how does it feel … to be without a home … a complete unknown … like a rolling stone ???

and i ain’t got no worries, coz i ain’t in no hurry at all …

spent the day yesterday white water rafting the source of the nile river …

bloody amazing … apparently the 2nd or 3rd most intense commercial white water in the world including 3 grade 5 rapids and multiple grade 4’s … everytime i do anything remotely ‘extreme’ i have an overwhelming urge to just quit what i am doing and find one of these jobs …

you wake up in the morning … deal with some paperwork, then raft down a river all day … annnnnd … then you are done and party the night away … i don’t want to do it for EVER … but a few months every couple years would be the ultimate opportunity for … charging and reflection …

and i LOVE feeling like i might die … i mean … this is like most things … the thrills are short, lasting only for those few seconds you start to enter the rapids and all you can do is look at the wave towering 10+ feet over your head and say … “OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” … then there is about 20 seconds of pandemonium as you are basically in a giant washing maching, getting slammed from every side, unsure of which way is up and doing everything you can just to stay in the boat and HOPING the boat stays upright …

my camera is waterproof (after my last one became a casualty of the ocean in cuba) so i was snapping a few photos here and there … we were approaching a nice little grade 4 rapid, and Brad (our Kiwi guide) asked if i wanted to ‘ride the bull’ … i basically sat on the front of the raft with my legs dangling over the front, holding on with my left hand, with the camera rolling in my right … coolest video i have ever taken … obviously i fell in, and had to be pulled out, which really just made the video that much cooler … everyone else just thought i was a freakin nutbar … and lets be real, they were right …

i am going to spend another day or 2 in Kampala, then head to Mbale where there is an orphanage that seems to be doing some interesting things in income generation … i will hang out and volunteer there for a few days … then head to murchison falls … it is an area where a lot of NGO’s work, and where you can ride a riverboat up the nile to the base of the falls, and then climb the falls, which sounds fun …

then hopefully i can hang out with some NGO’s before coming back to kampala for a few days, then going south to Kisoro, where there is a microfinance enterprise i want to lean about, and you can go on day trips up to the tops of volcanoes for reasonable amounts of cash …

kisoro is a launch point for both Rwanda and the DRC … there is an active volcano you can hike up in the DRC, to watch the lava flow inside, which is apparently safe … if i can do this and the price isn’t too great … that is where i will be … something about the word ‘congo’ just gets my blood flowing faster … (nutbar)

otherwise i will wander down to kigali, rwanda and i think spend a couple weeks learning about the genocides, as interpersonal evil and aggression were the focus of my studies in university, and i have always been fascinated by the genocide in rwanda …

so that’s it … i am enjoying the backpacker life, though i look forward to leaving it behind as well … i have been drinking a bit too much the past little while, though have made some incredible friends …

peace and love …