photos from the pearl of africa.

uganda photos.

real life splash mountain.

This weekend was a blast! I RAFTED THE NILE RIVER!! In africa!!

We rafted 30km up the Nile River, in class 3-5 rapids. J It was a crazy day. I almost cried in fear at some points, but I was brave- I swam with fishes, rafted class 5 rapids, saw more white foam then ever before. Thought my life might end. Body-surfed a class 5 rapid, after I was thrown from my raft, then floated down the Nile (and felt like baby moses!).

The feeling of knowing you are entering extreme waves and then you see the foaming crests! The anticipation of tipping or getting launched from the boat is awful!

Our raft was full of nine awesome people, and our team was called “So Wicked” (which our guide, Roberto, gave us). So before and after each rapid, we would put our paddles together and shout!! :) Before we really got going far, Roberto gave us a mini-lesson. We had to practice paddling, getting down and holding on (TIGHT!), falling out, swimming with our feet up in a small rapid, flipping the boat, and breathing under the boat. It was thoroughly frightening, but beneficial I am sure. Then we started…

…. And we come to a rapid called, Big Brother, which is our first CLASS 5 RAPID of the journey. As we were preparing to go, and Roberto was telling us everything we needed to know, we looked on the shore and there were swarms of red-tailed monkeys… everywhere!! :) But I was still almost crying before we started paddling to the rapid. Our raft was silent as we were rafting to our doom, it seemed. Then we started singing, “as we go on, we remember, all the times we had together…”- which is so morbid and depressing we realized! :) (my prayer: God make me brave!!) As soon as we went over the edge, we saw HUGE crests and flows of white water waves. AHHHHH!!!! The story according to the guide: we almost were out of the rapid, when we went too low down to clear the next crest. So our raft went perpendicular to the water and flipped upside down! The story according to me: I was a huge wave, then all of a sudden I was launched into the water. I think I blacked for a second, and then tried to remind myself to hold onto my vest, (don’t panic), count to seven, keep our feet up. It was a fast struggle, but not as bad as I imagined it to be! Then I body-surfed the next two or so pounding waves. I didn’t panic because I was trying so hard to keep my legs first and to merely survive. Then I followed the current (trying not to imagine what animals were below me in the deep deep water) for over ten minutes until I was taxied by a kayaker to my raft. Where I found that we flipped! :) For the anticipation that I was feeling before, it was SO not as bad as I imagined… actually it was REALLY fun and I just had to laugh out loud as I floated at how insane the whole situation was: flipping in a class 5 rapid on the Nile in Africa…. Wow!! :)

Throughout the rest of the trip, we never flipped again and I stayed in the boat, although we continued to go through class four and five rapids (there were some fives, but we took a “mild” ride, not “wild). We got an awesome lunch of SANDWICHES and even a lollipop break! (on the lunch island I saw a monitor lizard- sickeningly large and gross- alli you would have flipped!) :) Two more crazy stories include almost flipping over a rock into a class five waterfall that we were trying to avoid, and almost entering a dangerous class 6 rapid (called The Bad Spot) due to our pathetic paddling maybe! :) AHHH!! But then at the end our guide told us to jump out and we finished the rapid in the water. “SO WICKED!!!”

We rode in the back of the open air truck carrying the rafts. It was surreal to be on the dirt roads in the truck, like in the movies! :) This morning I woke to the sound of monkeys dancing on our tin roof and got another (#2) warm shower. And journaled overlooking the nile and a bunch of monkeys playing in the trees and running in the field. Amazing!!

Then I took a ton of pictures of my friends bungee jumping, in the safety boat for almost three hours. I made friends with the two nice boat guys: moses and Isaac.

What a fun trip! And exhausting! I love Africa and thought of many of you back home who would have loved to be here doing this (and who I would have loved your company of and would have felt brave with). Thank you God for great weather and no extreme sun burn and my roommate and especially for a safe trip rafting the nile. And for the beauty of your creation, especially sunsets over the nile! :) :)

.life in africa.

Remember back when I went on that charity flood walk?! Well the story behind that was that I felt like the answer to my prayer for a volunteer agency in uganda may come from me attending it. And I think it may have!! When I was at the walk I was drawn to this mzungu woman (when we see white people, we feel at home… J) and we ended up talking for the majority of the walk and talking about why she was here. Tamara and her husband are working for a micro-finance program here and with a program called Life in Africa. I mentioned that I was looking for an organization to work with while I am here. She said, OH yah totally- my co-worker is looking for people to survey refugee families in an IDP camp outside Kampala. WHAT!! I immediately was stoked.

So I called her and set up a time to meet…

And today we traveled there (got lost, but it was okay), saw the center and met up with tamara and Christina and peter (who has five day old twin girls that we got to hold- precious!). it was so cool. Our job will be to ask the families questions and meet with them for like an hour or two.

Real questions. Real answers. Real life.

