“Well the worst thing that could happen, but that won’t happen, would be if someone fell out of the raft BEFORE going down the 15 foot waterfall…”

Yea that’s right we finally did it-grade 5 rafting on the River Nile. In this picture I'm in the front, legs in the air, already head deep in water...and this was one of the kinder flips. All I can really say is it did not disappoint, we had all the spills and thrills we could ever want (and possibly ever need again in a lifetime). And as for the title of the blog-that’s what our raft guide Rich told us (Team Frisco+ Patrick) as we stared at the water dropping over the 15ft ledge that our raft was about to go down. And low and behold, Jap, our barley 100 lbs little baby fell out….right before we went over the waterfall. Naturally, Rich ripped Jap back into the raft with one arm, while somehow managing to paddle our entire raft (which terrifyingly was currently going down the waterfall backwards) a full 180 degrees with his other arm. So there we were, crying tears of fear and joy, while watching Rich’s body fly over our heads and over the 15ft waterfall, since he personally did not have time to hold onto the raft after all of his heroism. The picture to the left is Jap desperately reaching for Rich, which is hilarious because he's clearly way too far away to be helped. Ha, so that may or may not be an incredibly dramatic account of what actually happened…but that is pretty much what it felt like when I was sitting in the raft plummeting over that godforsaken waterfall. And, we later found out that our concerns were valid, a girl in another raft dislocated her shoulder and then broke the dislocated arm on the same drop right before we went. Like I said, rafting was fun…but I think I’m more of a grade 1-2 person. I like rafting that largely involves sunbathing and a few friendly bumps, not kind where the entire raft flips over and flings your helpless body into rapids the size of massive waves. All in all, I am really happy we went-got rafting on the White Nile and rafting grade 5 rapids checked off my bucket list-never need to do it again.

Other good things that happened over the weekend? On Saturday I headed out to Nyenga to join the group for the cutting and packaging of our first batch of soap (which was supposed to happen earlier, but it wasn’t dry enough to package yet). It was very exciting to see the finished project. The Treasurer, Monica, has already started selling some bars at TASO this past Monday.

Freshly cut soap bars! The group with the first packaged bars of soap

I also went to Nyenga today because I went to go visit the Chairwoman, Lovisa’s elementary school class and Monica’s home. The class was full of 73 of the cutest faces I have ever seen. Lovisa teaches P1 which I think is similar to first or second grade. They sang welcome songs and were just ridiculously adorable in their little dresses, checkered shirts and ties-could melt the heart of the Grinch or maybe even Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney (I may be on to something here). Monica of course was super sweet and sent me home with some delicious sweet bananas, eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes. I’m just busy finishing up preparing for the business management skills workshop that we’ll be attending next week since the grant got fully funded. It was actually worth the torture. Yea Twezimbe!

Saturday was also the two year memorial of my dad’s passing. I watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen since my I’ve been here, which is no surprise for any of you who knew my dad, it makes total sense. This picture does not do it any justice, but when has a photograph ever done a good job of capturing a sunset?

I’m looking forward to my big 21 on Monday! I’ll be going to the business training until the afternoon, but then it’s all about lounging at the Nile Resort poolside, eating delicious bread, fruit and probably some apple pie a la mode (come on I gotta it’s my birthday). Monday, the 26^th is also Jap’s birthday so the two of us will be doing it real B-I-G. haha During the evening the other interns are cooking a garlic filled Italian dinner which we will all savor before indulging in some chocolate cake and drinks. I am PUMPED. Something other than Ugandan food (even though I love it), good friends and what will surely be some good times.

It’s been a marvelous 21 years on this earth, mainly because I happen to have so many wonderful people that I get to spend my time with. Love and miss you all!