So this past weekend I got to experience the Circle of Life! I went to Queen Elizabeth National Park near the Congolese border. We left early on a Friday morning and arrived in the afternoon. The trip was comfortable and the only excitement to note during our travels was when our can of strawberry jam exploded in our bag of snacks! It was a nasty, sticky red mess! But we hardly noticed because about the same time we noticed we had just entered the park and saw an elephant off in the distance! You would have thought the Vikings had won three consecutive games ☺ (that is if the van would have been full of Minnesotans) by the way everyone cheered and celebrated the sighting.
The park was absolutely gorgeous! It is adjacent to the Rwenzori Mountain range, which was indescribable! The flatness of the plain all of a sudden juts up into the clouds and it’s such a sudden change it surprises your eyes. There were two huge, beautiful lakes (George and Edward) near where we were staying. It was all so stinkin’ picturesque! When we were setting up our camp there were a couple neighboring warthogs hanging out nearby and one of them came over and snatched a girls bag and started dragging it away! After we rescued the bag I was told by our driver Francis to arm myself with a stick (it was about as long as my forearm and I seriously doubted it’s effectiveness against a big Pumba!) and guard the bags. The second neighbor we met that night was a massive hippo that walked about 30 yards away from our tents. We all were so enthralled that we started to walk over to get good pictures until someone reminded us that they are really dangerous and can run faster than us so we backed away and said a silent prayer that we wouldn’t get trampled in our tents :P
Later that night Kurty and I got the opportunity to continue our dominance in Rook. We are pretty much unbeatable so anyone wishing to challenge us when we get back start practicing now ☺ We played against Justin Lane (our fellow Bethel man) and John Riley (from Gordon College) out under the stars. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We did it two nights in a row. It was incredible to be under the night sky and hear hippos, warthogs, bush buck, and even a lion! Yes, lion. It was farther away, but obviously not that far away because we could hear it. We think it killed something to eat so we felt good about it having a full stomach for the night! The whole time playing cards in that park provided endless moments where you just sat back and said, “Holy Moses, I’m in Africa!” It also helped the mood that Kurty and I went 3 and 0, and sometimes in dramatic fashion!
On Saturday we went on two sessions of safariing, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. We saw a hippo’s backside from far away, many more of Pumba’s relatives, and an antelope with cancer. Haha We also saw elephants up super close, bush buck, water buffalo, and lions! In the afternoon we go to be in the van that had a top that popped up so we could sit on the roof and see everything. This little adjustment made the safari immensely more enjoyable. The view improved greatly and Kurty and Megan and I had a great time taking pictures and joking with each other. I almost fell off a couple times because of how far our van titled on the road, but that just added to the excitement. We saw lions again this time and they had little cubs! We were probably about 40-50 yards away. It was glorious! On the way back to the campsite we had to stop for a crossing of about 5 elephants and when we looked around we saw that there were about 6 more in the bushes. I was in awe at the size of them and also at the realization that if they charged I wouldn’t be able to do much.
In between the safari’s Kurty and I went to the lodge to write a history paper and we walked into a completely new world. It was probably the nicest resort I have ever been too. The lodge was unbelievable. It was gorgeous and I felt super out of place in my shorts and cutoff. We each got a pop, mine was a pineapple Mirinda, which is the best pop I’ve ever had, but it was out of this world cold! It tasted amazing! Later when we lost focus we watched Remember the Titans and had coffee (I had three cups, which is maybe why the second safari was so enjoyable because I was wired!).
At supper that night we ate at a buffet and I left about 12 pounds heavier! There was cooked vegetables, fruit salad (with passion fruit seeds that crunch, mmmmm!), noodles, chicken, and irish potatoes. I even tried a gizzard! It actually tasted fine. Mama, you can start cooking me up some of those at home ☺ We sat with our other driver Vincent and all laughed soo hard. He is a great guy and at one point we were
talking about why he was named his name and we then got on the subject of what he would name each of us. He gave Kurty a name that meant beautiful and me a name that meant one who shows love to everyone. I like Vincent ☺
The ride home was a little less enjoyable. I got pretty sick because of some intense smells that my sensitive nose picked up and made me nauseous. Also, I had a moment of intense homesickness when I was reading for class and stumbled upon a word that reminded me of home. I haven’t experienced that intense emotion here yet so it shocked me a bit. I felt kind of dumb because I’m doing great, but mostly because the word that set it off was “wantonness” and I have no idea why that triggered anything. I have no idea what the significance of that is…I don’t think I’ve ever used it, or heard anyone in my family use it. I’m wondering if the feeling and the word are at all correlated…?? Maybe it was just coincidence. Anyways, despite this small set back I had a wonderful weekend!
How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
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