Murchison Falls, Uganda

It occurs to me that I may sound a little insensitive to the poverty in Africa. I'm not. My point is only that things are different here and I see positives with the negative. Positives that Africans don't articulate to me because they have nothing but America on the TV to compare their country to. I'm reading The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende and she so eloquently puts what Ive been noticing around me:
"At first it was difficult for Willie to understand my obsession with gathering my children around me, to live as close to them as possible and to add others to that small base to form a large, united family I had always dreamed of. Willie considered it a romantic fantasy, impossible to carry out on the practical level, but in the years we've lived together not only has he realized that this is the way that people live in most parts of the world, but also that he likes it. A tribe has its inconveniences, but also its advantages. I prefer it a thousand times to the American dream of absolute freedom, which, though it may help in getting ahead in this world, brings with it alienation and loneliness."

I'm currently in Murchison Falls, Uganda which in its day was one of the premier game parks. Poachers killed most of the wildlife but today Rhinos have been reintroduced and most of the other wildlife present has returned to normal numbers.
To get here we leave at 7am - sick again from something we ate haha. Get on the bus with shit tummies and proceed to travel from Rhuengeri, Rwanda to Murchison Falls, Uganda. This is a 48 hour journey. 14hr Bus, 4 hours sleep, 5hour bus, 3 hour matatu of death (breaks down twice, nearly kills 2 separate bicycles and when the African's scream you know it was serious. Even if they are still laughing. We skid all over the road in the van-with all 25 passengers braced for impact... and it is clear to me that I have a guardian angel- a team of guardian angels ;)), 1 hour ride in a mattress truck, half an hour motorbike with full pack= future back surgery. My boda boda driver's name is "trust" -right- which I find ironic for a number of reasons. He guesses that I'm 16 years old- as most people do. My little blonde friend is usually presumed to be 30 because they think her hair is white. This is funny for a few reasons: 1- this is not the first blonde they've ever seen surely because Africa isn't that isolated, 2- because people don't grey at 30 here, 3- because her hair is clearly yellow not white, and 4- because she's 23...... oh and finally because it really pisses her off. She's a diamond though and we wander around this part of Africa together- laughing and taking care of each other. Plus she knows all the songs from Mary Poppins- she's British.. not her fault, but me- I have no excuses.
We take a boat along the Nile- which is filled with hippos, elephants, crocs, and birds along the banks. We are riding up to the falls. It's "one of the most spectacular things to happen to the Nile" according to Lonely Planet: East Africa 2003- which, in our experience, is FOS (full of shit). But in this case, the falls are TREMENDOUS. They fill the word to it's full extent. We are blown away by its obvious power. We also go on a game drive which is beautiful but not all that impressive as far as animals go- giraffe, buffalo, elephant- no lions ;) Luckily we pay 1/4 price.