Shop-Till-You-Drop Saturday

Saturday.

Today was way less intense in one aspect compared to the adventure I went on yesterday, but still awesome. I woke up and got ready, it is the last day I am in the city and have to look exceptionally presentable. Hooray. Anyway, I ate breakfast at the hotel, which yet again consisted of a lot of bacon and then a group of us headed out to go shopping. I was excited since I had not really had a lot of time to go to the markets here in Livingstone. We walked down to the center of Livingstone about 45 minutes away to the craft market. Along the way, we stopped at a few little stores and somehow lost half of our group. Luckily it all turned out in the end.

Upon arrival to the market I was slightly overwhelmed because people are so pushy about selling things. I am not really sure how ripped off I was today by different people but I did buy mostly only things I wanted instead of being convinced to buy other things. I really need a wingman or Ian Tullos with me whenever I go shopping in markets. Unfortunately the group left me because I was still shopping but that was all right with me; there were things I needed to get. The bad news was, I thought our checkout was at 12 and I was finishing up shopping at like 11:40 with a 45-minute walk back to the hotel. After assessing the situation, I walked for about 5 minutes and then decided to see how much it would cost to get a taxi since it really wasn’t very far in a car. Lucky for me it was only 20,000 kwacha so I hopped in and hoped for the best. I felt pretty safe in it other than the fact that it was a slightly junky car but it was blue like all of the rest of the taxis so I knew it was legit. I arrived to the Protea hotel about 2 minutes after my group 2 had left to go to Ulga’s restaurant. We were treated there for lunch since group 1 was treated to that restaurant whenever we stayed behind to do therapy for a few hours.

Lauren was left behind too so I was at least not alone this time. We headed next door to look at some crafts quickly and then decided we should probably meet up with the group. So for the second time today I rode in another taxi in Zambia. This one was much nicer than the first one and I was glad Lauren was with me. Upon arrival to Ulga’s we realized that everyone was not there, in fact only Dr. Tullos was. It turns out most of group 2 was not back from bungee jumping, which I did NOT do, and we really did not need the taxi there but it was an adventure. I ate another delicious pizza from Ulga’s and then Lauren and I headed off to do some last minute shopping before leaving Livingstone. I bought quite a few things and probably spent too much money but hey who knows when I will be back…well hopefully next year but that is not the point.

Anyway we all piled into Khaki Jackie and headed back to Namwianga. We then ate another wonderful dinner prepared by Ba Leonard and hung out since most of us were wiped out from our adventures in Livingstone. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and feel extremely blessed by the opportunities I have had. God is so good and has blessed my life immensely. I was able to overcome fears and see his awesome power through Victoria Falls all in one day (yesterday) and then have some free time today. I am so glad to be back in Namwianga and cannot wait to see all of the bright shining faces of the children tomorrow!