This is some of my family the last night I spent with them..thursday night. It was a good night overall, and I took them all out in front of the house to give them their gifts for being so hospitable. if you can tell, 2 of them are wearing Geneva shirts...they just loved it..From the left of the picture is Alice, an aunt, my sister tina, my brother stanley, sister liz, mama, some lady i don't know, and the two boys, enoch and david are in the front of the pic. We had a good last night, but just to tell you honestly, i think I've come to an interesting conclusion. Towards the end, i feel like my sister liz and I got close..at least I feel she saw me as more than a muzungu, but I don't think the rest did, even though they were so hospitable and nice. And, I'm not upset about it all. I asked the Lord for a learning experience and I got it...i learned soooo much by being with them and asking them questions, and doing really awkward things and feeling very frustrated at times...all these provided so much learning from me, and I'm very thankful for that, even if it was hard at times. I do love my family and will probably visit them when I can, but they are a 45 minute walk from campus, so we'll see. Anyways, thanks so much for your prayers cause I know so many were praying for me and that the Lord would teach me through this homestay time, so thank you. Now, these next pictures and postings you have to start at the bottom one with the picture of the river...if you don't start there, it may get confusing. Oh, and one more thing...if you read my blog, please comment on it, even if it's a small comment, cause I LOVE to read what you think or just how you are doing, ok? Thanks for those of you who have commented...your encouragement uplifts my soul!! love you all!!!!

This is the Nile River at sunset. There are just no words for this when you're there. I'm a big fan of sunsets, sunrises and stars though, haha. We watched them all this weekend. It's so awe inspiring just to soak in all God's beauty through his creation. Our campsite was right beside the river and budjagalli falls where we listened to the rushing water all night and then awoke for the sunrise in the morning. There's just nothing better than that, i don't think. I wish all of you could be there with me and see how spectacular the river is and the beauty all around. A picture just doesn't do much good.

These are the girls i room with in the dorms on campus. We live among the Ugandans but we have our own muzungu room which is nice to retreat to sometimes. They are all so great. We are making scared faces before we left to raft on the Nile. Some of us had been rafting before, but some, including me, had NO idea what I was getting myself into...(besides the fact that it was very safe...don't worry mom and dad.. :) Anyways, on the right side is Andrea, then
Caitlin, then me, then heidi.

Just yesterday, I rafted the NILE!!! And let me tell you, I’ve never been white water rafting before, so I had no idea what to expect. It was incredible…absolutely beautiful, freaky, and exhilarating. I loved every minute…oh, except the seconds I felt like I was drowning underwater, but that’s okay. So, we first got in the raft and our guide was named Charlie. He was a Ugandan who was orphaned and couldn’t find school fees, but he found a friend who took him to learn to be a guide. He had to learn for 4 years, and during that time, he was living off the nile as a fisherman…pretty amazing story. Anyways, we got in the raft with him and he taught our group the basic commands we needed to know before we got going. So, the first one we went down was a grade 4 and it was called Budjagalli falls. Yeah, this picture is the first one we went down, and I definitely got smashed by a wave and was under the water for like 10 seconds which feels like an eternity…but it was good cause I got all the scariness out the first one…We did 4 grade 5 falls which is the highest you can do in a raft…so that was pretty amazing. At one point we went over a 12 foot waterfall. It’s amazing to see just water in front of you and actually land right side up when you come out of it all. I don’t even know how it works. I thought for sure we were going down. Another adrenaline rush is when we were going through the class 5 and it’s so loud and Charlie is screaming, “paddle forward!!...HARD!” and we’re all repeating it to each other cause the water is sooo loud. Man, what a rush. Anyways, another time he had us go down a grade 3 with our eyes closed. He promised us it would be okay, and we all trusted him. We sat on the edge and followed his instructions when he told us to paddle, then at the last minute he screamed “open your eyes” and before us was a huge wave we were headed right into…haha…we didn’t fall out, but it was just a big surprise and so much fun. Another time he told us, “on this next one we can flip or we can have someone else guide us” (which we found out later that means we can flip or we can flip….pretty much no option there)..so, they voted me the new guide, and guess what we did…we flipped. I basically yelled two commands and crouched down as a cowardly guide to as we watched the wave overpower us. Woah. So crazy. Anyways, it was all so beautiful and incredible and NATURAL…all throughout the trip we could look over and see natives either washing or swimming or bathing or fishing in the waters…you really got a feel for how the people LIVE off the nile and it’s incredible to be a part of that and see it firsthand.