Extreme Weekend

March 15, 2009, Sunday

This weekend has been pretty extreme. To give a quick overview I’ll use three words/phrases… faintness, white water rafting, and bungee.

Faintness:

Friday started out pretty harsh. I was up most of the night before and was pretty sick. I must have eaten something that did not agree with me and therefore I was sick most of the night and into the morning. I had gotten food poisoning before and knew I had the same thing and I would be back to normal in 24 hours. Friday morning I had a phone date with Erik at 6 am. I figured I could handle sitting still and carrying a conversation since most of the food I had eaten the night before was out of me. I was on the phone for about five minutes when I had to ask Erik to call me back in five minutes because I was afraid I was going to throw up. So I hung up and promptly proceeded to faint three times as I walked/staggered back to my room. Once, I was outside and landed softly on the grass. Another time I landed pretty hard on the hallway floor leading to my room. And another time was in the arms of my Ugandan floor-mates who heard me fall and came to my rescue. I was pretty embarrassed to be given such attention at 6 in the morning. I had never fainted before in my life and therefore thought something terrible must have been wrong with me. I was just really dehydrated and needed to get some more sleep. So in the end I am proud to have such a story to tell of one time I have ever fainted and hopefully will never have to again.

White Water Rafting:

Saturday was a full day of white water rafting on the Nile. We were on grade 5 rapids for most of the day. It was so fun and exhilarating. My raft flipped, I fell out, we collided with rocks (on the raft, not with our bodies), and we feasted on pineapple and crackers for lunch, and slowly roasted under the equators sun. If you ever come to Uganda white water rafting is a must if you have any desire whatsoever. I loved it.

Bungee:

Sunday brought about a day of bungee jumping. We rode a short distance from our hostel in Jinja (the source of the Nile) to the bungee site. About fifteen people form our group jumped, one guy and fourteen girls. We apparently have a pretty hard core group of girls. Bungee jumping was so fun; it lasted for a pretty short time but was so exciting. We jumped about 45 meters down and could touch the Nile if we wanted to. Some people dunked completely into the water and others didn’t touch it at all depending on their weight. I wanted to be dipped but only my arms got wet.

Recap on the week before:

I just realized I never wrote about seeing Amanda in Kampala. I went into Kampala last weekend to see Amanda and spend the night with her and her family in Wakiso district. It was so fun to see her; we kept commenting on how strange it was that we were meeting up halfway across the world in Uganda. It was such a strange feeling. But, Amanda is doing really well, she was healthy and loving the Peace Corps and Uganda when I saw her on Saturday/Sunday. I met several of her friends and they are all great, some are older and most have their masters or doctorates. They were all extremely friendly and so excited to see us together. They knew I was somewhere in Uganda and were happy to see Amanda and I reunited.