Nile Rafting Trip

This trip was pretty off the hook. We got picked up by a sweet bus with holes in the floor (so I could see the road under my feet through the holes), made friends with some Swiss girls on the way, and then shared a raft with them down the Nile. Before the trip began they had us practice some drills so that no one would drown, and to be perfectly honest, I can't  believe they let us do the trip. No one could row together, i'm not confident a couple of people on our raft could swim, and probably 80% of people on our raft had almost no athletic ability.
I really thought we were all going to drown.
Fortunately, we only tipped once. I got stuck under the raft and tried to come up to find an air pocket -- only to swallow one gigantic gulp of the Nile. I had two immediate thoughts: 1) i am going to die and 2) if i don't die, i am going to the worst kind of sick for the next forever. (worst kind of sick = many trips to the bathroom kind. In a match between my body v. drinking the water here, water wins. every. time.)
When I finally surfaced, I can only imagine how panicked my face looked (still not sure if i was more concerned about drowning or the fact that i drank the water) and Danny was there to calmly say "your ok amber! your ok" and then he drifted away and I never saw him again until the end of the trip-- we were actually somewhat close to the end, but it freaked me out not having him in the boat with me. Haha.
One of the swiss girls we made friends with was cracking me up all day. She was just giggly every time we would go over the rapids (think of the sound the pillsbury doughboy makes), and would never hold on and or paddle, and would just fly out of the raft.
Video to come!

Delicious breakfast on the way to the Nile = Chapati (really thick greasy tortilla) + egg. Makes me a happy camper!

Haggard after the trip 

This, and these next few pics portray how me and danny are soul mates. None of these faces were planned.. and yet oddly, identical

Drive By's

This weekend we went to a city called Jinja to raft the Nile. The drive was one of my favorite parts. It was cool to see the way people live in the villages surrounding the Nile.

Lots of houses built of just clay and sticks. Littles running around nakey. Lots of smiles and lots of waving at the mzungus. Women tending to fires that will burn all day to cook the family's meals. Older people sitting outside their homes, talking and watching us as we passed.

We both found ourselves firing away with our go pros, so interested and excited to see how differently these people live than us. They stared at us, we stared at them. Like being aliens from different planets-- thats how different our lives are from theirs. Its crazy to think that we can all be on the same planet, and yet experience it so differently.

At some point, it felt inhuman to have our cameras out. We eventually just put the cameras away and enjoyed passing through a moment of their lives to get a glimpse of life in rural Uganda. And it was beautiful.

A sea of matatus, that eventually got us home.

Kampala = the city we are living in.

Ugandan taking a pic of Danny as I take a pic of him. 

Safe House [Uganda]

When our friends/family find out that we are in Uganda, we are usually cautioned "stay safe!" While a merited caution, I just want to assure you that we are, in fact, safe.

This is where we live:

Note the double padlock held tightly by the largest, heaviest lock mine eyes have beheld. 

Moreover, we also have to enter/exit through this mini door which has a double padlock. Also note the barbed wire which lines the nice tall wall which encompasses our abode. 

The road our house is on. See the goats in the background? 

And if the barbed wire and padlocks weren't enough to keep us safe, this guy is always packing heat. He's friendlier than he looks. 

And if nothing else keeps us safe, we have ferocious german shepherds that our landlord lets out into the yard at night. If we die in Uganda, it will be from being eaten by them. 

PS- Ugandans are some of the nicest people on earth. They really help us mzungus (white skinned folks) find our way around. For example, this weekend we visited another city, a few hours away, to raft the Nile (post to come) and ended up leaving early because my Professor we are here with had an emergency and was headed back to the US-- instead of taking the free shuttle which would drop us off at our door step, we had to shuffle around several matatus (like a mini-bus) and figure out how to get home. Without knowing our address. And somehow, in talking to several Ugandans today, they figured it out. Gems I tell you! 

Rest assured, we are safe. 

NYC and Egypt

We landed in NYC at a ripe 5am after 2 nights without sleep (the night previous spent at Lake Powell with a weirdly hot wind storm.. i am pretty sure the wind was like 110 degrees, we were dying) so by the time we got to Pep and Archie we were like zombies. Peps gave us a detailed route of how to get to her house by subway which was an adventure in and of itself, and luckily she did because i dont think we had the brains to figure it out at the time, ha. They were suuper kind and took us around the city, brand new babe and all. We hit up central park and the delicious Shake Shack and life was good. 

I really think I could sit at a bench at Central Park for the rest of my life and be entertained. so many characters. 

Notable ones: 

1. Crazy lady walking by as Archie got bit by a mosquito and slapped it away said: "Thats what you get!" She had her two front teeth... only. Pictured here: 

2. Pepper was feeding Ren on the bench and a man came up to canvass for donations for something- can't remember exactly but it was some long pitch and then he looked down at Peps and was said "Ohhh.. uh... i see your busy" and walked away. hahah

P & A's apartment is seriously sweet-- overlooking the statute (statue? law school has ruined me) of liberty 

Cairo, Egypt, on the other hand, was a major bust! Could they not wait a couple of weeks to start rioting until after we had traveled there?? Didn't they know it was my dream to see the pyramids, etc? Blast. We were trapped in the airport for 10 hours instead of getting to fulfill our life dreams. But.. oh well. At least we didn't get kidnapped or murdered. And there were some cool things we saw from the plane and airport windows. The schools there, instead of having grassy soccer fields etc have painted white chalk lines depicting the field boundaries. The city looked sweet! and dirty. from above.
I have to admit it was a little freaky boarding our plane from JFK (9/11 anyone?) to Egypt (currently warring). We were some of the only Americans on the plane, so a tad unnevering. Nevertheless, we survived and made it to Entebbe!

how we spent a good chunk of the day, besides talking to our new egyptian friends in the airport:

and a sneak peak of Uganda which will be coming next: