Wednesday July 4

Happy birthday dad, all the way from Uganda!!!

Well today was our last full day in Uganda. We have had a crazy busy past 5 days but I couldn’t have been more thankful. We started our morning by being able to sleep in an extra hour!!! Instead of waking up at 5am like we have been the past few days, we got to sleep till 6. Wow does that make a difference. The hotel had the best breakfast and the staff was incredible with accommodating us and making sure everything was going well. So after the yummy breakfast we went back out on the lake (this time in a motorized canoe boat) and had about an hour long ride across the big river over to an island that housed the Batwa Pygmies community. We were told we were going to do some hiking, but we were not prepared for the hike we were about to do. We could literally crawl up the hill to get there.

It definitely got our hearts pounding! We were assisted by some kids from the community and they held our hands and guided us up the mountain. Once we got to the top, we entered into this small community and people gathered around and performed songs and danced for us. I had a constant smile on my face! It was beautiful and also seeing the kids participate…. I even participated and attempted to dance!

After the performance, we had another opportunity to purchase souvenirs that were made from them. Then, we walked over to the school on the island and were in a room full, and I mean full of children of various ages. They started singing and clapping, I was crying!!!! Even the circumstances of the kids, they still had smiles on their faces and were having fun.

Finally, it was time to hike down that mountain. Boy was that hard. I had two boys holding onto my hands guiding me down and I kept slipping and sliding down the hill making them go with me lol. One of my friends even resulted in sitting down and sliding down the hill because it was that steep. This was a serious workout!

After our visit to that island, we headed back to the hotel where we were provided lunch which was also very tasty. Then, we started our 8 hour car ride journey to Entebbe which is where we will be staying until we leave tomorrow night.

I am exhausted!!!!!