T.I.A.

This Is Africa. This is the reason we haven't written another post since mine a week ago. We have been infected with Africa Time, which means things move very slowly, are often late or just don't get done. So although we've been paddling, into town and been teaching Aminah occasionally we haven't done much that we thought worth writing about. Until today. So yesterday we planned to take me (Em in case you didn't guess) down some of the harder rapids, but we never got round to it, so we did it today. I did ribcage fine (this is the rapid i swam on in the first week) and then ferried across so that i could do the left line of bujagali. I got through the first wave fine and actually really enjoyed it (the ramp into it was steeper than i had expected) but i went over just behind the wave. It then gets a bit blurry and i swam. Which was fine, i had time to wave to jack so he could see me swimming and then i balled up to go through the next bit. It was a bit rocky but i wasn't under water long (i think i actually made it into the eddy higher up than i would have done if i was paddling!). It was only as i went to swim into the eddy that i realised my arm (left) really hurt, so with help from jack (who then left to climb through the 'jungle' to get my boat which had stopped in the eddy above the second bit) i got out on to the rocks to have a bit of a sit down. I stretched out my arms to test my left shoulder and see where i could and couldn't move it to. Anywhere too forward or too high was (and still is) pretty much out of bounds. Then when jack got back to me i got in my boat and we ferried back to river right so we could get out and walk back to the campsite. That ferry was not pleasant (its hard to go from left to right using only your right arm and even then only weakly because i couldn't push with my left arm the way you would with a right paddle stroke) but it was easier than i thought it would be. So we walked up, got changed and now here we are. It feels like i've pulled the muscle or bashed the shoulder on a rock although i don't remember hurting it (the first i knew of it was when i tried to swim into the eddy at the bottom). So im going to wait a couple of hours, see if any swelling or bruising appears, get rooster (one of the raft guides we're friends with) to have a little look and then possibly see one of the doctors about it. Although i don't think i'll need to do that, i think it's just going to need a bit of a rest and some gentle mobility to stop it ceasing up. So that's it by way of excitement this week. Jack says i would have been fine if i had worn my 'safe passage over water necklace' that one of the ladies here made for me, as he and mike did but im not convinced. Anyway i'll let you know how it goes, hopefully i can get some painkillers and carry on paddling, haha.
Missing you all loads, love Em xxx