Safari at Murchison Falls

This past weekend was our safari at Murchison Falls. On Friday night we went out in town to say good-bye to the group 2 Teacher-Exchange teachers (which means we are down to our final two weeks). Saturday morning instead of excitedly getting ready, we were trying to comfort the sick members of our group. A total of four people were feeling miserable. We passed around the immodium and advil and convinced them to still come for the trip.

To say the van drive was bumpy would be an underestimate for sure! At least I was not feeling sick before we set out. We stopped in Anaka to pick up the five teachers from our group who teach and live there. Anaka is a former Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp. Since the conflict in the North ended (within the last couple of years), many people have left the camp and returned to their land. The school only recently relocated to their original site (within the past few months), having been displaced during the conflict due to sercurity concerns. Teaching in Anaka is certainly a different experience to teaching in Gulu, especially as compared to St. Joseph's Layibi College. I've included a few photos of the school (including temporary classrooms and the invisible children laboratory block). It was great to finally get the chance to see what it is like for the Anaka teachers.

We got back on the road and continued on to Murchison Falls. From the gate to the boat dock we saw elephants, giraffes, hartebeests, waterbuffallo, and more, all very close to the van. We were so excited! At the ferry dock, we protected our food from the babboons before boarding the boat. There were SO many hippos, nile crocodiles, waterbuffalo along the way. I was also excited to see the bee-eaters (birds) as it was African bee-eater habitats we worked to manage in Hungary on the Round Square environmental service project. The birds migrate to Hungary.

We had a lovely meal at Red Chilli's campsite and then went to bed early (wearing shower caps in case of lice) to avoid further illness. We were up before 6 am to get in line for the ferry in order to get out on the game drive when the animals were most active. It was a great game drive. We sat on the luggage rack on top of the vans and had a wonderful time. We even saw lions which are far from a guarantee. The last place we stopped was the delta where the white nile flows into Lake Albert. At this point, we were directly across the river from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was sad to drop off the Anaka crowd on the way home but we will see them again next weekend.

For more photos of the safari follow this link to my facebook album: Murchison Safari Album