Holiday!!! (18th - 26th January 2010)

Hey everyone :D

I'm in an internet cafe in Jinja today, wearing a loooong floaty, colourful summer dress and big sunglasses. Good times! We're on the last few days of our holiday, staying at a place called Palm Tree Guesthouse for a bit of luxury before we go home. We have a swimming pool and proper sheets on our beds - everywhere else we've slept here, they have these horrible think woollen blankets that make you unable to breathe, so actual cotton is a bit of a relief! It's a lovely place. I got a load of present shopping done yesterday in the little shops down Main Street in Jinja. We've been getting boda bodas everywhere, which is lots of fun :) Don't know why we don't do it more often, aside from the blatant dangerous side of it!

Before we arrived here in the centre of Jinja we were staying at a place called Explorers Camp right near the Nile. It had a beautiful view and a great bar where we just spent a few days relaxing and reading and eating good food. It was very cheap but we had such a lovely time. It was a centre for water sports and stuff, so a lot of people stayed there permanently so we got to know some of them. I met a lady who had a shop just outside; she had a little 18 month old boy called Nathan. He saw me and ran up to me, clung to my legs and wouldn't go back to his Mum. Quite embarrassing! :S Apparently he used to be looked after by a white lady so he loves white people, whoever they are. Very sweet!

We arrived there on Thursday and then on Friday we went white water rafting, the activity company linked with Explorers Camp. It was EPICALLY AMAZING!!!!! We did a whole day of rapids from Grade 3 - Grade 5, which is the highest raftable grade I think. There were 6 of us in a boat (we met a great couple from Australia and spent the day with them) and we had an insanely arrogant guy caled John from Explorers who basically took the trip. To be fair, he did have some reason to be arrogant, being a muscly tanned water sports instructor, but I just wanted to push him out of the boat into one of the larger rapids by the time half an hour was up! 2 other boats went down the river with us, causing lots of splashing competitions the whole day. Needless to say, we were soaked and had an awesome time. There was one waterfall we went down where Ellie and I accidentally let go of the boat but somehow managed to stay inside it, whacking our heads. She couldn't do the last 2 big rapids and I now have half a black eye! There was another one we went down called Silverback, which was huuugeeee and choppy and a bit mental, and Nicky fell out of the boat and was holding on to the side from OUTside the boat, then got swept away into the rapids. Looked like so much fun! Obviously we all had life jackets and helmets (no need to worry Nina, Mum and Nanna!!) but even so it was really disorientating being in the rapids. We were the only boat not to flip over right till the end, and we flipped in this massive Grade 5/6 rapid cos John tipped us over. Bad times! It sounds silly, but I can now see why people drown cos even wearing a life jacket, in the 5 seconds before I popped back up to the surface, I couldn't tell which way was up. The whole day was amazing and finished with a big bbq which made it even better. I have a DVD of us doing the rapids so you can all see that when we're home.

Speaking of which, only 3 weeks and 5 days now - how weird is that?!? That could almost be the length of a holiday... We get back to the village tomorrow, then work starts again on Tuesday the 2nd Feb, then we leave the village on the 16th before we do 5 days of debrief in Kampala. Crazy... At the Explorers place, there was one night when a load of Americans were staying. I wanted to go down to the bar in the evening and have a drink but they were all in there getting absolutely wasted and going a bit mental. It was nowhere near as big as in clubs or bars at home, but it totally freaked me out - part of me wanted to be there but another part of me wanted to run away cos it was so loud and busy and generally different from what we've been doing for the last 5 months. When I get home I can't wait to go out with friends, but at the same time I think I've underestimated how much of a shock it'll be. Maybe I'll just hate it! :S On Saturday after white water rafting my back and arms were pretty painful (we paddled down 30km of river, and most of it wasn't fast-moving rapids!) so I had a back massage at a spa near the camp place. Loveeely times! In the evening we had a nice meal out at a more expensive restaurant to have some nice team time and good food. It was a bit disappointing, but we got dressed up and made an effort anyway :)

So back in time to before we arrived at Explorers Camp. We stayed on Ssese island for 2 nights. Getting there was fairly epic! Our vehicle arrived to pick us up an hour and 10mins after it was meant to, so we almost missed the ferry across Lake Victoria from Entebbe. It was a loooong 2 and a half hour journey to get to Entebbe, then the ferry took 3 and a half hours, so we were pretty tired by the time we got there. When we got to the port, it was 5 past 2 and the ferry had already left. We literally sprinted to get to it, looking ridiculous carrying all of our bags, but they very very very luckily reversed the ferry to pick us up. Apparently that never happens! God was definitely keeping an eye on things for us :) Our rooms weren't wonderful at Ssese but we were right on this white sandy beach and went swimming in the lake and for short walks up and down the beach. There was a beautiful sunset and the food was good. So all in all not bad! We did a lot of reading and sunbathing on our full day there, then had a BBQ on the beach in the evening round a bonfire, which was lovely. The ferry left the island at 8am every day, which was gutting cos it meant we barely got any time there, and we had to get up at 6am on the 21st! But at least we got there in time and got to Explorers without too much trouble.

I think that's pretty much it for holiday news... Not sure if there's anything else to report! It's the 26th today (Happy birthday Nonno and Oli! Lots of love) and my English teacher's baby is due - it's been a complicated pregnancy, so please pray that it goes well and that it's a safe delivery that is peaceful and calm for her, her husband and their little 3 year old Tom. Not sure what else there is to write... I'd better stop I guess, got a few emails to send. Hope everything at home is good, for all of you reading this. Sending lots of love and a big hug, as always.

Flick xXx