whitewater rafting...in the nile.

this past weekend was one of the most fun yet! my boss invited me along with his wife and another couple to go whitewater rafting down the nile with them...soooo fun! there are 6 rapids, two of which were level 5. they are building a dam within the next year, so the rapids will be gone - it was amazing. we were a pretty mild group, so we didn't flip at all, which was probably a good thing.

our instructor was hilarious...his accent was great. every time we went down a rapid he would yell, "why noooottt?!" and he would go, "ok, time for the mzungus to get wet!" between rapids we would get out and swim around. i asked the guy, "aren't there crocodiles in the nile?" and he goes, "yes...right behind you." there wasn't one, not that i saw anyway.

as we went down the river we saw lots of people washing their clothes in it and taking baths. some boys who were a little too old to be naked in front of stranger, in my opinion, were trying to climb up on our raft and the one next to us. where do you look when that is happening? don't ask me, i just stared at my feet and hoped a naked teenager wasn't going to sit down next to me.

CRAZIEST thing ever happened though. when we got there in the morning, we were paying and i turn around and andrew and dana collins were right behind me. for those of you who don't know them, they are friends of mine from messiah! it was soooo exciting to see some people from home and even more amazing, they are probably moving to jinja (an hour from where i live) in the fall. what a small world. i was surprised at how rejuvenating it was to see people and i was so happy to get to talk with them for a while.

i got back from rafting and just relaxed the rest of the day. i was reading in my bedroom and heard the squeaking and clicking of the rats in the ceiling above me. i just put music on and tried not to think about it, unsuccessfully. BUT, good news...the fumigator is coming this week. PTL!

sunday (yesterday) was also fun - the church i've been going to here does zone sundays where everyone splits up and goes to someone's house in the area they live and there is a mini church service. our zone met at my bosses house and then we had a big lunch afterwards...it was good to meet a bunch of ppl and to also have lunch somewhere besides my living room, :).

more rats last night, but music 'fixed' the problem again. reading some good books, having a toooon of alone time which i'm not quite used to yet, but it's not as bad as i thought it would be. i miss all of you terribly though and i hope america is still fabulous, :). oh, yes, i think america is fabulous...sorry if you don't. at least you have microwaves there. and paved roads.

oh, also, i'm going to mbale on friday - the trip got post poned because we thought the clinic was this week, but it's next week. will be there for 9 days! i'm excited to hang out with the staff and see the uganda hospital, should be fun!