PICTURES--hike to waterfall, darling kids, and Queen Lizzy

So blogspot is being ridiculous.  haha I tried to upload pics from today and they loaded backwards. So...I'll explain what I did today and you can see the pics in reverse.  This morning our country directors were planning on hiking this mountain nearby our house up to a waterfall.  How bizzarre that that's an option of something I can just up and do on a Saturday?  haha I can't believe it.  So I woke up kind of late because I had a hard time sleeping last night.  But I grabbed a quick bite of pineapple, threw a couple of fruit leathers in my camera case, grabbed my water bottle, and we headed out.  Only about half of the group came with us.  The other half stayed at the house, went in to town...stuff like that.  

We had to walk through a couple of little villages on the way to the mountain.  It was really eye-opening. I'm that girl that has to verbalize how much I love the kids every time we pass any.  haha I feel annoying even as I'm doing it but I can't stop.  You'll see. :)

I love hiking.  It kept me sane after my mission and whenever I'm home I like to squeeze a hike into my schedule.  I wasn't planning on this being that intense.  Let's talk about who's naive...haha.  It got pretty steep and I was feeling yucky because I hadn't eaten anything, it was super humid, hot, and I tried to nibble on my fruit leather but thought I'd certainly puke.  Awkward.  But I couldn't complain.  It wasn't a problem.  I'm loving every second of this hike. I'm so happy, but my body is revolting.  I just wanted to throw up so it'd leave me alone but nothing came.  haha Regardless, I loved every second of this day and that hike.  It probably took us a good 2 1/2 hours to get up to the waterfall.  But it was crazy steep and at one point we had to go up this "ladder" (the pictures are going to kill you because I died when I saw it) that villagers go up all of the time.  In fact, people were going up this ladder carrying things on their heads AND with children on their backs.  Who am I to complain?  I just have a water bottle. haha It was the coolest thing.  I was so happy.  But consider yourselves warned.  I do not look like Princess Kate.  My hair is crazy, I'm usually super sweaty and you're just going to have to be okay with that alright?  I have to be okay with it and so do you so...just enjoy African Mal for the next few months. :)

After the "ladder", a bunch of villagers ran past us with machetes on their way down the ladder and told Freddie they were going to kill a tiger that had been eating their cows and stuff.  Is this seriously my life?!  I just want to laugh and take pictures and not forget anything.  It's unreal.  Like did people really sprint past me with machetes on their way to hunt a tiger?!? haha We kept hiking and made it to the waterfall.  on the way there we saw the most darling kids that live on the top of this mountain.  They were all carrying their little siblings on their backs.  I couldn't handle how cute they were.  

Our hike down was awesome.  We stopped at a garden that Freddie is connected with and ate passion fruit and avocado.  Delicious!  I want to live off of fruit.  Then we passed through another village where the children were originally terrified of our cameras and they'd run away when we pulled them out but when we called them over they'd let us take one of them and they LOVED when we'd show them the picture.  They'd all gather their heads around the camera and giggle.  Darling.  I'm literally in love with every person that I meet.

So here are the cute kids we saw in the village on the way down.  The girl in the front right was cracking me up.  She was all about posing.  They're all so sweet.  Do those smiles not just melt your heart?

This was the waterfall that we climbed to.  Everyone in the group started swimming at the pool of water at the top.  It looked sooo nice.  But guess who forgot their swimsuit?  Yeah, this pastey lady.  I was so sad that I forgot it because I wanted to go swimming so bad.  I would have just jumped in with my clothes on but who wants two layers of chaffey goodness on the top and bottom?  Not I. haha I just dipped my feet in and fed some of my banana and sandwich (that Ryan shared with me) to the cute kids with their little siblings on their backs.

These cute kids were at the top of the waterfall with us.  I just kind of ached because I loved them so much.  I fed them some of my banana and half sandwich.  The kids with their siblings on their backs would take some food but always make sure that their little sibling got some too.  I just adore these kids.  They're the sweetest things.

Brace yourself for the "ladder" that we climbed to get to the waterfall.  They're all just branches.   I loved every second of it.  Freddie stayed behind a bit and took a couple of pics because I wanted to be able to remember how awesome it was.  So here are a few pics of us climbing to the top:

Sorry...they're not in sequential order.  This was when we were pretty much at the top, the next one was about half-way to the top.

After we climbed the ladder, we headed to the pool by the waterfall.  This was right before we got there.  These cute kids had been walking for who knows how long and had their little siblings on their backs the entire time.  Adore 'em.

Goodness, sorry these are so out of order.  This is us hiking up to climb the ladder.  You can see that the ladder is up to our right.  That's where we're going to climb.  Bah, it was soo cool!

This was on the way up.  Rebecca is one of our country directors and just a moment before this picture she said, "Does anyone want to hold this snail or lizard?" haha Yeah, snail in one hand and a lizard on her arm.  That happened.

We tried to help you get a grasp of how steep it was at some points but it's difficult to capture.

This is Sam and I on our way through some villages heading to our hike.  That waterfall just over my head...that's where we were hiking.

And here's England.  I realize that I forgot to post so incase you were wanting to see...here are a few pics.  This was right outside of Big Ben....back when I looked less haggard. haha  Our group is quite possibly the most awesome group of people I've ever hung out with at one time.  I scored big time.

Another Big Ben pic.  This is Kelsey, Ashley, me, Kara and Sam.  All gems.  Love every last one.

On our way to Trafalgar Square, we passed the Uganda House.  We were all on a high from having just seen the queen and seeing THIS place...certainly didn't hurt.  It'd be our new home in merely two flights.

After Trafalgar Square we started walking to Buckingham Palace and the queen passed again.  Here she is:

I have more pictures but it takes FOREVER to load them and then I don't know what order they'll show up in so they might be more annoying then cool.  haha I'll add more later for sure.

Last few funny moments from today.  There was a 16 year-old boy named Yassin who was hiking with us and was helping us out whenever it was steep. One time my friend Kelsey said, "How much further to the ladder?" and he said, "Don't ask.  You will be afraid." haha He said it's the same thing when you're eating food.  Just don't ask, you'll be afraid. haha But really, especially hiking and stuff, better to just not ask and keep going.  I liked that.

When we were at the garden, I took a picture with Bryan (he's Ugandan too...I have pictures of these people but I'll post some later) who was holding a stick with a chameleon on it.  I looked at the picture afterward with him and said, "Ugh, I look so white."  He just looked at me and laughed and said, "I look so black." haha It was an awesome moment.

Ivan is another Ugandan that hiked with us.  Oh man, Ugandans are so funny.  I was asking Ivan about his upbringing and stuff.  He's twenty and is going to school in Mbale with Bryan (who's the same age).  I asked what he did as a little kid for fun...like what games they played.  He said that he had three goats and sometimes he and his friends would bring their goats together and they'd "Pretend to graze their goats". haha I seriously died.  We play pretend too, but I just loved that they would gather their goats together and pretend to graze them.  How cute is that?!  Anyway, I'll stop writing...for anyone who's still reading. haha Life's good.