the Nile Freestyle Festival

Oleotia!
(Lusoga for Hello)
So things are going well here in Bugajali. This past weekend was the nile freestyle festival, which was absolutley insane. The festival was a three day long kayaking competition comprising three events: the first day was a big air competition in which kayakers got points for their three biggest different moves on the nile special wave- there were over 60 competiters, locals and mzungus (whites), and a huge spectater turn out. The second day was a 45 kilometer race down the White Nile from NRE and Bugajali Falls to the Hairy Lemon- (their website, check it out is www.hairylemonuganda.com) and the third and final day was a sprint race down from Nile River Explorers, one of the rafting companies here, down to silverback, a class five big wave train rapid. From silverback, you have to sprint up a hill and jump on a boda boda (moterer bike taxi) drive back to NRE where there was an obstacle course set up with greased rafts, and then it all ended when you and your boda driver funneled a beer or soda after completing the obstacle course. Needless to say, it was a ridiculous weekend, and a lot of fun.

after a lot of deliberation, Morgan and i decided to enter the competition, and ended up doing all three events. The first day, the freestyle competition, as i said was amazing. it was so much fun to be a part of, and there was such a great atmosphere. Music was playing, and the turn out was amazing- tons of locals showed up to watch everybody compete, there were free shuttles going back and forth making it easy. There was even more pressure because the top three finishers for the ugandans were going to be the new ugandan kayaking team- huge bonuses... and a large cash prize for the over all winner of all three events . I ended up getting to judge the first part of the freestyle comp- where i had to shout out to someone who was scribing the moves i saw, if they were big, huge, clean, and stuck (stayed on the wave)- pretty funny and a great time. I ended up placing 6th in the freestyle out of 14 women, i was a little disapointed in my rides (we got a 30minute heat to get rides on the wave with 5-6 other women in the eddy) but had a great time. morgan placed second, and one of the highlights of the day was efinatley the beatdown morgan got on her second to last ride, where the whole crowd went ooooohhhh.... and then gave a huge cheer.
The secon day was a 45 kilometer race, which was brutal and grueling for there is a signifigant amount of flat water on the nile, wth upstream currents, whirlpools and boils. The race had to be done in teams of two, so morgan and i competed together, placing second for the women with a time of 3h29minutes... so we were pretty stoked (and exhausted.. man. that was hard) The next day was the day i was dreading the most, but it ended up being the most fun- Morgan and i do a lot of morning runs down to silverback, so we knew the lines, and our boda drivers. The race and the sprint up the hill was super tiring- and i think harder than the 45k race.. I was terrified on my boda as my driver was flying (you sit on the boda with the kayak on your lap, its like a 7-12 minute ride ) and then we got to run through an obstacle course built with rafts. I got stuck in one of them, and was laughing so hard i couldnt breathe. It was awesome. I was suprised to come in third, but really excited about it. running through the obstacle course at the end was great, becuase all the male competetors were there cheering us on, as were a ton of spectaters. Jim, Sherri and Annie were huge during the comp. cheering us on taking pictures, giving us gatorade, etc.. it was just a great weekend. Morgan ended up finishing first for the women- which is amazing! I think i took 5th or 6th over all, which iw as pretty happy with. Prizes for the festival were donated from places in kampala, and were crates of beer (nile special, one of the local breweries was the sponser) so of course the whole thing ended with a huge party as well.

On a professional note, things are also going well. Jessie Stone is back in town, and a lot of things are definatley changing. we are redoing the family planning unit, and staying super busy with net sales, follow-ups, etc. There are four education sessions and netsales this week, which morgan and i will be helping to teach again.

thats about all i got.. im going to try and steal some pictures from friends from the festival and post them if i can....