Getting Over Expectations
Anyone want to know the best part about hiking to the top of Murchinson Falls in the blazing hot Ugandan sun? That beautifully cool mist that comes off the falls when you finally reach them.
Over the weekend, we traveled to Murchinson Falls National Park where we went on a safari, a Nile River boat cruise, and that lovely but very toasty hike. On the safari and boat cruise we saw many animals including, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, Nile crocodiles, hippos and we even got lucky enough to see some lions. We even had an awesome driver named Mufasa Ben who I have a feeling might be one of the coolest guys I will meet here. (Fun fact: Ben knows Thomas Rhett and showed them around the area when they were here in the process of adopting their new little girl. He also loves to play on repeat/jam out to “Die a Happy Man”.)
You might be wondering “Well, if things went so great, then why did you title this post “Getting Over Expectations?”. While Murchinson was awesome and I would recommend it to anyone, what we didn’t expect was where we stayed Friday night when we first got to the park. From what previous classmates had told us, places to stay were great, it was comfortable and similar to what we have been staying in at MKMC. What we were expecting was a banda that our classmates described but what we got was much different. The banda we stayed at was more traditional with dirt floors, no real bathroom, and bugs coming in/out from the holes in the netting. Without fans, the night air coming through our rooms remained hot and stuffy. Instead of the image we'd been described, our banda stay was more like camping, which we were not at all prepared for.
Even though it didn’t meet our expectations, we realized that the best thing to do while traveling, and even in life, is to make the best of the situation and enjoy the experience. In many ways, dealing with this aspect of the trip made the safari and the visit to Murchinson Falls stand out that much more. At least now we can say we had an authentic Uganda living experience for a night.