I’m turning 27 tomorrow, which feels closer to 30 than I currently am to 25, yet I feel the same as I did at 22. I’m a little less confused, a little more confident, a little better in any ways; I’m smarter and more physically fit. I’ve experienced tragedy, loss, love, wonder, fear, discomfort and adversity. I’ve been to nine countries on four continents and spent 450 hours traveling 215,000 miles by plane — thats almost one quarter of a year at cruising altitude! So much has happened during this time, and I want to tell the stories from my adventures.
March, 2016 — Kampala, UG
My second time in Africa felt like reuniting with a friend; we were familiar but had so much to learn. I’d just recently had a Zygomatic Orbital fracture and had it surgically repaired with three metal plates. The swelling from the recovery made me smile lopsided, which was a shame because smiling is one of my favorite things.
Three of our closest friends were able to coordinate their visit during the same week. Nicole and I (mostly Nicole) planned many adventures including white-water rafting, safaris, waterfall explorations, and camping along the Nile River.
The first morning we slowly eased into things because adjusting to a nine hour time difference after a 22 hour flight can be rough. We were catching up over juice and coffee, which is some of the best in the world, and discussed the plans for the week.
Our first adventure included an 8 hour car ride along bumpy dirt roads to Murchison, where we saw lions, hippos, water buffalo, a Shoebill stork, and the most powerful waterfall in the world — Murchison Falls. Along the way we did some gift shopping and I found an awesome ebony-wood cudgel.
We drove 10 hours to Jinja and stayed at the Nile River Explorers Camp, which offered in white water rafting and kayaking, but Nicole and I did SUPs because of my surgery. The rest of the gang went rafting and that evening we celebrated like we had just conquered a river expedition. However, a local rummaged through our stuff and took our cash and Katie’s iPhone… Not cool.
PSA — if you’re using apple devices and you haven’t enabled ‘Find My iPhone/Mac/iPad’ do that now.
Fortunately Katie WAS using iCloud, so we enabled ‘Find My iPhone’ and a small dot appeared on a grid, but the terrain wasn’t loading because we were far away from the city. I believed that I could chase down this dot using proximity and strategic guesswork, but I wasn’t safe to drive and so I ask Ross if he could take the wheel while I navigated.
The dirt roads are formidable opponents to even the most experienced drivers in Uganda, let alone a first-timer… despite this challenge, Ross courageously pressed on as I shouted “Faster! We’re gaining on them!” But I failed to properly guess the direction of the assailant, which left us in complete darkness at an unknown crossroad which hopefully lead in their direction…
We decided to take the unknown road and back-track if we were wrong again, but we couldn’t afford to be wrong twice…
The iPhone was on ‘lost mode’ and blaring an alarm with a message that read “Drop this phone, I’m hunting you down!” I wanted to instill the fear of God into the thief.
Our truck was hopping over the large mounds and kicked up dirt as we dodged massive potholes. Ross was trembling as he drove faster than the roads would recommend, but we were gaining on them…
“… 200 meters… 100 meters… they’re just up ahead!” I shouted. “They stopped, it’s right here!” I declared, as we looked into the dimly illuminated dirt ahead.
We were the only source of light in our periphery.
I needed something to defend myself if the thief were to put up a fight, so I kicked open the car door and I grabbed the only thing that looked like a weapon — my selfie stick. Swoosh! I extended the stick with a sweeping motion and pretended it was a baton. I had no intention of hurting the thief, but I wanted to intimidate and slap the heck out of him if it came to that.
Ross didn’t know wether to stay with Katie or leave her in the car on the unknown road, but Katie insisted he support me and lock the doors. The moment was tense as the only two sounds that broke the silence were the alarm my growls of “DROP THE PHONE!” But he’d already dropped it — the pone was on the ground in front of a small dirt hut.
“Is this where I get my arm chopped off?”
I thought to myself as I slowly crouched down and reached out my free hand out to pickup the phone in front of the pitch-black doorway. I recovered the phone and we ran back to the car and hustled back toward the camp as if we were the ones being chased.
Our adrenaline levels peaked as we made our way to camp and I’d realized I forgot about the cudgel wrapped in newspaper on the floor… it was a shame the selfie-stick had been sacrificed, pretending to be a weapon.
We returned to camp victorious, and our small section of friends welcomed us with cheers. Ross and I were heroes! We trekked into the dark unknown to chase after a thief. We restored balance to the world without anyone being harmed. Ross wasn’t used to this much attention and didn’t know how to contain his enthusiasm.
That night we slept like rocks, refined and hardened from our courage being tested, but mostly from the sodas and adrenaline crash.
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