Jinja, Uganda

Uganda is a bit different. I hate to say this to all the lovers of Kenya but I think I like Uganda better. The people are friendlier, not so much prostitution, people don't hound you for money, and they even start with a fair price half the time.
Christmas- Nikki and I are staying on a Muzungu compound for our rafting excursion. It's well designed so that you never have to leave ;) However- we are addicted to local food and people. So we make some friends in town who invite us for Christmas. My christmas I spend cooking with 8 young women. They take us in like family and we work hard ;) Like I said Uganda is friendly. We go to church with them in a mud hut with beautiful fabric as the decorations. None of this strikes me as unusual anymore. In fact all I see is community and that feels very "Christmasy" to me despite the lack of familiar carols. Nikki hands me a dirty sock with rocks in it for christmas and an R Kelly Tshirt I had been eyeing for days. The rocks are for eating- like african vitamins- I wouldnt make this up. My christmas is complete. We go out dancing and it's packed. Its awesome. Territorial ugandans are fighting over women left and right and we are laughing and dancing. And then my whole family calls and I am so grateful that just like these Africans I am lucky to have my own community.
In the following days we recover entirely from Malaria but then eat pizza with telapia on it and get sick again haha.
We finally raft the nile which I call 'swim the nile' since we dump in every rapid causing me to yell at our guide "come on man, just give us one". And when 'the nervous nurses and dave' finally make it over our first rapid without flipping we are so excited that we are giving each other high-fives and missing half the time. Class 5 rapids - not a problem. But trying to kayak class 3s put me and nikki over the edge. I did it and with a huge smile. But I can say this "its no easy" and I was scared.