May 28

On the 26th I went back to Beam of Hope for the second time and it was a very different, much more relaxed, experience and we had a lot of fun! Ashley and I spent the afternoon talking to two guys named John and Sylvester and shared our cultures with each other. They told us the cool places to visit in Jinja and asked us how tall the tallest building in America is (and were blown away). It was really good.

On the 27th we rafted the nile! It was the most exciting day! We left the gately at about 8:30 in the morning. We rode on what was like the back of an 18-wheeler with benches and open sides to the rafting company headquarters place. On my raft was Ashley, Bayli, Brittany, Paul, and Tyler. Our guide's name was Prince Charles and he was hilarious. We went through rapids that were class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 5 1/2. Yes! Our raft flipped over three times and once got stuck on top of a rock at the top of a like 3 meter waterfall or something that we were supposed to go down. It was pretty extreme. And so much fun. I really want to go rafting on the Ocoee again in East Tennessee now because I've been there four times and now feel like I would just dominate it. Our guide said that he wouldn't take us through the class 6 rapids because he didn't want to get castrated. When we got off the truck to walk down to the river at the beginning of the day, they said we could leave everything on the truck "except our sunscreen and ganja" so that was a good sign. Also another raft called out to us that they saw a black mamba, and our guide asked them if it was as big as his. So that was a good sign too. Hmm. Anyway so many funny comments were made throughout the day between Prince Charles and us. He kept telling us that he didn't know how to swim and that he wouldn't be able to save us, and that we were going to die for sure. We were rowing with wooden paddles and kept calling ourselves team wood. About halfway through the day we stopped paddling and floated down a calm part and ate a lunch of pineapple and mysterious "glucose biscuits" that tasted like the food of the gods, or maybe we were just starving (we were on the river for a total of 5 hours). At the end of the day we all got to take picturesin front of the river and eat so much food. It was great!

Today for my service learning I went to the Christian Children's Fund headquarters of Jinja. We were supposed to meet with a guy named Martin. We went in and asked for him and the reception said "Martin is not in. There is a replacement but he is also not in." Welcome to Africa... so we ended up meeting with the finance officer. He was able to give us a brief overview of what they do. It was pretty awkward because it was just four of us and them pretty much not knowing what to say to us. Anyway it was interesting because I had no idea how organizations like CCF distribute donations. After we asked a couple of questions he asked us our names and majors and where we were from and why were there etc etc and writing it all down. Then he was basically like okbye and left in a flash. So anyway we took bodas back to the Gately and finished service learning like two hours before anyone else (thus I finally had time to blog). Time and people and meeting times in Uganda are just a little less specific than American no big deal. 

Hope everything is good at home!