White Waters- 150ft Plunge- Killing Chickens- & Other Memories in UGANDA :)

Well quite a bit has happened since I last blogged, it’s been so long since I last blogged! The month of February fleeewww by. It’s so crazy to think that I’ve already been in Africa for 2 months and I only have 2 more months left. Time is going way too fast :( I can’t imagine ever leaving this place..

So this past weekend was definitely the BEST weekend here! Friday night started off with babysitting some kids whose parents are expates here. It was a lot of fun cuz not only did we get HOMEMADE PIZZA- but we also got to take HOT SHOWERS. It was so amazing :) First hot shower in 2 months. And it was really interesting to talk t o the kids, they’re only 10 and 8 but they are super smart and it was just so different talking white kids who have grown up in Africa compared to babysitting American kids haha. It was a lot of fun :)

Then Saturday we headed to Jinja for WHITE WATER RAFTING and BUNGEE JUMPING! Ohhh my goodness. 25 of us USP students went and it was crazy. We started out on the Nile around 10am for our 20 mile rafting adventure. There were 8 of us on my raft and our guide Josh, who happened to be a Canadian. He was pretty entertaining and LOVED taking us thru the “wild” part of the rapids. There were 5 different rapids that we went thru and it was soooo crazy. It was my first time rafting ever so I was soo scared. We had practice drills before we actually reached the rapids and I was TERRIBLE at having the right techniques. For our practice flip I got stuck under the boat- not a great start. So when we hit our first rapid I was panicking. Luckily we made it thru without flipping :) Then on the second one, a level 3 rapid, our guide Josh thought it’d be fun to flip our raft on purpose, so in the middle of all this rushing white water we flipped and I have no idea what happened but I got thrown sooo far away from the raft and one of the guys on the kayaks had to come save me haha. It was terrifying cuz the rapids were sooo strong so I thought I’d never reach the top of the water, but I did and safely returned to the raft. I was the only one who got flung far away from the raft, of course haha. It was awesome tho and we reached some really calm water so we got to have some free time swimming in the water. I swam in the NILE RIVER in the month of FEBRUARY! It felt sooo good. Then we reached an island and had some lunch, which was lunch meat sandwiches and it was DELICIOUS. I’ve never liked lunch meat sandwiches in my life but after eating beans and rice nearly every day for 2 months, lunch meat sandwiches were heavenly. And not to mention they had cheese! Fyi- cheese is nearly impossible to find in Uganda. And it’s super expensive. So getting to have cheese is rare- and it was great :) Then we continued down the Nile. We hit another rapid pretty soon after that, a rapid that had a waterfall in the middle of it. We were going to try to go down the waterfall, but unfortunately our raft hit his HUGE rock and popped our raft in the middle of the rapid, which was really scary cuz we were deflating as all these huge rapids were pounding up against us, but Josh is an incredible guide and got us safely to the bottom of the rapid and we found some rocks to pull off to the side on and the safety boat saved us and we got a new raft :) So off we went again, rafting down the Nile :) We hit our second level 5 rapid and it was sooooo awesome! The rapids were HUGE and we were flying everywhere- but we didn’t flip :) Altho our guide did somehow get knocked off the raft so we panicked for a little not having our guide, but we found him soon enough :) Then we soon hit our last rapid which was unbelievably MASSIVE. Apparently a couple of years ago someone died trying to raft part of the rapid, so we dodged that area. But still we hit the level 5 part of the rapids- and we were hopeless. Within like 5 seconds this huge rapid hit us and off we flew. Every single one of us. And this was a looong rapid. So these rapids literally took me under the water for what seemed like eternity and I’m pretty sure I thought I was doomed. God made one powerful river. The Nile is wicked haha. It was fun but it took forever to get up from those rapids and just float down the river not knowing where ANYONE else was b/c we’d all been thrown really far from each other. Eventually I saw a body in the water and it was MB! I was sooo excited and finally we found the raft and were rescued from the massive rapids of the Nile. It was so amazing :) Around 5:30pm we ended our journey and we were all sooo exhausted, and not to mention pretty burnt. We got chapattis and kabobs for dinner and it was delicious. Then we headed back to the camp/resort and just hung out super late with everyone and had a great time. Not to mention I climbed in a kayak UPSIDE DOWN FROM THE CEILING. It was super random but apparently it’s tradition so I did it :)

