugandans and a few Americans. We were all very excited to watch this historical moment. Today is the first time I have been proud of my president in a long time. It feels kind of nice. Who would have thought?

Blasting at Silverback

Well, Silverback has started to change again. After diverting the Ugly Sisters channel in August 2007 (date?), Silverback has become a bigger, surging rapid. However, the dam company has now started to blast on river left at Silverback. It used to be a nice, lush jungle but now it is full of huge, loose boulders that were pushed into the river. The channel has become a bit narrower and the standard line has changed. My first time down after the blasting, I cut hard right and still got pushed into the eddy on the top left. Rumors have it that Silverback will be closed off by the end of this month, but I am hesitant to believe it. We will see what happens.