So normally all I write about in my blogs is the things God does in my life. Which is not wrong or bad and I know all of you care and want to know all about those things however, this blog is going to be me bragging about all the awesome fun I had in Uganda.
Where to start hmmmm, well me and one of my new Ugandan brothers enjoyed playing slapping games. Yes it is exactly how it sounds, there was two games played, one was you would put your hands in the middle and the other person would put his hands on his temples. Then the person with his hands on his temples would go as fast as he could and try to slap the man who had his hands in the middle while the man in the middle would try to move his hands to make the other guy miss. If he did miss then they would switch places. Yes it sounds moronic to sit there and slap one another but don’t worry the next one is much worse. The other slap game you would grab a hold of one another’s hand and then play rock paper scissors if you lost the other person would then while with one hand holding yours he would then slap your hand. Both of these games continue to go on until the one of the people playing would give up. Since I’m too stubborn to give up I always won. But when you played winning usually meant that you would have huge bruises on your hands. Now as crazy as this all sounds it is so much fun for some weird reason. I mean its not a normal thing to do. But my Ugandan brothers loved it so we would play all the time and we would play anywhere. Like for example in the middle of this club at two am while we are waiting for our chicken and chips (we were not clubbing).
So on the last night we were with our contacts our contact Michael had a fun idea to sleep in the church in our tents most of us agreed so we went. Now one thing to know about our contacts Eddie Michael and Edgar, these brothers of mine can talk. So we are sitting there at midnight and they are all talking and laughing and having an awesome time. Then all of a sudden Eddie says he’s hungry so I of course being a giant white man say I’m hungry too. So he then decides that we should go get chicken and chips (fried chicken and french fires nice and healthy,) so Eddie, Edgar and I walk up the hill in the pitch black and stumble our way up to the street and then get on a buda buda (half moped half motorcycle.) So we get on and there is the three of us and the driver so there are now four grown men on a tiny bike riding into town and 12:30 in the morning. So we get to town around 1 and we begin to walk up and down the streets of this town called Mukono, looking for our midnight snack. After an hour or so of walking up and down the street we decided that we are going to go into this club to see if they will make us some. So we go in and sure enough at 2am we have our chicken and chips we get our sodas and then off we go to return to our tents with food and drink in hand, a very successful night.
The other two of the most fun things I have ever done have to be rafting the Nile and Bungee jumping. So when we get to Jinja, Uganda after a month of ministry we go to a place called Adrift. The first day were there I get to go bungee jumping with a bunch of people from my squad. I can not even begin to tell you how much fun that was. As you inch your feet towards the end of this platform with nothing but a rope and towel around your feet and the instructor telling you not to look down and then you look down and go holy cow I’m about to leap from this tower and fall to my death. Then starts the fun count down 3….2….1…BUNGEE, and you leap out as far as you can, and right after I leaped I thought to myself oh my lord I just jumped from this tower I’m going to die. And you plummet towards the Nile river and then SPLASH…….in the river you go and buck up and in 4 seconds you have just leapt 145ft. You are now hanging in the air soaking wet and yelling about how much fun that was. Most fun thing I have ever done I’m now addicted to bungee jumping.
The last thing I did was river raft the Nile. Now I’m not sure if it’s the class 4 and 5 rapids or if it’s the 6 foot water fall we went down, maybe the awesome lunch and dinner we had but that was one of the most fun days I have had. So we get in the raft I need to say the only extreme raft the company had on the water that day. And we begin to practice all the things we need to know. Like if the raft flips what do you do? So our guide Juma better known as Dr. J on the Nile, grabs the safety rope and over we went haha. So the first rapid is a class five 6 foot water fall oh my lord you have no idea how much fun that was. So there is a total of 8 rapids a mix like I said of 4’s and 5’s, and my boat went 6 for 8. We flipped twice and it was so much fun to be thrown from that boat and then your under water as the rapids just throw you down the river. It is honestly one of the creepiest things not being able to open your eyes or breath and be under water for what seems like forever (5 seconds max) and then you come back to the surface and let out a gasp and get a huge smile on your face. Our Guide Dr. J was awesome he had us go up in the air and use a rapid as a ramp and then we went up on the last rapid and did a three sixty on the top of it. Extreme was the perfect word not only for our raft but for our guide as well.
Uganda was probably the most fun country I visited, this trip not just from the rafting and jumping but from our contacts, and our house. Late night adventures, slapping the snot out of each others hands. It may not all appeal to everyone but Uganda has my heart, and every time I think about you a smile will come to my face.
