We went to Beads for Life and received a warm welcome. We then had a meeting and learned about the organization and how it was run. After we were shown how the beads were made and the process that they undergo. The organizations purpose is to give an opportunity to the poorest women in Uganda and help them start a bead business in order to support their children. Dinner was a great experience that night. We dined at a local Ethiopian restaurant, sharing three huge platters of food between all nine of us. It was also our night to wish Sarah goodbye, because she was going her own way the next morning. Miss u girl!
The following day we left the hostel at six in the morning, took a long bus ride to Jinja in order to raft the Nile River!When we arrived we were handed our gear and given a quick class on rafting saftey. After our training was complete we set off down the river to face a series of nine rapids. This expearience can onle be described as amazing, awesome and a total adrenalin rush. in the end we felt very proud of what we had just accomplished. How many people can say they rafted the Nile River with class 5 rapids?! In the end we enjoyed a BBQ lunch/dinner and took a long drive back to the hostel. The hostle was gorgous looking over the Nile. We all slept very well in one tiny room and then in the morning we made our way to Soft Power Education. We got a tour of the main location, then settled in to a sister school and then given instructions on what we would be doing for the next 5 days. Our mornings were spent painting the interior and exterior of a classroom block. The entire painting process took 4 days to complete. In order to let off some steam, one day during break the two Adams challenged each other to a jousting match, with the use of paint covered rollers. The match ended with both boys adorned with paint splotches and everyone watching in hysterics! Our afternoons were booked with Swahili classes, that were taught by Roy who was an awesome language teacher. He also gave us some unofficial lessons on East African culture. On Monday, Emily had the privilege of visiting Soft Power Health, which was an amazing experience. She was taken along to a number of interviews about malaria prevention, and even did some of the interviews herself. In the evenings, we played soccer, Frisbee and chatted with the local kids. After playtime we sat down to a scrumptious dinner prepared by our cook Monica, who was a total sweetheart. On out last night at Soft Power, we aided our cook in the slaughtering of a rooster. Our leader Adam did the actual slaughtering and Jill helped to defeather the body. The meal was delicious and very much appreciated.
Our next stop is in Mbale to stay at a coffee plantation and learn about Fair Trade Coffee!
Peace out boy scout!
Lilianna and Jill.
