Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks for all that you have spending time with family and friends and eating easy to much food. I was able to do all of those things without being in America minus spending time with my family…well my real family at least I got to spend lots of time with those who will be my new family for the next two years.
Words cannot even describe how amazing my first thanksgiving out of the U.S was. Myself and about 12 others from my group went to Jinja where the nile river starts. I took on the planning of this trip and can now add event planning to my resume…if you thought planning anything in America was difficult try planning something in another country you are not completely used to yet!
We stayed right on the nile at a little resort with dorm style rooms. Since I was the one in contact with them setting the whole thing up I was given a luxury tent directly on the nile…it was beautiful…completely open my only complaint about the openness is the monkey who stood on the wall outside net to the hammock and watched me take a shower…but I didn’t let the monkey ruin my nice hot shower (man do I miss hot showers}
(Disclaimer….i really do more than just drink on a regular basis and this post may not make it seem like it…}
On Thanksgiving we had an almost complete thanksgiving dinner turkey stuffing mashed potatoes gravy green beans carrots pumpkin pie apple pie and homemade ice cream it was by far the best meal I have had to date in Uganda. This was followed by way too many captain and cokes and shots of jose (sorry mom for putting you on hold during an international call to take a shot}.
Friday we did not do much during the day some people went into Jinja town shopping others stayed behind and drank (give you one guess as to which I did}…I also got a manicure and pedicure…felt so good to have clean feet for once!! Friday night we went on a sunset booze cruise on the Nile. This was beautiful and we met a group of students from Wisconsin who are currently student teaching in Kenya. The booze cruise was filled with you guessed it booze and games of flip cup were attempted but the wind shot that idea down pretty quickly but the peace corps team did win the one game that we were able to complete. After the cruise we went back and continued the party at the hotel a great time was had by all!
Saturday a bunch of us went rafting some didn’t go because they were either too hung over or too much of a pussy (sorry for the language but that is the only appropriate term to describe them} to go and raft the nile! Rafting was a blast for the most part minus the near death experience and lose of my fav bathing suit bottoms and shorts (I am thinking they should almost be to Egypt by now}. Lets start this off by saying I am fine and was in no way hurt by the near death experience…After going down a couple of rapids that were a ton of fun even given the 6 meter drop while airborne we reached a grade 5 rapid (the highest level that they allow beginners to raft} they call it “the bad one” I can think of some other terms for this rapid that may be a little more cleaver than that. Well this rapid was not the kindest to myself or to others in our group after flipping over I was sucked under the water while spinning in circles (pretty sure I was in one of those whirpool type things that spin randomly} I could not get back to the top for what seemed like forever (but in reality was prolly a little less than a minute} while spinning I was gasping for breath underwater only taking in water trying to fight my way to the top. The only problem with that was that I could not figure out which way the top was. Light seemed to be coming from the top and the bottom. While fighting to get out from under the water and becoming quite convinced I was going to die my helmet decided to slip back and start basically choking me I got the helmet off finally and when that went my shorts and bathing suit bottoms decided to go with it. So there I am fighting to get to the top helmetless and pantsless. After finally getting to the top I was out of breath and trying to get as much air as possible when another wave came crashing down pulling me under again! This was not fun and I was over rafting at this point. A boat finally came over to get me after I got back up above the water and caught my breath. The only problem was I could not get back on the boat because I didn’t have any pants on. A girl on the boat whom we had met the night before (thank goodness for making new friends on the booze cruise} was nice enough to give me her pants to put on before getting onto their boat. That was basically the end of my rafting time I went into the safety boat due to wanting to stay alive to see the age of 25 and not wanting to lose the girls pants as well since they were a little big on me!
Saturday night I was not planning on doing a whole lot of anything as I and a majority fo the others were worn out from rafting but those who know me know I am easily persuaded into having some drinks. Well a couple drinks turned into beer bongs and shots. I was also able to persuade one of the Ugandan raft guides to give me his shirt so I am now part of the rafting crew. This also lead to the sprinkler lawn mower and shopping cart happening in the middle of the bar!
How many can say that in their life they boozed on the nile...rafted the nile...almost died on the nile...peed in the nile...lost their pants on the nile...and had a blast on the nile river....not many...just adds to the long list of ways i am better than most haha just kidding!
How many can say that in their life they boozed on the nile...rafted the nile...almost died on the nile...peed in the nile...lost their pants on the nile...and had a blast on the nile river....not many...just adds to the long list of ways i am better than most haha just kidding!
Oh I definitely could not have asked for a better thanksgiving in Uganda and it will definitely have to be repeated.
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