I made it to Livingstone!! It has been a wild week of traveling but we made it and we are doing great.
Last Thursday, I traveled to Gainesville, Georgia for training camp where I met my team- whom have became my greatest friends. During TC we not only began to grow as a team but a family. & I am so excited to do life with them during these next three months and the rest of our lives ??
On Monday I took my first ever flight. to LONDON!! It was seriously the best flight, except the fact that Bree, Tyler, & I decided NOT to sleep. But I could not ask for a better first flight. I landed in London at about 5am their time. With a 9 hour layover we decided to go exploring- breakfast at a cute cafe and we got to see Buckingham Palace.
But London is where Satan decided to attack us as a team. & hard. Our sweet friend, Bailey, had been super sick and decided she needed to fly back home to the states to get better. & it punched us in the gut. We were all frustrated and kinda hurt but we pushed through to make our flight, as Bailey made her flight back to the US alone. Bailey, you are seriously the strongest person I have ever met and I can’t wait for you to be back. I love you sweet friend!!
I don’t remember take off in London as I fell asleep right when I sat down. We flew about 11 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa where we had another 11 hour layover. It was seriously the longest day. But we boarded for our last flight to Lusaka, Zambia and arrived 2 hours later. We stayed overnight at a hostile that had a bed and a warm shower. Thank you Jesus!! & the next morning we left for Livingstone on a 8 hour bus ride. It was hot, long, and we got stopped by immigration too many times.
But we finally arrived and we had the sweetest welcome. Kids from everywhere ran out to give us hugs and greet us. Seriously I was in heaven. We got our bags inside and talked for a little while before we wandered out to hang out with the kids. We danced, we ran, we sung new songs, and we learned new names. I will remember it as one of the sweetest moments of my life. After we finished playing with the kids we made our way into town to just look around but we found this little store that sells cold soda for 3 Kwacha (currency here in Zambia) which equals $.29 in America. wow give me all of them.
Yesterday was our first full day in Zambia. We had an orientation and then a rest day- which led to a 2.6 mile journey to find wifi. Which then led to burgers, ice cream, and taxi rides. Overall it was a great first day and I can’t wait to see how God moves through us in Zambia.
til next time,
Ellen
ps. wifi is super limited but I will try to update once a week 🙂
