its all in the family...

lots of fun going on here in Uganda.. and not nearly as much volunteering as might be expected. After four and a half months, we pretty much have our own schedule fgured out , and with two more new volunteers this week, and one more on the way, morgan and i have been giving up our primary volunteer duties to the new kids to let them experience everything for them selves. We are even thinking about a complete 180- stopping soft power work for a while, just helping out when necessary- and instead taking our last few weeks here to travel, maybe work a few days guiding, etc. I got an email today from my boss at North Country asking about availability dates for the summer, and telling me that the first dead river trip is may 3 . Ah. the real world and home calls... and im not sure im ready to respond. scary thoughts.

Spent the past ten days or so with my parents here- and had a great time. My friend Fraggle covinced me to go pick them up at the airport- we arrived a little late due to speed bumps and traffic, but made it there for a mini reunion, followed by ten days of fun. I had set them up at the black lantern, and they enjoyed their first few nights with a spectatular view, cocktails, and of course, a hammock. We spent the first four days kayaking, getting everyone comfortable on the mighty nile. the first day we did the dam wall stretch with annie, an easy class two run, and finished it up wth some surfing on some friendly waves.
Mom and i ran Bujagali that afternoon- and she styled it! had a better line than i did, didnt even get her hair wet. we ran down to 5o/50 afterwords, had an exciting swim which turned into a boda ride back to the campsite adventure. couldnt have plannned it if i tried. We spent the next day at superhole surfing it up with a british family and our friend and KTN instructor Matt Cooke- great day, some good surfs and of course a fun and bouncy shuttle ride out. The next day was spent at a family planning session- mom held the dildo, i put on the condom, while dad filmed...

we finished up our time in Buj with an epic day two run, accompanied by will, matt, morgan, annie and davy- started off by running kalagala (big waterfall drop- no.. m and d didnt run it) and had an amazing day on the river. hot and sunny enough for ice cream when we left, t was raining when we put on, and then we experianced a crazy hail/rainstorm on river, forcing us to pull over and have some snacks. matt had brough a cinnamon roll on river. un real.
we also spent some quality time hat shopping in jinja market, preparing for our trip to murchison falls.

Saturday morning we (morgan, annie, mom dad , me and casunga, our driver) left for murchison falls, a national park in northern uganda. i appoligize for the lack of photos.. mike has the camera. i swear there will be flickr updates soon, internet permitting. Murchison was amazing, and very hot. i owe a huge debt of thanks to fraggle, who helped organize everything and functioned as our tour guide extraordinaire as well. we got to do several game drives, saw tons of giraffes, and antelope like animals, elephants, birds, and even lions. We also did a bat ride up to the base of the falls, seeing crocodiles and hippos (they are huge) . Spent a night bush camping in the delta with everyone and sam, our forest ranger.. woke up in the am, and cosonga goes... is it morning? we are alive?! the animals did not eat us! very exciting moment for all. we finished up murchison with a trip to the falls, which are abssolutley spectactular.
all in al a really wonderful trip. it was nice having the fam here and getting to share this experiance with them, letting them see the way i live and having them meet all the people that have become part of my life. As a first trip to africa for mom, and a trip to subsaharan africa for dad, i dont think it could have gone better. more photo updates and funny anecdotes to follow.