Life thus far

This is a picture of our home while we were staying in Nairobi, Kenya.

For the past week and a half we have been living out of our tent on a nice patch of grass infront of Eden Rocks, a hostel in Jinja, Uganda at Bugajali falls. The picture below is the view from our campsite of the Nile river. We have met so many people and done so many things in our short time here. A few of the highlights have been meeting Daniel, a local boy with whom we have spent many hours hanging out with and have already become very close to his family. It is at his home that we had our first authentic Ugandan meal. Daniels uncle is a soldier for the Ugandan government. We have had many serious conversations with him over a cup of African chai about the LRA, child soldiers, and other political issues. He is a very warm and friendly man, and is supprisingly open to all of our tough questions. To learn more about what has been going on in the past few years in Uganda watch Invisible Children. www.invisiblechildren.com

Another one of our highlights was going white water rafting on the Nile river. It was definitely the most intense rafting expirience of our lives, as most of the rapids were class 5, and spent the majority of our day flipped out of the raft in the water. Aside from the fear of drowning, we were also informed that in some areas there are crocidiles, which gave us an even greater fear of the time we spent in the water after flipping. But we survived, would definitely do it again, and had a great time.

We also met Jen, a peace corp volunteer from the US that had been teaching in Tanzania for the past 2 years, and was preparing to return home. We had a great time hanging out with her, listening to her stories, and enjoying the company of someone with the same spirit to travel as us. And we met Christi from Pheonix, Arizona, who was here adopting a child. She spent alot of time with us, giving us the ins and outs of adoption, and informing us on the steps we would need to take in the future. It was through her that we found Amanis Baby Cottage, an american ran orphanage for babies, up to about 4 years old. The cottage helps place orphaned children in homes, both in Uganda and Internationally. Currently they have about 60 babies, and it was such a humbling expirience to go and hold the babies and really see how important nurturing is for them. Christi put us in contact with a really good attourney from Uganda if we decide to adopt someday in the future.

Adam has been training and keeping in shape while we are here, getting ready for next fire season. He has found some really interesting ways to work out. Yesterday we borrowed some bikes from some of our local friends in the village. We took the long ride to town in the heat of the day. It definitely was a workout, aside from continually trying to outrun the mass amount of children racing us down the street yelling "Mzungu, Mzungu (white person)". We stopped at a local soccer field and Adam took on the challenge of a game of soccer. Our excursions are always interesting, as we never know what will happen, and where we will be invited to go from one day to the next.

It has been so much fun hanging out and getting to know the local village people. Adam of course seems to have already become a celebrity, as nearly everyone knows his name, and the children now scream out his name and wave each time we go by. He is famouse here for paying for a taxi bike, and instead he gives the driver a pump on his own bicycle. He also helps an older man carry big jerry cans of water from the river everyday, and is admired and called "brother from another monther" by all the younger boys.All of this, of course is just a small taste of everything that has been going on. We have really enjoyed our time here, love the people and the culture, and wish we could stay longer. Tonight I have been invited by some local woman to learn how to cook traditional food for a feast. I am really excited, as they say Adam will fall even more in love with me when he knows I can cook him Ugandan food also :0)

Tomorrow and Thursday we will be celebrating our birthdays, not quite sure what all is in store for us, as our local friends have been sceaming. So far we know dancing and a huge cake will be part of the celebration.

We plan on leaving Friday (19th) morning for yet another crazy bus ride back to Kisumu, Kenya. Here we will board a ferry and make our voyage to Mfangano, island on Lake Victoria. We will be having our first expirience WWOOFing here (www.wwoof.org). We will be working on an organic farm, helping teach computers, helping at a local orphanage, and I'm sure various other activities. In return for our work we will be staying with a family, and will be fed traditional food. Although we are sad to leave Uganda, and all of the amazing people we have met here, we are excited for our new adventure!