Wowsers

Sorry i didn't say any explanations for the rafting pictures, they are fairly self explanatory i thought. When i am alone in the gray boat, thats when i couldn't take any more and took refuge in the saftey boat. It was flippin scary there too, it almost flipped. HAHA...It was amazing none the less. I will NEVER forget it and never do it again.

**I tried to post the rest of my pictures that i previously tried to post before rafting, but no luck again. Oh well, all the rafting ones are up, so you should enjoy them.


Rafting was unreal
The Nile River, is way great, way more powerful and breathtaking than i ever could have imagined. It is one mighty ass river!! So firstly, thank you so much for your prayers for our journey, because it was definatley divine. We arrived at the taxi park in Mbarara to find "Honest Coach" with exactly 11 seats, let me repeat, SEATS, left. The perfect number for our group. So we boarded the Honest Coach for 8,000UgSh, and headed safely for Kampala. We made it there relively quickly, with a few stops in the villages along the way. Where you can buy meat on a stick throught the windows, or watches or socks or candy or yogourt, milk, pop, underware, newspapers and anything else you could want without leaving your seats. It amazing to see, the bus pulls over and all the merchants run up to the bus with all there goods on boards on sticks that they lift up to the widows of the coach, or in baskets on their heads. You can find just about anything from these people. When we arrived in Kampala, guess who the first person to talk to us was?! JESUS, our taxi driver! Haha, yep, we caught honest coach to Kampala and then Jesus picked us up. The ten crammed 11 people and 11 huge backing packs into two cars, that escourted us relatively safely to our guest house, in Muyenga district of Kampala, Adonai Guest House. It was so nice to come back there, the first place we stayed when we came to kampala. So we unpacked our stuff, and walked to the road to find transport into the city. I jumped on a boda that took me to Nando's (a mzungu chicken joint) to meet Kristy. I got to go and see the office she works in, and chill out there for a bit and then we headed over to her place, its very nice, on the top of a hill (like everything really, its so hilly) right near a mosque. Kristy came to adonai for dinner. We had a yummy home cooked meal of chicken, potatoes, peas and garlic bread.
We left early the next morning 7am for the two hour drive to Jinja, the mouth of the Nile!!! It was a nice ride we had our own transport, we only picked up one extra person, a CANADIAN!!! Her name was sarah i believe and she was super nice, working with samaritan's purse on bio sand water filters, just like john in our group. So she came with us for the whole day and we had tons of fun with her. Oh we also had Paul and Nate with us, Tanessa's two friends from Vancouver who are hear reasearching for and NGO they are starting that will do literacy training and libraries!
We made it to Jinja safe and sound, the only problem we had, was our "guide" moses tried to scam us for $70 dollars US for transportation, on top of the $95 we were already paying for rafting. We told to get a life, cause it was a load for garbage, becuase the $95 included transport to and from Jinja. We ended up giving 40,000 shillings and told him to go away and we were never going to call him to help us book anything ever again.
First we watched Ryan and John throw themselves off the bungee platform, a huge structure over hanging the Nile. And then we got all suited up for rafting. Life jackets, sunscreen, no shoes, helmets, and alot of courage(not). WE climed down a hundred steps to the Nile, hopped in our boats and they gave us a few pointers on paddeling and then hurled us down our first rapid. Only a class 2 i think. We went down ten rapids that day, 3 of which i sat out for, 2 class 5s and a 3 which they flipped on. It was absolutely insane. I was honeltly really scared, but full of adrenaline. As you can tell by the pictures, it was just crazy. The river is SO powerful, and the current just whips you away. Even in the safety boat, it almost flipped, and i was scared. I really don't think i will ever do it again. It was a once in a life tiem experience that i survived.
After we camped at the Adrift grounds. I set up my trust tent that my dad gave me. We went for dinner at a really nice near by hotel that over looked the Nile. All the tables were under big grass roofs, around a pool outside. It was really lovely. SO i was absloutely beat after that, i felt like i got hit by a truck. So i went to bed. The therma rest wasnt quite cutting it for my bruised and battered body, so I ran into one of the dorm rooms and grabbed a foamie off a bed to bring into my tent. That was alot better. It was really loud from some partying american soldiers that were their also. Aparently some of them fought in Iraq and had some really sad and crazy stories. They killed people, lots of them, I'll just leave it at that. So, yeah, it was loud and then it started to rain. I thought, "ahhh it can't rain for that long, it rained while we were on the river so i think its done" so i tried to keep sleeping. Well, it got worse, WAY worse, it absolutley dumped torrential downpour. Lightninig and everything. It splashed right into the tent so i ended up having to through all my stuff in my dry sack and make a mad dash for the dorm rooms. I was drenched by the time i go there, but i dried out, and had a alot less soggy sleep.
The next morning we had an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel, and then headed for Kampala. We stayed at Adonai 2 this time (just tanessa, paul, nate and i went in) So yeah, i hung out with Kristy and tons of fun, we had a safe, direct, seated, bus ride back, after waiting 2 hours for the bus to fill. And now i am in mbarara preparing to go back to camp tommorow.
I have now been in the internet cafe for 2 and half hours and am getting quite tired, so i am going to go. I hope you are all well, and i miss you tons. Congratulations on the great report card danielle!
Talk to you soon, and sorry for spelling mistakes as i am not going to re read this!
Melanie