Day 3: Longest Day

I thought I would have at least one good day of sleep but that rooster kept me up at night. I woke up at 630 and the power usually comes on at 7 so my flashlight was really handy. The shower finally worked but it was freezing cold so I took about 10 minutes. I went up for breakfast and had scrambled eggs with toast again, quite surprising. It was Sunday, so we decided to attend the family church that was right next-door. It was an amazing experience. When we entered we had to take off our shoes and quietly enter while the pastor was giving a sermon. His talk was very inspiring he focused on our identity and who we are and where we came from. He would repeat the sentence, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11). After he finished talking we were each given a lyric book full of songs we were all singing and their voices definitely outshined ours. Anyways when the church service ended we met a woman named Angie who is giving up her home for us to stay in once we go to the village. So once we had our introductions we got all packed to go hike the Tovoro Waterfalls. The ride there was about 45 minutes and there was about a 5-minute walk. The weather continued to be cloudy with slight showers. The waterfall was huge and it emptied out in a large river. We all quickly changed into our swimsuits and swam in the river. The water was freezing cold and the current was pretty strong so it was hard to approach the waterfall itself. I took my GoPro out and took a lot of amazing videos of us. Afterwards our leader took a picture of us with the national geographic flag hoping to soon be the next cover of the Nat geo student expedition magazine. There was a bunch of caves at this waterfall and we took a risky hike up the wet rocks to a cliff hoping to jump off but our leaders thought it was unsafe. It sucked because there was another group there any they were all jumping down the cliff. Instead we had to hike back down which seemed like the worst option because it was slippery and muddy. We got through it with many scratches on our legs but we survived. After jumping in the water and getting wet I decided to take cool pictures of the waterfall itself. I used a slow shutter speed to capture a misty look of it, which turned out pretty cool. We all took our final shots then hiked back to the main road and went in our cars to the next waterfall, the Bouma falls. Before getting to the waterfall there was a village where we stopped and had lunch. Lunch kind of sucked but I managed. While we were eating this beautiful dog passed us. This dog was unique because it had one blue eye and one brown eye. So after lunch it of course was still raining and we had the option to opt out of the 3-hour hike to the waterfall. I decided not to miss it because I didn’t want to look back and regret not doing it. However I didn’t realize what I was getting into, this hike was 5 miles! We crossed this really narrow bridge that had a sign that said max 10 people, which freaked us out. We felt like we were in one of those movies where the bridge breaks and we all fall into the rapid rivers and die. So after crossing this terrifying bridge and then walking a few miles more we finally reached the waterfall. The difference with this waterfall compared to the other was that this was there was a huge river between the waterfall and us. The only way to even get slightly close to it and really see it was to swim. I was so tired of walking and felt so disgusting that I decided to not change y clothes and just go in the water. When we approached the water we all saw Angie climb up the rocks and prepare to jump off the cliff. We all screamed “ANGIE, ANGIE, ANGIE”. Finally she did a 360 jump that no one will ever forget. When we finished looking gat the waterfall we swam all the way back. We were wet, muddy, tired yet we had another 3 hour walk back. I so did not want to walk back but somehow I did it. I didn’t have any more energy and so while crossing the bridge again I managed to have slipped from the first step t the last step. This gave me a bunch of bruises and a lot of laughs from my friends. We finally went back to the village, we tried to look decent but we felt disgusting and just wanted to go home. Finally we reached home; we had to do our highs and lows for today. For my low I said falling off the bridge and my high was definitely swimming in the waterfall. I took a cold shower and am now about to go to sleep. No rooster will be able to wake me up now.