Unsolicited Testimony

I am grateful to have traveled the way I have, and to places people only dream of.

My first trip to Africa was not the typical Kenya, South Africa, or Tanzania. It was Uganda.

We took a long series of flights into Entebbe, where we were greeted by Richard, who then drove us for 9 hours to Murchison Falls. I remember arriving at Baker’s Lodge, a lodge that is no longer there, unfortunately, lost to drilling, perched on the Nile River near its inception point. I saw elephants for the first time across the river and wanted to run toward them immediately, but we had to get through safety protocols first.

We arrived late and were escorted to our room, which was required given the prevalence of hippos. I hadn’t seen one yet, but I’d been told they were around.

That night, unable to sleep from the jet lag, I lay there in the darkness and the silence.

Then the silence broke. Something that sounded like a cow was grazing just outside the room. Remembering that hippos graze at night, I shot up, trying to see. I ran from window to window, peering through the mesh walls into the dark, desperate for my first glimpse. I couldn’t see anything. We had been told never to leave the room after dark because of the hippos, so I stood there, straining my eyes at nothing.

I later learned I could have stepped out onto the balcony.

Every night, the hippos came to graze. And every night, I never saw them from the room.