A great day!

Saturday was SO much fun! We got to go to several really cool places in Uganda- it was the first day that was just for our enjoyment, the first day that wasn't a time where we were supposed to be learning about Ugandan culture or whatever. First, we went to the Ssezibwa Waterfalls. Ssezibwa means "that which cannot be stopped"- isn't that a great name? The Ssezibwa Falls are a place that people come to make sacrifices. If you are having a problem, you can come make a live sacrifice- you throw your animal off of the top of the falls. If the animal dies before it hits the very bottom, that means the spirits have not accepted your offering. However, if the animal lives until it hits the bottom, the spirits have accepted your sacrifice, and your problem will be resolved. The water at the bottom of the falls is so deep that if someone commits suicide and jumps off, the body is not said to surface for four or five days. However, sacrifices don't take that long to come up (for some unexplained reason). We were lead up around the waterfall, to the top of it- it was really pretty!

Next, we were off to the Kasaku Tea Factory! Tea is a really important thing in Uganda, and we got to see how it's made, from start to finish. There are huge tea plantations in this area- it's absolutely beautiful! The tea factory was really cool- it's basically a ton of conveyor belts, drying and chopping up and refining the leaves until in the end you're left with brown fragments… tea!

After the tea tour, we headed to Mabira Forest. The forest is beautiful- lush green everywhere- and we took a really great trail through it. Like Erin and I were discussing as we walked along the shady path, sometimes we just feel like, "Is this really my life? Really? Am I really walking through a forest in the middle of Africa?" And the answer is, amazingly, yes! It's always yes. If only everyone were so lucky.

After our nice forest walk, we headed to Jinja, the source of the Nile River! We ate lunch there- our trainers bought us PIZZA!!! They're so awesome. So, we had a nice little picnic and then we went down until we were right by the water- it was so beautiful! One of my fellow trainees really wanted to drink a Nile Beer beside the Nile River, but it was kind of bad timing considering we were on a field trip, with our trainers. But, her site is in that area, so I promised her I would come back there with her and we would definitely drink a Nile on the Nile. :) After taking lots of pictures of the Nile, we headed into Jinja town- there were so many tourists, it was really shocking! We got to use the super slow internet (but hey, internet is internet!), and then we had to head back home- what a great day! We all really enjoyed ourselves.