Then Sunday morning we woke up- got some breakfast- then BUNGEE JUMPED! I can honestly say that getting ready to jump was the most scared I have EVER been. 150 feet above the Nile River is where I jumped from :) I jumped tandem with Marybeth which was the best decision ever b/c I really don’t know that I could have done it alone.  So we climbed the stairs which took quite a long time and got to the top of the platform. We decided to go second, Jake went first. He’s brave :) It was so scary watching him tho b/c literally all you have is this towel and rope tied around your feet and linked to the bungee. And this platform moved everytime anyone moved so I was scared to death that the platform was going to break off haha. After Jake went I’m not joking, I really wanted to chicken out. But MB and I sucked it up and walked to the platform to got all tied up. I think I was seriously shaking and asking a million questions just to make sure I wasn’t going to die jumping. After about 10 minutes of learning the correct way to jump and making sure we were tied tightly, we slowly “scooted” to the edge together b/c our feet were tied together so it was literally impossible to walk. Once we got to the edge I remember looking down and FREAKING out. MB looked at me and was like “Are we seriously doing this?” And I was like “yeeppp.” and then everyone yelled THREE TWO ONE BUNGEE!!! and we fell forward- 150 feet. And screamed the entire way down. And while hanging. And while getting untied. And while walking back afterwards. We were literally laughing and screaming the entire time. It was soooooooooo much fun and I would literally do it again in a heartbeat! :) It was such an adrenaline rush. I’m definitely an adrenaline rush junky :) It was great- everyone should do it :)

Sunday night I went home to my Ugandan family cuz I had missed them SO MUCH! MB & Angela went with me- we took 2 LIVE chickens home- which involved a 40 minute walk with 2 live chicken in their hands. I refused to carry them haha I hate chicken. Then we took the chicken out back and my papa taught us how to cut the head off. Literally just chopped the head off right in front of us. It was pretty sick- between the chicken crying and trying to get away, plucking the feathers off, chopping the neck off, lots of blood gushing out, then cutting the chicken open and taking out all the insides- I nearly barfed. I’m not good with that kind of stuff. Then Angela gladly took control of the second chicken and cut it’s head off. It was soo gross, again. We’ve got lots of good pictures and videos that we’ll upload asap :) My mama then cooked the chicken for us and we ate it for dinner. It was pretty good :)

Monday was a good day- nothing exciting tho. Oh except I got an article written about me in “The Standard” which is the UCU campus newspaper- and apparently it’s a big deal to get in it :) So yayy- that was exciting!

Today I taught my first lesson at Salama :) I taught science and took the kids on a “field trip” to some mango & jackfruit trees since we were learning about plants. The kids thought  it’d be fun to climb the tree so a few of them climbed up in the tree. Blind kids climbing a tree- seems super dangerous- right? I was freaking out so I was yelling at them to get down- but of course they wouldn’t listen to me. They dared me to climb up with them so naturally, I took the dare and climbed in the tree. They kids were laughing and screaming so loud, “Madame Bethany is in the tree!!! hahahahah” They thought it was hilarious. It was pretty funny tho- not gonna lie. Lesson learned- never underestimate blind kids. They’re brilliant.

And now I’m procrastinating homework. I have 4 papers due this week and I’m not looking forward to writing them. But then on Friday we head off for our rural homestays. 7 hours away from campus in the middle of NO WHERE alone. For 12 days with families we don’t know at all. Living in huts. Literally living like Africans. I’m really nervous but I’m also excited b/c I know how much I love my Ugandan family here in Mukono so I’m sure this next family will be just as great. It’s just going to be A LOT more “African” cuz we’re gonna have to do all the hard chores and we’re not sure if the families speak English yet or not. Sooo- I’m sure I’ll have lots to blog about when I get back. Not to mention we’ll have NO connection with anyone at all. Just me and my new Ugandan family for 12 days. So yeaaah. It’ll be interesting :) And after that we’re going to Sipi Falls- which is this beautiful waterfall on the border of Uganda and Kenya and we get to hike :) So it’ll be an amazing next week!

I guess I should start some homework- but I don’t want to finish my blog without saying how incredibly REAL God has been to me lately :) Just through nature, silence, interaction with my friends, journaling, prayer time, I feel soooo much closer to God than ever before :)

I love Africa- if you can’t tell :)

Love <3

Bethany Diane Joy