Nile Rafting

July 15. We white-water rafted down the Nile.
Sound nice, eh?
We went to a rafting gig in Jinja early on Wednesday morning. There were many white people there from all over. We got some safety training before getting our life jackets and helmets. We boarded our bus and made it to the Nile.
The Nile is a beauty. The green over hanging trees, the sound of the rapids, the cool breeze, and wonderful company. Ahh! We have an incredible Creator.
We took off our shoes and carefully stepped down the rocks into our raft. In our raft was Alex our guide, missionaries Jake and Shauen, another short-termer Alec, and two friends we met that day. We started training with things like flipping out of the boat, pulling yourself into the boat, swimming, and what to do when you are churning under water. We got all trained and practiced on a class three rapid. Rapids are graded by classes 1 through 6.
Class 1 is like when you dip your finger in and it ripples. Oooh! Aahh!
Class 2 is like the wave pool at Six Flags.
Class 3 is like sunshine and candy, but sometimes you get burned.
Class 4 is like jumping out of a plane with a parachute.
Class 5 is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.
Class 6 is ... Google it.
So we made it. We flipped on a class 4, which wasn't too bad. Liz and I luckily grabbed hold of the boat and didn't get sucked under the water. The instructions Alex gave us before every rapid were to "GET DOWN and HOLD ONTO THE ROPE!" So that's what we did... or tried to. Other helpful tips were "Always hold onto your paddle. If you lose your paddle, you owe me 10 dollars for every time you lose it" and "WHEN our boat flips, hold on tight!" We then made it to the biggest rapid of the day, class 5. Alex told us, "This next wave... is called... death." Its real name is Silverback, which is pretty close to death. It was the longest rapid of the day. You will see it in the video below, as our raft goes vertical in the air. Liz and I both got ripped away from the boat and pulled under the water.
...
We were under for a looooonnnng time.
...
Scary.
...
We made to the surface and a safety kyaker rescued us. When we looked back, we couldn't even see our raft and we had floated under the entire rapid. Luckily, a refugee raft was nearby and we climbed in.
They didn't flip.
Next was lunchtime! We leisurely rafted 6km for lunch through a croc pool (not as ominous as it sounds. We didn't see any) and enjoyed some fine Ugandan delicacies of pineapple and glucose biscuits. After lunchtime, we went down an 8 foot waterfall! We went through a couple smaller class 3 and 4s before making it to Itanda Falls, which we had to walk around. People go there to see it, not raft through it. Lastly, we had a choice.
The bad place
or
The other place.
The bad place is a class 6 rapid.
The other place is a convenient class 3.
Because our heads were full of water and nothing else, we chose to attempt the bad place. Yep. We were swallowed by the water. Liz just kept floating all the way to the end and got picked up by the same refugee boat from before. I made it out pretty fast and was pulled into another boat.
What a day.

Watch our video!

Happy Independence Day!

We had the privilege to spend our Fourth of July with a lovely lady, Jane in Jinja with two of our other friends too.
It was delightful.
We started the day at the market, buying Irish potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, ground beef, cookies, coke, and the like. That took up 3 and a half hours. We then headed back to Jane's house to start cooking. We cooked for a total of 4 hours and it was totally worth it. We made hamburgers, french fries, fried vegetables, and chocolate dipped pineapple and cookies. When it got around 10:30, Jane came to inform us that she would be dressing up for our American party. Before we knew it, Jane was wearing her most beautiful Ugandan traditional dress and the man of the house, whom we called Uncle (still not sure what his name is), even wore a white robe. We all sat at the red, white, and blue decorated table and drank our cokes with a smile. It was fantastic.
They were really honored to celebrate the Independence of America with us. Uncle is very knowledgeable about the States and that made for good conversation. Altogether, it was a pleasant Fourth.
Happy Birthday America.

I'm out of creative titles. But hey, look at these pictures.

To the far left is Liz being swallowed by the girls in the van. We fit about 30 in there. Luckily, I was prompted to drive, so I got my own seat.

Next we have the BEST COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE WORLD EVER!
The Isangas found it and played it for us because we are from the West.



These are some of the kids near the town of Iganga.

Snapshots of friends.

Meet the Isangas
This is David.
He is always having fun and laughing. He translated our program for us and let us drive the van! He also bought us sweet bananas, which were oh so delicious.

And our friend Sam.
He is brilliant at the piano and he's just cool. Look at the picture.
Sam and David are two of the sons of Susan and Noah.

Mama! (or Susan)
She cooked us "mzungu" or white people food. She was the one who was always concerned for our health because we "ate so little." Ha.

Noah
This is Noah. Smiling. While suffering from malaria. Seriously.
The reason I say that is because it reveals his true character. He joked around nonstop and was always trying to make us feel at home. On the way back from the hospital with an IV in his arm, he demanded the van to be stopped so David could get us a snack on the side of the road. Really.