Day 5: Yoga and Arise and Shine Babies Home

Day 5 began with - would you believe, yoga?!?! Seriously! We found a yoga class offered at the Source Cafe which is trendy little cafe we ended up visiting several times while in Jinja. The class was great - made us a little uncomfortable at times, but that can be a good thing as it pushed us outside of our boxes. Here's a few pics from our class...

One of the organizations we were most excited about helping out with was Arise and Shine Babies Home. It was founded by Sharon Nyanjura, an amazing young lady who not only runs the home but also runs several projects for women in Uganda, teaching them bead making and tailoring skills so they can have a sustainable income and provide for their families...

Arise and Shine Uganda from The Archibald Project on Vimeo.

So on Day 5 of our trip, we visited Arise and Shine and went straight to work holding babies and helping out as needed. They were short-staffed that day and appreciated the extra hands...

We had a whole new respect for those Aunties by the time we left the babies home because we were worn out by the end of the day! Such sweet little ones - praying they get their forever families soon!

After we rested, we decided we needed a little exercise and went for a run/walk on the roads close by to our guest house. Here's a few sites we saw along the way...

These birds are so big and ugly!

Thought the progression of growth was neat in these flowers - so pretty...

This is the home of Katie Davis of Amazima Ministries - we're such groupies! ;-)

We were fascinated by all the large gates at the entrances of the homes & had to snap shots of those, as well!

Not a gate but an interesting wall ;-) ...

Back to our home away from home ;-) ...

Day 6: Church and Boat Ride on the Nile

The morning of Day 6, we attended church at Arise Africa Jinja Town Church located in the patio and dining room area of the Arise Africa Guesthouse. It was just a short walk from the Sole Hope Guest House where we were staying. We really enjoyed the worship music and the sermon given by Pastor Smooth Via...

After church, we ate lunch at Sonrisa, an AmAzInG Mexican restaurant owned by Mary, the cook at the Sole Hope Guest House. It was so delicious and nice to have some favorite foods that we enjoy back home.

After lunch, we thought we needed a little "adventure" so we decided to take a boat ride on the Nile. The tour left from a small fishing village off the coast of Jinja.

We were welcomed by our very knowledgeable tour guide and yummy African cakes he made, himself...

About halfway through our tour, our guide banked on the shore of another fishing village & said this was one of our stopping points. We didn't realize this was part of our tour or we would have "dressed for the occasion". So we got out and walked through their village. Honestly, it made us feel a little uncomfortable. I can see his point in wanting to show us their way of life but we felt a little like we were on display in a parade. The children were very friendly and held our hands as we walked through the village, but we felt like many of the adults were looking at us like, "Look at those muzungus. They are rich and think they are better than us", which is so not true. Ironic, though, because even though Americans have more material things, that doesn't mean at all that we are more happy. We are never content with what we have and we are always wanting more. I think those that have less are actually much better off because they are more appreciative of what they have and they are more aware of what's important in life - like family and relationships with friends. They are also resourceful and waste little. They are the blessed ones, in my opinion, and we can learn a lot from them and their simple way of life.

After our little "walk", we finished our boat ride and got to see the source of the Nile - so much history on this body of water. We saw a few monkeys, lizards, and lots of exotic birds along the way.

The water was really high because it's the end of their rainy season...

A relaxing boat ride on the Nile - a great ending to our day ;-)