I went bungee jumping and rafting.
The rafting was really fun. There was one scary part though when the raft tipped over and I got stuck under the water for a long time. I really thought I was going to die. I was thinking, "so this is what its like to drown" when I finally came up, I was gasping for air and I couldn’t stop gasping. I guess you call it hyperventilating.
One of the safety kayakers was there and he told me to hold onto his kayak and that’s how I went through the next rapids. Finally I got back to my raft just as they were flipping it back right side up. As they did this, one of the oars came and whacked me in the face. After that I was in some sort of shock I guess, cause Bjorn hauled me onto the boat and then we both spent the next set of thrashing rapids being slammed around the bottom of the boat, trying to untangle ourselves.
When we finally got to calm water and I was able to start breathing normally again, I realized my braces were stuck inside my lip. (From when the oar hit me in the face) they went almost all the way through my lip, just a little puncture was showing on the outside, but the metal wasn’t poking through. Anyways, that was by far the scariest time of my life!
The scariest part of bungee jumping was the anticipation. I couldn’t sleep for the two nights before I went! Then when I finally got onto the platform on the bridge with my toes hanging over the edge, in a panic, decided I didn’t want to go anymore!! But by then it was way too late to change my mind!
Once I dove off the edge, it was instant relief. It was amazing and wonderful! It wasn’t scary at all anymore once I was falling. Sometimes when you’re doing something fast like that, you aren’t aware of anything around you and afterwards, you can’t remember what anything looked like. At least that’s how it always has been for me jumping off high places into water and stuff, but this time was different. I was aware of everything! I could see the water below rushing towards me and I could see the rocks of the canyon passing by and I was just enjoying it, there wasn’t an ounce of fear or any feeling of going fast... it was very surreal. Im SO glad I did it. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone! Bjorn and Josh also went. SO MUCH FUN!!!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
December 12, 2007
Guess what I did today! I jumped and did a 300-foot free fall off of a bridge! The second highest bungee jump in the world!!!! I can’t believe I did it! It was one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done! Seriously!! So much fun!!! We also went rafting all day on the Zambezi for one day. Victoria Falls is SUCH a nice place!!!
November 25, 2007
Last night we had another delivery. Kind of. The girl came in around 9:00 p.m. to the clinic (it seems like all the babies like to start being born around that time of night around here... and its always on the weekends...) We were up until 4:30 this morning with her, then we finally sent her to the hospital because the placenta was down, covering the cervix, preventing the baby from coming out.
This girl had been in labor though, since 12:00 noon, so she was exhausted. We put her on an IV before we took her to the hospital. Man, I just can’t get over the conditions here though. The bed she was lying on has a plastic covered foam mattress on it, but it has a few tears in the plastic. So we patched them with tape so nothing could soak into the mattress. She just lay there naked, with a fan pointed at her, with last year's poster for child health week under her to catch the blood that was leaking out of her. When she had to urinate, we held a container under her. When she had to throw up, we held the same container up to her mouth, When she needed to have a bowel movement she had to climb out of the bed and squat on the floor and use the same piece of paper. Some blood and fluid spilled off the edge of the mattress and dripped into a puddle on the floor next to the bed. Now and then a lizard or a big black beetle would skitter across the wall. From a hole up in the ceiling, a huge black cockroach watched the scene. A thick black centipede made the bad choice of being outside the door of the room when somebody walked out, and its dead body lay in the doorway, split open on one side with some guts hanging out. A few mosquitoes filled in the empty spots in the room.
I hope that kind of gives you a picture of what it was like. And she had no painkillers either. Anyways, I heard this morning that she had a C-section and they spent quite awhile resuscitating the baby, which by the way came a month early. Evelyn doesn’t expect the baby to live. I am exhausted to say the least.
This girl had been in labor though, since 12:00 noon, so she was exhausted. We put her on an IV before we took her to the hospital. Man, I just can’t get over the conditions here though. The bed she was lying on has a plastic covered foam mattress on it, but it has a few tears in the plastic. So we patched them with tape so nothing could soak into the mattress. She just lay there naked, with a fan pointed at her, with last year's poster for child health week under her to catch the blood that was leaking out of her. When she had to urinate, we held a container under her. When she had to throw up, we held the same container up to her mouth, When she needed to have a bowel movement she had to climb out of the bed and squat on the floor and use the same piece of paper. Some blood and fluid spilled off the edge of the mattress and dripped into a puddle on the floor next to the bed. Now and then a lizard or a big black beetle would skitter across the wall. From a hole up in the ceiling, a huge black cockroach watched the scene. A thick black centipede made the bad choice of being outside the door of the room when somebody walked out, and its dead body lay in the doorway, split open on one side with some guts hanging out. A few mosquitoes filled in the empty spots in the room.
I hope that kind of gives you a picture of what it was like. And she had no painkillers either. Anyways, I heard this morning that she had a C-section and they spent quite awhile resuscitating the baby, which by the way came a month early. Evelyn doesn’t expect the baby to live. I am exhausted to say the least.
November 23, 2007
We had a good Thanksgiving yesterday. We spent it with the Stafford family. He is a dentist who is working as a missionary. We went to their very nice house in Lusaka and had CRANBERRY SAUCE!!! Along with mashed potatoes and all the fixing’s. It was awfully good! I made apple crisp for the occasion. I doubled the apples and tripled the crumbly topping because I always wish there was more. It turned out really good and everyone loved it, but I wished that I hadn’t tripled the topping because it was just a bit much after awhile! They have a nice pool in the community they live in, so we went swimming on Thanksgiving Day! It was a nice change to working all afternoon!
It doesn’t really feel like a Friday. I feel like I’m supposed to go to work tomorrow. I’m glad I don’t though!
It doesn’t really feel like a Friday. I feel like I’m supposed to go to work tomorrow. I’m glad I don’t though!
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