This month in "Don't you wish you lived in Africa too?"

Something for your bucket list: whitewater rafting at the head of the White Nile in Jinja, Uganda (except in this case, "bucket list" should probably mean "list of things to do before March of next year", when the Ugandan government will dam the Nile for hydroelectric power, meaning instead of stretches of Class 5 rapids there will be a slightly less adrenaline-inducing body of water. A lake, if you want to get technical about it.)

The Nile (which, I am told, is actually kind of a big deal as far as rivers go) has got rather a lot of water in it. So much, in fact, that rafts can flip, flop, and cartwheel their way through Class 5 rapids with relative impunity--any rocks are buried deep enough beneath the water that they're not really a threat to anything with a pulse. So when you find yourself going through an African spin cycle while your raft goes merrily on its unencumbered way, instead of "Oh no, we're going to die! We'll be smashed against the rocks and knocked unconscious and trapped and drowned!", you're thinking "Oh no, we're going to die! We'll be infected with all sorts of rare tropical bugs that will percolate in our guts over the next several months!" Our Ugandan-but-somehow-having-an-Australian-accent guide Geoffrey took full advantage of this relative safety, taking us into huge rapids side-on and even back-paddling to do one particular small rapid three times in a row until we finally flipped.

In addition to catering to the recreational cravings of white people, the Nile is extraordinarily beautiful and a fascinating case study in culture, sustainability, and the politics of water. Because we here at Savannahgrams believe in boring our readers in as many ways as possible, here is a fascinating and timely piece from this weekend's New York Times about worrying developments in the diplomacy surrounding the flow of the Nile: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/world/middleeast/26nile.html?hpw

Next week in "Don't you wish you lived in Africa too?": Schistosomiasis! (and other fun Nile-borne illnesses)