Day 9: Arise and Shine Babies Home and Destiny EWO

Day 9 began with a yummy breakfast of chapati stuffed with scrambled eggs and cheese and African tea at our favorite cafe, The Source. (We quickly formed an addiction to this place!) Oh, and a peanut butter cookie totally counts as breakfast food, right?!

After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day at Arise and Shine Babies Home loving on some kids...

And the majority of the day was spent finishing up painting...

We hope we made it a more cheerful place and that it makes them happy when they spend time in those two rooms! At the end of the day, we said our goodbyes to the aunties...

And to our friend and director of the home, Sharon...

We loved our time there and wish we could have spent more time at the home. Now that we are back in the States, we are praying about how we can partner with Sharon and Arise and Shine. We have started a blog here and will post soon about upcoming fundraisers and how friends can sponsor kids and aunties at Arise and Shine Babies Home. So stay tuned!

Now, meet Paul. He was our driver while we were in Jinja and he wears many hats. He also works jigger removal clinics for Sole Hope and does social work. He drives on the side to provide an income for a non-profit organization he recently began called "Destiny for Elderly Widows and Orphans". He saw a need to help widows within the Jinja area and began this organization so that individuals, groups, or businesses could purchase animals for widows and help them provide a sustainable income for their families.

After we left the home, he took us by his new office which is where they will be ministering to the widows and housing the animals in the backyard. It needs a lot of work but Paul has a great vision for the place. He also shared with us the organization's mission and business plan. It was very well-thought out and organized and we could tell he spent a lot of time thinking through how things should be ran. We are also praying about how we can partner with Paul and began a blog here. We will post soon about the widows that need to be sponsored and how you can purchase an animal (such as a goat, cow, or chicken) through Destiny EWO - it's a gift that keeps on giving!

After we arrived back at the Sole Hope Guest House, we met with the cleaner, Joyce.

Joyce is one amazing lady. She has eight children - five are biological and three are nephews and a niece that she and her husband have adopted. As you can imagine, caring for a family this large does not come cheap. So they all help make jewelry from paper beads to provide a little extra income for their family.

Joyce knew we were interested in seeing her creations so she brought them to the guest house and we had so much fun shopping. She is so talented and we pray that her family's efforts are blessed a hundred fold!