T. I. A.

This Is Africa.

Thats our teams most commonly used phrase haha... We can't begin to count how many times we say it in a day. Lets just say... A LOT.

When we first landed in Africa, to be completely blunt and honest all I could think about was the smell in the air. Literally it is a constant smell of B.O. in Africa. But the good thing is it only took a day to get used to the smell. That smell is completely normal to me now!

The first night we arrived we drove to Jinja, Uganda which was a town about an hour from the airport. It was dark outside, and kinda creepy, and not much talking was going on throughout the car ride. We were all enthralled with what we were seeing outside. Going into this trip, we all had our expectations of what we were going to see, the poverty that we were going to be facing, etc etc. But seeing it for your own eyes is a completely different story.

It sucks that words truly won't ever be able to describe it, and neither do pictures.

That night we stayed at a backpacking place and pitched our tents for the night. The next morning we woke up- packed our stuff and when we were praying over breakfast, our leader, Angie, said "...and God I just pray that you protect us today when we are white water rafting the Nile..." and we were all shocked! WHAT!?

She had been planning this suprise for a while, because this was the only day this summer we would be close to the Nile River.

It was an absolute BLAST! Not going to lie, there were deffinitly times when I was scared out of my mind... for example when our guide was telling us that he saw the coolest 2 yard length cobra less than a week before that... and then proceeded to say that cobras aren't afraid of people and that we needed to just hit them with our paddles if they approached us. UM HELLO... if anyone knows me well enough they know I have a MAJOR phobia of snakes.

... or the time our raft guide told us that this area we were rafting all day was ranked in the top 5 of the craziest best white water rafting experiences in the world. ON top of that as soon as we get out there in all seriousness he says "HOLY COW... this is the highest I have ever seen the water be!!"... which means it was going to be more intense then the usual.

and to start it all off... the first of all class 5 rapids we would be going through, we ALL fell out. ALL OF US.

But by the end of the journey it was probably one of the most remarkable experiences I have EVER had. AWESOME!!!

The next morning we headed to Tororo, where we would be staying the next 2 weeks and partnering with Deliverance Church. When we stepped in the chuch for the first time... they welcomes us like we were Queens and Kings... the kids kneeled. We later came to find out, that all of Uganda was like that. T.I.A. and out here they know what it truly means to show respect. Walking into the church for the first time brought tears to my eyes. I felt so honored to be there.

That night we had a service and got to worship with them. I was so moved by their passion for God. How genuine their worship was.

After the service we came back to our little house where we came to find out that it was infested with roaches. And not just like a few here and there. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. We were ip till like late hours in the morning screaming..... haha it was hilarious. T.I.A. SO what can you do? Welp, we decided to hitch up our tents in the house... and have slept there the last 2 weeks. I feel like a 5 year old sleeping in a tent inside a house. :)

T.I.A.