first motorcycle ride

so this is a little delayed, as it happened last weekend and it is already the end of this weekend... but i need to write it down so that i don't forget!

last weekend was a super long weekend because of the eid [muslim holiday marking the end of ramadan] which went a little like this:
thursday - cleaning, errands, school work
friday - school work, more errands, poker night (i was always the last girl standing, and even won a little money the second game.. woot!)
saturday - some returning teachers (IT bryan, 5th grade lana, hs social studies jordan, 1st grade jessica, hs lit gordon, and hs math dusty rose) invited leif & i to take a little adventure with them.  they were doing research because they want to float down the benue (ben-way) river in a boat eventually.  this trip was purely for informational reasons to see if it was possible, how much it would cost, how long it would take, etc. and leif & i were just along for the ride and to see some more of outside-abuja-nigeria.  we drove through nassarawa and after about two hours could not drive any further because the rode was washed out.  the only way was to take a motorcycle/ukada?.  it cost us N1000 each way and we rode three people to a bike.  we were initially told it would be about a half hour ride, but that was a lie... so for an hour (each way) i sat squished between our nigerian ukada driver and leif which was interesting.  at least i was secure on there, but i was definitely sore the next day.  we drove through lots of areas that were just pure green, and also several small villages.  when we did arrive in loko, we saw the river which was awesome, and were also followed around the whole time we were there by literally at LEAST 50 children.  non-nigerians don't go through their village often i suppose, and one of the first things a man told us was that he would show us where one of "our" people were buried - the only white man who had lived/died in the village.  we also met the cheif and emir of the village which was interesting.  overall, the experience was really cool and i'm glad that i got to see more of the "real" nigeria as many people have told us that abuja is not really what the rest of nigeria is like.  eventually when we got home, leif and i went to the vlisco fashion show which was a fundraiser for our school.  sara and a few other teachers/parents were models in it, so it was fun to go support them.  have lots of pictures and ideas for some dresses that i want made now :)
sunday- 5th grade brian, another returning teacher, took us (sara, leah, matt and i) to gurara waterfalls which was about an hour away.  took a little hikey hike and ate lunch there.  was pretttty cool.

so many adventures and things seen in such a short time already!  love it. :)