week 1 done, nile river conquered....noooo whatttt ellse is possible!?!?!?!

sooo..i survived my first week of woork..and its amzing how much of a local i feel like now...I take my boda to work everyday, my driver picks me up and drops me at one of the local cafe's I have grown to lovvvve, i work on my lesson plans or otther stuff, my boda driver comes and gets me again and I am atttt my new home just relaxing with my housemates....Uganda has a charm to it that I have grown to love and whille it is not hommme entirely I am realizing that I have a special ability to make anywhere home...especiallly when I have come to realize over the past couple weeks that no matter where I live my friends, family and all the others that fit in between will allows be around, evvvvven if they can be COMPLETELY USELLLESS WITH MESSAGING (and we know who I am talking about :P)...

Okay sooooo...how did i decide to reward myself for surviving my first week in UG...I decided to spend the weekend challenging myself sommme more....lets begin:

1. SATURDAY - WHHHITTTE WATTTER RAFTING ON THE NILE...
Sooo if you guys didnt know, Uganda is regarded as one of the best places in the world for white water rafting as it is where the Nile river begin..sooo thats what I did ..i went white water rafting on the nile ...where the rapids are grade 5+...
Soo when you go rafting you have the choice of picking mild or wild and whille the scaredy cat in me wanted to pick mild...my friend Tevin didnt really give me much of a choice..soo yess thats right i picked wild and went with it...
Its a whole day affair that begins with drills in the river on what to do in case your raft flips..not really my ideal situation but I was readdddy to just do it...soo once the drills are done we start the morning part of the session going through a bunch of grade 3 and 4 rapids...annnd then we hit our first grade 5...my side of the boat complleeeetely went up in the air and instead of flipping we made it back down and alll in tact and inside the boattt.WHHHHHHAT!!!! that was ammmzing...the girls on my boat and i were dyyying and were like omg,lets dooo it again..lol..soo we hit a couple moer grade 5's and then headed for lunch...
Sooo at this point the weather is absolutely amzing..its hot, sunny and not a cloud in the sky...after lunch we get back in our rafts and we look up and notice that suddenly it is pretty much pitch black outside...wtf...the clouds fill the sky and it starts to get collld...we get in the rafts and beginning paddling...about a half hour into it, it starts to rain..and at first the rain is light, but then it starts to pick up...and i dont think I HAVE EVER IN MY LIFE..seeen rain like this..it was like the rain felt like hail, but there was no haill...I WAS DYING..i thought i was going to have hypthermia...and as I am contemplating what and how the hell we are going to get out of this..my instructer goes to us JUMP IN THE WATER NOOOW...i am like excuse me?!?!...soo everyone gets in and i am in the boat, being like this guy must have had some sort of drugs at lunch ...then i feel a push and i am in the water...lol..THE GUY PUSHED ME IN...soo as it turns out whille the air and rain are freezing, the nile river is 65 degrees...soo it is like being in a warm blanket....but even still now there are ten of us clinging onto the raft that is i dunno floating in the middle of freaking no where...i began saying soo many prayers and praying to every possible GOD...i was like why the hell did i not think this through...after about a half hour my instructor tells us to all get back in and is like we need to paddle through this..and we begin....after a bit the rain started to fade and things started to get better..but even still i think i was already suffering from hypthermia...OH GOD...soo then the first raid after all this madness is a grade 5...WTF...annnd as we go through it ...the rapid pulls my fingers soo far back i think they are broken, makes me lose my paddle and fall back....annd suddenly i realize that my finger and toe could be broken...which are still sooo swollen as I attempt to type...then i have no paddle and get the joy of riding princess til the last couple of rapids where I got lucky and got one....sooo LUCKY ..that on the last rapid i feelll all the way back and got punched with the paddle and now my VERY EXPENSIVE nose is swollen..soo yea basically i am A HUGGGE ASSS ACCIDENT as we speak...lol..thankfully by the time I get home all the swelling will be downnnn and I will be back to my pretty sellf...lol

soooo after that long of a day we arrived at the end and were greeted by an amzing bbq and of course BBBEEEEER....and let me tell u ..beer bottles here are like beer bottles on crack..THEY ARE MASSSSSSSSSSSSIVE ....soo yea..lol..we know how the bus drive back to the camp site where we began was...a bunch of drunk foreigners....lol...

2. Sooo basically I got home on saturday nite..took a well deserved hott shower and passed out with a bunch of advil at 930pm...annnnd sleeeeeeept all the way to sunday morning..WOOW...that is one thing I have to say I am loving about vacation so far..I AM SLEEEEPING AND RESTING....and am learning the value of resting your body when you need to...

Anywhoo I woke up this morning annnd headed out to do more site seeeing, I got to go to the source of the Nile and see where lake victoria becomes the nile and the Ghandhi momument...it was a really nice morning which was followed by an afternoon of sitting in a cafe readdding and bonnding with the locals and a few expats..thats what I love about it here..no matter where you go..everyone talks to you and then you walk down the street the next day and you say hi to everyone becuase you know everyone..and thats how a place like this starts to feel like hommme...

SOOOOO afffter this weeekend I am ready to head back to work, buut not without a bit of insight on my life...

soo last year we all know I picked up surfing as a hoobbby...and it was something about surfing that helped me get through the UFE...it taught me about focus and the idea of mind over matter...and at that moment it was something I really needed to learn about...

And yesterday after rafting I learned that it was soo easy to trust my raft members and dive into something that could potentially kill people...and i wondered why it was soo easy to do, when in my daily life I find it soo hard to trust the people I love most and let go when I need to...and the truth is I dont know...BUUUT...just thinking about it made me begin to see that its time...Its completely time to just DIVE INTO LIFE...and let go of all the things that hurt me or have scarred me...2 weeks into this trip and I am soo aware of how amzingly blessed and loved I am and I feel sooo lucky, especially since for soo long I never thought feeling like this was possible...

soo 2 every insecurity I have now I say screw it ...I am ready for it all..and whillle communicating it all may not be the easiest, I am ready to just dive into life like I did those rapids....Helllo world is exactlly what i have to say for now :)