Rafting

I can't even describe how hot it is here....

It's 7am and I rolled out of bed sweating, and realized I can't sleep anymore because it's too hot.

By 10am it will be 115. But 1.... hotter. There's not always power... so often times I sit in my house, just dripping sweat, sitting in my living room. My peanut butter is like liquidly... at room temperature. Candles are beginning to melt.

But we're found one way to cope with the heat.... swimming!!

We went swimming and rafting yesterday. It was a blast to swim, the rafting a little scary, but the day was totally fun. We went rafting down the same stint that we did last year, although we all noticed how much faster the water was moving than last year as we drove up. Carol and I bought entertubes and were enjoying the cold relaxing water. We know the rapids are coming up around the bend. We can hear the roars, exciting.... Although I was afraid...... it sounded LOUD! I didn't remember that from last year. I jump in the littlest boat of the three, with the littlest people of our company, Elijah and Rizgar.

So we go down the first dip of the rapids… and I’m now really afraid and quickly begin to formulate a plan in my head of what to do if the boat flips… cause I was pretty sure it was going to flip. I decided that my plan was 1. Get to the surface. 2. Let go of the boat cause the life jacket could save my life. 3. That’s all I had. It seems logical to let go of the boat as opposed to being trapped under it.

So we get through ½ the rapids, I’m still AFRAID. I’m so afraid… it’s beyond that funny scary where you laughing and maybe cussing, and kind of enjoying the thrill, it’s just scary. I’m also in the back of the boat, which I find out later is the driver. But each wave is huge!! Like 6-9ft dips in between waves. We made it through one vortex even… where it looked like three currents were coming together....meanwhile Jesse is buzzing through on an entertube! What!?!

So we’re coming up to the last of the big rapids, I can see the calm waters ahead. We go down, we come up, we’re vertical, then water, rapids, wet, cold, loud, under water maybe 15 seconds or so realistically. I emerge, gasp, jump unto something that seems to be floating… the entertube attached to the boat. Rizgar. Elijah. I see Elijah. I look back for Rizgar. Don’t see him. "Rizgar!" I yelled. I thought he was dead… I did. I thought he got sucked under and is gone. NO!!! But then I saw him like 30 yards back… and is swimming towards the bank. Elijah had flipped the boat back over… somehow, adrenalin, and we’re both hanging over the side, not even fully into the boat, talking about where Rizgar is. You saw him? You saw him?

So we all made it back in the boats and finished the trip--- praising God with a little more conviction and a bit rattled from that experience. Praise God! LIFE! Elijah had a couple of trophey wounds.

Entertubing with Carol. Oh, and we did find out that they are letting water out of the Lake Dukan dam... so the river is a little full.
The Meldrums sporting hot life jackets!
Carol cooks a good burger!! She's getting good at that!
I will miss Carol sooooo much!!! Crapa.
"All the single people, all the single people". "Get closer!!" yelled Paul who was taking the picture. None of us moved. "Get closer!!"... haha. I guess we're not used to touch, we've had to totally cut that off entirely because of culture.
I love the Tilman family. Wow, they have taught me too much and blessed me tremendously.