Jessica's Posts

So as you all know Saturday is our day of rest. This last Saturday our day started out with an awesome breakfast of potatoes, eggs, peppers, coffee and tea made by our awesome breakfast team. It was delish. Then we all did some laundry (which was great until it rained and soaked all our stuff later) and a few headed into Jinja to do more (yes more) souvenir shopping for those of you at home that we love so much. We spent about three hours in Jinja then the rest came to pick us up and we all took a team adventure to Bujagali falls. Of course the whole day was beautiful until we arrived at the falls, then it started to POUR. So we ended up sitting in the taxi for a few minutes dining on scrumptious lemon cake and waiting for the rain to subside. Once we actually got out of the van the real fun began.

It started with entertainment from our very own Jamie. We were all trekking down the stairs to the falls, which were very muddy from the rain when Jamie goes skating by on the mud next to the stairs. We warned him that he was just asking for it, but he only replied with “I’m a mountain goat”. The sentence had barely come out of his mouth when his feet slipped out from under him and BAM he fell right on his butt and went sliding down the hill. We were laughing so hard that no one could stand up. We can always count on Jamie.

The falls were gorgeous. They are bigger than Itanda and I personally like them better. There are about 5-6 sections of the falls with slower, calm water in between. Shortly after we got there a “Bujagali diver” (yes there is such a profession) came up to us and asked us if we would like to pay him to swim the falls. Crazy right? But of course we said yes…too hard to resist. So he changed, grabbed his gerry can (a water container), and dove into the water. As if swimming the falls wasn’t enough the guy also did tricks in the water. We were a little afraid after he went down the main rapid and didn’t surface for about 6 seconds, but he lived and we were entertained. Praise God.

After that we went for a boat ride to an island in the middle of the falls and saw more falls on the other side which were even bigger than the main ones. So terrifying and beautiful. The island also had something that many of the team joked about taking home, but since we are all good kids we resisted. The locals joke because it is an island that grows marijuana naturally.  It is hiding in all the pictures…and we thought it was pretty funny.  On the trip back on the boat the guide told us we could jump out and swim back which a few of us were tempted to do, but when we began to get out the guide stopped us. Apparently he was kidding. oops. Once we got to shore however, a few of us still wanted to go so he pointed us to a calm inlet in between two of the falls where we could swim. Don’t worry parents….we asked if there were crocs, snails, dangerous fish, leeches, etc. He said that because it is too close to the falls nothing like that lived in the water around Bujagali. So Jamie, Danielle, Sam, and I went for it. It was funny because none of us had suits so we just swam in our clothes. The water was super warm and none of us wanted to get out. But the rest of the team started to get hungry and antsy so we eventually gave in and got out. But now we can say we swam in the Nile. yay us!

From there we went to dinner at a place called 2 Friends, which has everything from American food to Indian food. The atmosphere was great and so was the food. We stayed for a long time, then finally headed home. GOOD GOOD day.

we miss you all very very very much. Thanks so much for the continued prayers and support. LOVE YOU!

jessica

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Today we were suprised after getting ready to go that we would not be visiting STAO as we had originally thought. Instead, we visited a village where STAO supports a secondary school and where many widows and orphans live. We later learned that they had been expecting our visit for months, and so they had an amazing program worked our for our arrival. We got there and all the widows were cheering and wanted to meet us. We then watched some amazing native dances performed by both the girls at the school and by the widows. It was beautiful because they are all so full of life and joy when they dance, and the dancing itself is unbelivable; no one should be able to move like that. After the perfomances they showed us the school and sugar cane fields and then took us to meet the widows. The widows all know how to weave and paint, and had so many beautiful mats that they sell for income. Many of us bought mats. The hardest part was that the widows would give us fruit as a present and want our phone numbers in return, which we were told not to give for obvious reasons. But they were all so friendly and welcoming that we felt loved regardless. Then we went to visit bujagali Itanda falls and eat with the headmistress. The falls were more beautiful than anything I could have imagined. They are enormous and terrifying and stunning all at once. God is inexplicable in his craftmanship. We finished the day by visiting the kids at STAO just to say hi. Good day! we love you all and we miss you! thanks for posting and keeping us in your prayers!

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