Final weeks of the term

This picture doesn't actually have to do with my blog, but I wanted to post a picture of the Nile, Uganda-style!



The last couple weeks have been jam-packed! 

For the 4th of July weekend, the interns traveled 6 hours to Sipi Falls and stayed at the same really nice cottage as we did in April.  We were right at the base of a waterfall, and in the midst of beautiful, lush, tropical mountainside.

 To celebrate the 4th of July, we repelled down a 300-foot waterfall, probably the craziest thing I've ever done!  I almost chickened out, but I did it, and it was definitely worth it.  It was amazing to be suspended in mid-air next to a giant waterfall, looking out over a giant, lush valley, and realizing how small you are compared to the rest of God's beautiful creation.  We got an up-close view of the giant rock cliff, something only birds usually get to see.  Then we hiked back up the steep valley while it started to downpour.  By that time we were all completely soaked through anyway, so it was actually pretty fun to walk back in the tropical downpour and not have to worry about getting wet.  Miraculously, Josh managed to keep my camera safe and dry under a banana leaf.  Actually, it felt a little bit like Bug's Life when we were all using banana leaves as hats and as we were completely dwarfed by the landscape.  We were glad to have a nice cozy lodge to go back to, where we ate amazing food and played board/card games all afternoon.

The interns are the little specs on the grassy hillside to the left of the top of the falls:

I'm hanging by a rope at the top of the cliff:
"What'd you do for the 4th?" "Oh, I jumped off a 300-foot cliff...."

Me hanging by a rope again:

Hiking through the mud after our grand adventure:
(Josh, Matt, Megan, Kait, me, Rachel)

The last two weeks in the office, we've all been working extra hours to get as much done on our projects as possible before the semester ended (on July 14).  The other team had to completely finish and publish their project report, but our team has a slightly more flexible deadline since both Megan and I will be here for the next few weeks.  I've learned a ton about using AutoCAD in the last month, and definitely enjoy doing it (as I thought I would), but still have a lot to learn.

We also crammed a lot of social activities into our last two weeks as we tried to do everything that we had wanted to do before leaving Uganda.  I volunteered again with Kait at the Babies' Home and also went to read stories to kids in a nearby slum, an activity that Josh has been doing all semester.  Kait, Matt, and I finally made it out to "Percussion Discussion," an outdoor live music venue that occurs every Tuesday, complete with spoken work, local music, local dances, and an open dance floor.  We also had a "girls' night" with all the female interns, staff, and staff wives, and we went to a nice hotel for live jazz and desserts.  A pretty cool Christian blues/R&B band from LA happened to be there as well, and we got to hear them play a few songs.  (Check them out at thestrangers.org.)  I finally got a skirt made out of fabric that I bought here (although it wasn't African-looking fabric).  And of course everyone watched lots of World Cup "football."

Monday, the 12th was my birthday, so I celebrated by going out to a nice Thai restaurant with the interns and a couple staff.  The food was really good, and it was just fun to eat something familiar.  (I realized that 4 years ago on my birthday, I also went out for Thai food in Boston.)  And they even had really good mango and sticky rice for dessert!  (I love it, but it's hard to find in the US because mangoes have to be in season.)  It was a fun way to celebrate my birthday - my 3rd one in Africa, actually!

Of course my birthday was also extra "memorable" because all day we were talking about and worrying about the bombs that had gone off the night before at the final World Cup match.  I was woken up at 6:45am by my roommate checking to make sure I was in the house, as per the request of a staff member who called to check on us.  Fortunately, we were all fine, as was everyone we knew.  As the day went on, we continued to find out more information and found out that 10 people died at Ethiopian Village, a restaurant that we occasionally visit and that's not too far from where we live.  Fortunately, all the interns who were out watching the game that night were over at a staff member's house and not out and about, as they often had been during previous games.  We are taking extra precautions now to try to stay away from crowds and generally be smart.  We were a little worried about all the interns flying home on the 18th, which is when the African Union conference started, which apparently was the "target" of the initial bombing.  This week there are a ton of police everywhere, presumably due to the conference, and airport security has become more strict.  Fortunately, everyone made it out of Uganda just fine.  (That's much better than a couple months ago when several people we knew were stuck here for an extra 1.5 weeks because of the Iceland volcano!)

Originally, I was supposed to fly home this past Sunday, July 18.  All the other interns left, so we all, plus Janet, the intern coordinator, went down to spend Saturday night in Entebbe (about an hour from Kampala and where the airport is located).  We had a nice last dinner together and shared things we appreciated about each other.  Then we exchanged last-minute photos with each other, and I stayed up until 1:45am helping Rachel re-pack her suitcases.  =)  Rachel, Megan, Matt, and Josh left super early for a 9am flight, and then Janet, Kait, and I spent the day in Entebbe while waiting for Kait's 10pm flight.  We got to go to a small house church that the Hoyts attend (Steve Hoyt is an EMI staff who lives out in Entebbe), and we also got to attend their daughter's 6th birthday party.  We hung out in the afternoon with a different Josh who is a college-age friend of the Hoyts and who also went to Sipi Falls with us.  We got to visit the Botanical Gardens, which are really pretty and home to dozens of monkeys.  We fed bananas to the over-friendly/aggressive monkeys and even got to see a one-day-old monkey!  Josh fed one monkey his "blow pop," and it was pretty funny to watch him sit there holding and licking the sucker just like we would (and then of course get impatient and bite into it).  The garden also touches the lake, so we enjoyed a few minutes of sitting on the grassy beach watching the waves hit the shore.  (It was almost like we were at the ocean!!)

The next 5 weeks are down time in the office because the Fall interns don't arrive until August 24.  I'm now alone in the apartment, and it's a little lonely, but I'm keeping myself busy working my way through Lost Season 5 and doing various chores.  I'm really looking forward to my mom coming to visit on Friday, at which point we'll be out and about on lots of fun adventures!