Ngo Ma En Owaco (“That’s What She Said” in Acholi)

We started the day with one last breakfast of eggs, pineapple and toast at the Church Hill Courts in Gulu before heading south to the Paraa Safari Lodge in Murchinson Falls National Park.  We all piled into the bus and began our 4 hour drive.  We immediately took an inventory of snacks to make sure we wouldn’t go hungry.  Between Anna’s Sour Cream and Onion Pringles, YT’s peanut M&Ms, Carrie’s yogurt covered pretzels, we felt well prepared.  A bus ride wouldn’t be complete without some games, so we rocked the Name Game, which turned into the Name, Plus Any Funny Quotes, Game.  Jon and Matt get props for having “Naked” and “You Complete Me”.

Our first taste of the safari came before we even pulled up to the lodge. Off about 10 feet away from the bus was a group of elephants. Their size was amazing and the closest most of us had come to something similar was during a ride at Disney. We knew that we were in for some amazing things later.

Walking into the lodge we were greeted by cold hand towels and fresh passion fruit juice. The staff was so warm and welcoming and seemed more excited to have us then we were to be there. Lunch was even a meal fit for royalty. A delicious buffet of every food you could think of. It was nice to have a little change up from the food we had been eating the past few days.

The group split up into two Land Rovers to officially begin the safari.  Eric and Geoffrey were the guides and the first half of the ride included giraffe’s, antelope, wart hogs (which Beth has a new found love for), and the national animal – Kob.  The guide found one male lion hiding/napping under some brush, but he didn’t feel like coming out to play, so we drove on down to the water.  At the water, we saw a lot of hippos and buffalo.  The hippos were just waking up from their day long nap and were all yawning, which is quite a site. 

We caught an amazing sunset and then crossed paths with some male lions. This time the large male was up and moving around and to prove his masculinity, he pounced on the two younger males.  Our guide told us that the dominant male didn’t like when the others stood up around him, which made us a bit nervous as one of the guides was standing on the roof of the truck…Anna asked him, “are you afraid?” and he said “sort of”.  Anna and CC decided to roll up their windows.  When Brett exited the roof of the truck (it had large sunroofs that you could sit on) and said that the big lion was starring at his legs dangling off the side truck dreaming of dipping them in BBQ sauce, we knew it was time to drive off into the beautiful Ugandan sunset.  On our ride back to the lodge, the guide Eric thought he saw a leopard, but it ended up being nothing.  Back at the lodge, we had another amazing buffet meal and some delicious desserts. 

While some of the girls (CC, Anna, Emily, Abby, Alexis) were by the pool writing the blog, a deranged hippo, hiding behind the fence started making aggressive grunting noises.  Little did Abby and Emily know, this same hippo made an appearance last year causing some choice words not fit for a mission trip and the release of bladders.  As Abby and Emily were screaming and running in circles, Abby was yelling “I can’t write this blog with wild animals right here in the wilderness behind me”.  Just then, the crazed hippo jumped out and revealed himself as Dr Pastor Jon.  See YT’s video of the whole thing to really experience the full excitement.

Fun Facts of the Day:

CC majored in Safari in college and has a vast knowledge of tracking wild animals

After experiencing a rough day of tummy rumbles yesterday, Dave gets the MVP award by starting his day off with strong Ugandan coffee and ending it with salad (washed in suspicious African water).  We’ll see what tomorrow brings him…

Dustin and Carrie provided martial counseling for CC, Beth, and Abby…or should we say singles counseling.

While playing an impromptu game of Signs, Matt, who still cannot remember his number, began making up signs that did not exist.  Needless to say, we are not surprised.