the source of the nile...

up before the rooster to load the bus and head to jinja. it was about a two hour drive. ugh. part of our group was going to raft down the nile river (how cool!) and part were going to "toodle" down the nile to the source. abigail chose to raft. she was a little nervous (they were class 5 rapids!) but how often would you get that chance? i was told i should be proud of abigail...she was a trooper and hung in there when the going (or rowing) got tough. they had a good time and enjoyed their day. they were served lunch (bread, cheese, vegetables, fruit) and dinner (kabobs)as part of the rafting trip cost. they didn't get back until late that night.

the rest of us...well, after dropping off the rafters, we made it to the starting point of our tour. it was just about to storm. you could just feel it. i, of course, began to worry a bit about abigail being in the river already and it was lightning and thundering. we ran to our bus to wait for the rain to stop. elijah appeared...no, not that elijah but a tour guide. he stepped into our bus and began to say he was our guide and that we would wait for the storm to pass before going out. oh, really? he was a little misinformed about moses and Jesus and nile river facts according to the Bible. a few questioned him only to be rebuked by him and he proclaimed we were not christians. finally we just indulged him. we figured it best not to question someone who was about to take us out on a boat in the nile river. elijah was entertaining, however. maybe chemically, so. we saw many species of birds and took pictures that seemed like they could be in national geographic. i thought... was i really in africa? am i half way around the world? i rarely allowed my mind to go there but on occasion it surely did. we saw the source of the nile, where it all begins. the water flows from underneath the ground. you can see the current run backwards from under the rocks. think at the beach. as the wave comes in and then recedes, the water goes back as well. well, here the water comes in and as it recedes more water comes up underneath the rocks and goes back out. it is so odd how this river flows south to north. there is some connection here but i can't explain. (oh, coming in this morning we couldn't take pictures as we crossed the river. a big man with a big gun was there to make sure we didn't. this bridge is the only bridge that connnects uganda to kenya and tanzania. if someone were to destroy it, it could cause some civil unrest. well, yeah.) after getting off the boat, we headed out. we stopped at the security gate. another man with a big gun began to clap. out from nowhere came these little monkeys. not sure of the species. the security men had bananas and told us we could go feed them. they were so, so cute. they would take the banana, sit, peel the banana and eat it. we got some great close up shots of them. after, we went into the town of jinja for lunch at "the source", where we met a girl from maryville, tn. (also, one of ab's guides on the nile was from memphis! small world.) we walked around to a few vendors. i got some coffee that is grown in that region. it was so good. i ended up buying some to bring home. around 2:00, we started to make our way back to kampala. as said before, goats and cows just roam the streets. while we stopped for gas we saw a little baby goat that had just been runover on the street. his little friend was standing there "baaa-ing" as if to say "someone, help. my friend needs help." maybe our hearts were just so tender by this time in the trip, but we were saddened by this. as we moved on down the road to the house, i asked patrick (our trusty driver) if he would mind stopping at a sugar cane vendor. i wanted the team to taste it. we got one long stalk for 500 shillings (50 cents. one of the adonai house staff cut it up for us and had it on the dinner table that night. it was so good but so sweet.

we were up late packing and organizing. long day ahead...