I returned last night weary and covered in dust, with a huge smile on my face from what has been a thrilling and emotional week. My week began with a 12 hour overnight bus journey to Uganda which included a two hour wait at the border at four in the morning. When we arrived at the town of Janja, we were greeted by men on motorbikes, who were there to transport us to our rafting destination at the source of the river Nile. We rode (fast!), first along a dirt road, then into the jungle. The journey took about an hour and a half. Finally we arrived at the Nile, which is beautiful. The rapids as huge and fast and there are little islands dotted here and there all the way along. They have some of the biggest and most dangerous rafting rapids in the world, some of which are named after the many who have tried and failed to conquer them. Others have names that are designed purely to scare the s*** out of you, such as 'The Big One', 'Ribcage' and 'Jaws'. After we were kitted out in our life jackets and briefed by our instructor, we jumped straight in to the big ones with two grade fours and a grade five. On the grade five, the raft flipped and I got stuck under the rapid for about fifteen seconds. Even though you are wearing a life jacket, it's hard not to panic. It is pretty exhausting with a rapid around every corner but adrenaline keeps you going. The final rapid was a point in the river where three grade six rapids merge into one. Grade sixes are not raftable, so we had to walk around it and catch up with it when it turned into a five. The grade six rapids are incredible to watch. They are so violent and forceful. I have a DVD of the whole day so I can show you the points when I was roughed up. We spent the night in a cheap hotel in Kampala. I really got frustrated at the boys we were with as the bus drops outside the Sheraton Hotel and they wanted to just stay there as they were to tired to walk to find a cheaper one. It was 175 dollars per room, so there was no way Shiama and I were going to stay there. We ended up walking for five minutes, found a great place to stay and we even booked their bus tickets for them but they were still moaning and one of them was really aggressive with a Ugandan man that didn't understand them. Men are truly useless when they are hungry. Anyway, moan over. Uganda is a beautiful country and I wish I had more time to spend there... next time. After another mammoth bus journey we got home with just enough time to pack and sleep before leaving for our mobile clinic on Monday morning. When I first arrived in Kenya, I knew that the programme here was not what I was looking for. It was not going to be enough to satisfy my need to make myself useful. The idea for a mobile clinic has been through many transformations of cost, content and duration but I can honestly say that the end result was the best thing I have ever done in my life. From the minute we put up the tents, people came and continued to come until the last of the medicine had been given out and the counselors had seen their legal limit of clients. We even stayed an extra day because there were so many people that wanted to be seen. These people are so grateful. They can't understand why we would think of them and come to give them free medicine. I didn't realize just how much things like this touch people. They have so little and it takes so little for us to be able to help them, but it makes such a huge impact on their lives. I have so much admiration for Jayne and how she spends her life doing this for people. The team we had with us were fantastic. We had three counselors, five volunteers, two nurses, Millicent, Jayne and various others who had come to help. Jayne really is an amazing woman. I instantly warmed to her and I could see how passionate she was. She didn't spend a penny that wasn't absolutely necessary and always made sure everyone who had turned up had something to eat. She is also a great motivator. The atmosphere in the camp was of hard work, sensitivity and always laughter. We spent our evenings round the fire, barbequing goat : ( drinking beer and laughing hysterically at Dan's senseless stories or Jayne's toilet problem. I'm honored to have been part of their team and to have achieved so much with them. These people really care and every single person there worked so hard. There were three cars leaving to go back to Nairobi, so I went with Millicent who was driving the car with the tents and the luggage. We had a very emotional conversation on the way back about her life. She was raped by her neighbour when she was twelve and fell pregnant with her son who is now 27. The case went to court but he got away with it because he was 17 at the time. She was raped again by her own mother's brother when she was 16 but she has never told her family because she didn't want them to hate him. She told me how she has so many regrets about her life because of what happened to her when she was young. She has also had to send her 16 year old daughter to a girls' boarding school because she worries so much for her. She told me that her dream is to open a children's home in which she can look after the babies of young girls who fall pregnant so that they can continue with their studies but still see their children. She feels that when girls become mothers, they are treated like adults and that she lost out on her childhood because of that. Life can be a huge struggle here. These women are so strong. Next week we are moving to Jayne's compound. There is a VCT centre, an orphanage that houses 105 children, a youth centre and a women's empowerment programme there so we will have plenty to do. It will be sad leaving Virginia's house, it feels like home. She is very protective of us and has really done a lot for me but it's time to move on to a new challenge. I hope I will have a lot more to write about. Love to all, Helen x Ps. Photo's of the mobile clinic soon.