Conquering the Nile

What an insane weekend. We went from Kenya to Uganda to rafting the Nile and then back to Kenya all within 3 days. Thursday afternoon we left for Jinja. We took an overnight bus which was absolutely miserable. I have a hard time sleeping on buses and at 4 am it was time to cross the border. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night and going to the DMV, that's what it felt like as we all marched through the Ugandan and Kenyan border patrol at 4 o'clock in the morning. At 6:30 a.m. we arrived in Jinja and were greeted by a pack of "boda boda" (motorcycle) drivers who were determined to drive us to our destination. Lauren made it very clear that we were not willing to be driven on a motorcycle at that early in the morning and that's when Simon appeared out of the group and offered to find us a driver. The Lord had so much favor over us in our trip. Every situation that could have gone terribly wrong, went perfectly fine. Our resort was more like a hostel for backpackers, but it was awesome. We spent Thursday touring the city of Jinja. We also had the privilege of meeting a guy named Jake at the cafe we went to. Jake had been in Jinja for a while and made friends with a few street boys. These boys (Omar, Derek and Ashvan) all ran away from home and are now living on the streets of Jinja. They have a loss of hope and feel that God has forgotten them. Jake challenged them with the Gospel and then prayed over them. I have never been apart of something so powerful. Jake took the boys to the supermarket and we headed to lunch. We were able to tour Uganda on the back of a motorcycle. Uganda is beautiful and the people are SO nice.

BODA BODA RIDES

Praying for the boys

That night, we had a sunset cruise across the Nile. We met some really awesome people from all over the world and all with such different stories. It's crazy to hear about the way people have been raised. One thing that I keep hearing over and over again is how these people do not believe in Christianity, but they feel like they lack something in their lives. We had some really cool conversations on the cruise and then arrived back at the hostel. After an exhausting day, we hit the bed by 8 that night.

Before the Cruise
(this is the first time we've dressed up in a WHILE)

Sunset on the Nile

Saturday, we were up bright and early for a day spent rafting the Nile. We were the cowards who wanted a calm boat, but we couldn't find any other people to raft with us that did not want to flip. After searching through people for a while, we found a group of 3 (Kevin from South Africa, Gi from Ireland and Antonio from Venezuela). They made the trip so much fun. We started off not wanting to flip, but by the end of the day we were ready to take on the rapids. Surprisingly, we never flipped, but what an experience it was. We were served lunch on the Nile and I also had the chance to swim across the Nile. You can just call me Moses.

Our AWESOME group!

Saturday night, we piled back on a bus, crossed the border and headed home. It was such a short trip, but filled with so many experiences.


Today, was awesome. I had the chance to scrub into a ganglion (cyst) removal and I assisted in my first Spine Fusion today!!!! I have been so blessed by the opportunity to be working in this hospital.