Then I was worried that I have no free time to do this work, although I really want to. And I talked to our intern who said I may be able to MAKE it my service project, instead of adding it on and also free up some time to go. I feel really excited about this AWESOME learning experience. J please pray for continued HUMILITY and guidance in this opportunity!!

ps. i am SO excited because i feel like everything has lined up for me to do this! :) (kinda like a swipe to save feeling!)

finally time and power to blog! :)

hello to all back home who are reading this... greetings from Africa!

It has been awhile since I have blogged, I know. I have been busy nearly every night this week OR the power has been out when I have had time. We have reached the halfway mark of the semester yesterday, and feelings amongst the group are mixed. I still have so much more I want to do before I leave, and I love my roommate and friends here- so it will be painful to leave. BUT happily there is STILL HALF a semester yet, so there is no need to feel sad!

The picture posted is me in a town called Jinja, which is the Source of the Nile. It was beautiful! We had an Honors College Retreat there last weekend, which really helped to break the ice in our halls between UCU and USP students. I made an awesome friend named Rose, who lives on my hall. I really enjoy her, she is so wise and funny. We even have a special handshake / inside joke! :) At the retreat we were divided into groups and did Bible Studies and shared Testimonies within them. It was really cool to hear/ share our stories and also get different perspectives on the Bible. I am hoping to still join a Bible Study with some of them because I have really missed that dynamic of closeness and accountability.

..

POCAHONTAS comes to life! :)

Kimber and sarah and I shared a hut on the outskirts of the resort, it was cozy and beautiful! One afternoon I took our straw mat to do pilates in the open air. (Note: There is no fence or boundary surrounding the resort.) As I was doing pilates, the children were going to gather water from the Nile and passing on a trail that had an unfortunately good view of me on my mat. This one girl stopped and stared at me, I waved so she would leave, but she kept like hiding in the bushes, it had to be like three solid minutes, still watching me and starting at me… I felt like John Smith did in the movie, when all the natives hid and gawked at the white guy. I just had to laugh out loud because it was such an out of body experience!! But it was sufficiently awkward and got old really fast!! I must confess, sometimes I would hear them coming and pretend like I was sleeping so they would keep walking and not stare long! :)

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On a more serious note, it is so humbling for me to hear close friends, and even my home stay family, express their need for school fees (which I think averages $200 a year). A friend came to visit me last night and said she was sent home because she needed to get her fees. She has not idea where she will get them or when. But despite how unfortunate it is, she still believes and trusts whole-heartedly that God will provide fees for her. WOW such faith! She is also inspiring because she has a heart full of love for Jesus and for suffering children. She has a dream to start an NGO for children all over the world, and I have seen her start putting feet to her dreams. She can’t even afford to go to school, yet she is so willing to give all to others… :) Please pray for her that she would continue to seek God’s specific guidance for the ministry, and for resources and planning to continue. She really has a vision for Trinity Global Child.

Life has been busy, and there seems to be no end in sight. We go rafting tomorrow (eek!) and rural home stays start next Friday. And when we return it will already be November. WOW! I miss all of you and thank you very much for all your prayers.

wonderful. lovely. blessed day.

:)

Beyond exhaustion and classes, my day went from okay to the BEST!

I reminded myself that I was here for Africa and experience, NOT good marks.

I felt comfortable at lunch, ate with some Kenyan friends and saw other friends in line… I actually felt like I was PART of the community!!

Thankfully our literature class started late and ended early… so kimber and I went to “study” at a canteen. I say “study” because we actually had a super wonderful conversation for like an hour about life, instead of our mounds of reading…. J

THEN we were asked to babysit for our professor, Rev. Button at eight.

So after dinner (posho beans and rice of course) our night became even more LOVELY!

The children were adorable (blondies with English accents) and we only had to read a bedtime story and put them to bed, then we were free to hang out.

Note: Sarah went to kampala and brought back cinnamon raisin bagels… so we toasted them. And Kimberlee bought a pineapple. PLUS we had delicious tea and coffee. J

Payment for babysitting is simple here: access to steaming hot showers and free reign of the kitchen and capability to relax on a couch while watching a movie not on a laptop!!

It was my first steaming hot shower in two months. such a blessing!! :) i was SO grateful!!
Kimber and i just looked at the shower and exclaimed: "there are TWO knobs!"

It was all just too good to be true!

Praise the Lord for a day chalk full of blessings.

I feel like I am rambling petty details, but my happiness is found in and because of these petty details. J

independence day. in uganda.

A joyous occasion.

A start to a wonderful morning were the "yogurt-banana-wheatabix” parfaits sar, kimber, and i created.

Bliss.

Then we went to an African FAIR!!

I felt like I was back in cali at the end of august, at the state fair.

There were exhibits, carnival rides, over-priced food, crowds, loud music and shopping.

I even had vanilla soft-serve ice cream and a hotdog (I know crazy… but I am in a fair in Africa and I only live this moment once!!... it was fabulous by the way! J)!!!

love. love . love

I LOVE AFRICA.

Independence Day, Tuesday, was the first day I could say that whole-heartedly.

Everyone has a countdown calendar, but not me.

Am I living in a fairytale?

I am even content to up with 4” grasshoppers in my shower and geckos by the toilets!!

Already devastated about leaving,

But joyful for a passionate place in my heart!