duncan n da nile...

Friday we left in a rush for a last minute rafting the nile trip! nbd. We should have known better - african time dictates that we had at least another hour before the bus left... we ended up waiting for quite awhile... after a 2 hr bus ride we made it to Jinja. The hostel was actually real nice- we had a rockin view of the nile and HOT SHOWERS. So good.

Saturday morning we got up early and were stoked to go rafting!! Well most of us were... I admit I was a little bit freaked at the idea of anacondas and crocodiles in the nile... but there was no way I was going to miss out. We watched a lady bungee jump before we went out and saw what we believed to be little crocodiles circling underneath her... freaked for the calm water for sure! When we met our raft guide he was a crack up. His name is Duncan and is a Brit from New Zealand. He was your typical dirty back packing slacking off for the summer, partying and rafting guide. Kept us laughing the whole time and even sang us the song from PS I Love You on request as we were going through the rapids- it was actually quite soothing! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLb213lak5s I'm sure he learned WAY more about us than he bargained for... I guess we aren't really used to being around too many boys... let's just say he learned about maria crying (one of  the funniest things we have heard in country- what girls say when they have their period)... We had such an awesome time rafting though! They were grade 4 and 5 rapids and we had a great time! In all the pictures I am goofy smiling the whole time. I was having such a blast. Surprisingly I was never scared in the rapids- it was only when we saw what we believed to be baby crocodiles in the flat pool we were in that I kinda freaked and started yelling FORWARD PADDLE!!! Duncan just laughed at me and then said they were actually just monitor lizards- which I googled and are just as terrifying! By the last rapid our team still hadn't flipped over or been thrown out really (josh fell out once) and we were kind of feeling cheated out of that experience! They had told us that the average person is thrown out 7 times! So Duncan came up with a plan to let us do something awesome on the last go. He said if we let out some of the air from the raft, we would have three options: 1. flip over right away 2. just go straight over the rapid (boring) 3. get stuck in the rapid and "surf around a bit"   we obviously voted for option 3. We did get stuck a bit but not too long. I held on for as long as I could- at first I thought I wasn't even going to fall out- and then the second wave hit and we went flying. There were paddles and body parts EVERYWHERE! I got stuck under the raft for a little bit but ironically I wasn't even scared. It was just like body surfing at pounders. I finally came up and saw the next wave- instinctively duck dived, and then popped out on the other side where I saw Sam and her bloody head! I was getting swept down the river though so the most I could do was yell to Duncan that she was bleeding- I guess she banged heads with someone in the chaos. It actually wasn't that bad- just looked a little scary. Duncan was really good and calm though and got her cleaned up. The safety boat that had been following us the whole time had tried to do some tricks in the rapids and ended up breaking everything! It was a good time though. 

After the rapids we went back and hung out at the hostel. We started talking to Duncan and another raft guide Jacob. They were def have a lot of fun at the bar... it was pretty hilarious though as we got good ol duncan donuts to sing to us more and ended up hanging upside down in a kayak that was strapped to the ceiling! I thought there was no way I was going to be able to get up there but lo and behold with a little assistance from Jacob it was pretty easy! We were all laughing so hard. Favorite quotes from that night "she's like a ninja!" "i'm not doing anything inappropriate just tucking your shirt in!" "i'm sorry i look like that! it's just my face!"

Today we were to region conference. As always it was pretty hard to understand- I don't know why but I only get 1 out of every 5 words over the pulpit.. It's terrible! The ward brought 5 taxis to Jinja so we just met them there and got a ride home with them. On the way home we stopped for.. that's right 3 weddings. Super random. I guess something to do with the government - people can only get married in certain buildings so there was 3 couples who had been waiting to get to Jinja so they could get married. Each ceremony lasted like 5 minutes. It was so different than any wedding I would imagine. We were also told that in Ugandan culture they don't kiss - not until about 30 yrs ago when they saw it on tv and even now it is still considered pretty scandalous- so that explained when the branch president told them to kiss the bride they got so awkward and the crowd went wild! 

Before the weddings though our friend Tyrel (the one who asked about how would you breast feed triplets) got his mission call! I think we were freaking out more than he was! It is just so awesome. He got baptized last year and is such a good guy! He is going to Ghana! He actually guessed it. It was the weirdest thing. Before he read the call we were all placing bets and he won! 

On the ride home Tyrel and Rebecca told us all about Ugandan dating it was hilarious to hear about. They have such different customs than us. Tyrel described to us what they call a "hell date" apparently it's when you take someone out on a date but they don't know it's a date haha..yeh I don't get it either.  It is good to be home though!

Moral of the story. I LOVE RAFTING.

 beautiful sunset on the nile

 I believe our team name was Search and Destroy! haha a Ugandan man named us...

Jennilyn, Jan, me, Cami, KJ, Kara, Sam, Ashley, Josh, Duncan

more pictures of the rafting:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151732313735417.852733.699820416&type=1

Oh update on the urine garden! We finally had enough pee to try it out... it was not the most pleasant experience.. that's for sure...We are trying it out but it looks much better in PDF form than in real life... so rank... yup that's a jug of Ryan's pee and i'm about to pour water in it...

 It smelled SO bad! Rebecca had to take over the pouring and Ryan could barely contain himself... 

Hopefully this makes out sprouts grow bigger!! Who would have thought i'd be into this project... so nast...