Whitewater rafting on the Nile!

On Wednesday, the group went white water rafting on the Nile. It was a blast. We rafted class 4 and 5 rapids. Our group was supposed to be the "extreme" group – me, Jenny, Z, Dylan, Trevor, Trey, Ross, and Katie - meaning we would go right into the middle of the rapids. We did that, but the raft did not tip over once. Ironic for as hard as we were trying to flip. I think most or even all of the other rafts did. We only got thrown out once – right at the start. That was fun – I think I did one summersault out of the raft and then three underwater. I was a little sore the next day, but not bad. The Nile was really warm. It was overcast later in the day and it was actually warmer to float along next to the raft than to sit in it with the cool breeze.

We were in Jinga for two couple of days for the rafting. We tried to visit the Iganga project yesterday on our way back to Mbale, but we weren’t able to – something about timing. We have a small contingent working on the project today. I’m not feeling great – just a minor cold that’s been going around – so they sent me in to do the cooking instead of hauling bricks. We'll spend Saturday working also.

We sent Pat and Debra home from Jinga – it was sad to see them go. I can't believe we're getting down to the last week – I'm glad I'm here for the whole trip and not leaving yet. Yesterday we gained another chaperone – Mavis, and another student – Krishna. It should be good to have another chaperone around to try to keep a balance.

Tuesday was Mama Edith's birthday, so I’ve been looking around for banana bread recipes online to make. We wanted to do an American birthday party with cake and ice cream and singing, but as I mentioned ice cream is hard to come by (the electricity is a little too temperamental to trust a freezer) and the cake here could probably be better used as a hammer on the worksite, so banana bread and singing it is – if we have a pan…maybe they’ll be banana cupcakes instead…