Livingstone (Zambia) Update

greetings from livingston! my zambia trip has been incredible so far...the travel was not too bad, i slept for almost the entire 20 hours from DC to johannesburg (south africa). our accommodations in jo-burg were pretty nice and we just spent time getting to know other team members better, playing mafia, and practicing some of the talks that we gave. then we flew to zambia, which is much more beautiful-- my experience in livingstone will definitely be pretty different from my experience in choma because the city is much larger, about 200,000 people, and slightly more modern... it looks like time stopped in the 1960s here when the british cleared out. we are staying at a guest house near livingstone college where we have been teaching... yesterday we taught classes on discipleship and prayer to about 200 girls ages 18-33 who are in training to become teachers. david livingston college is essentially their equivalent of a graduate school in educations; students attend for 2 or 3 years and then spend at least 20 years in the field teaching preschool, primary school, or secondary school. i spent this morning with two other team members at the house and church of Morningstar, who was our guide through part of choma last year... he has asked us to teach some youth classes through his church (pilgrim wesleyan) tomorrow morning and saturday morning for several hours, and i think we will lead services from 8-12 on sunday morning (yikes!). we spend this afternoon at the college in groups of two teaching smaller classes how to
apply their faiths within the framework of their work and how to strengthen a relationship with Christ. for the rest of the trip, we will break into teaching teams again and teach several more lessons at the college and in the church, and lecrae will give a "gospel concert" in a few days-- which should be
interesting because rap does not seem to have caught on much here yet. although most people here are fluent in english as well as 5-10 other tribal languages, i have found that the language/accent barrier is even more pronounced with the people in the town who are not involved in any educational setting, so communication can be frustrating (every question we ask to someone in town, they answer with "sure!" because they have difficulty understanding us).

right now we have a quick lunch break, and i'm sitting at a FEDEX (which is pretty much the only recognizable american brand other than coke). hope you are all doing well, and i'll catch up with you again maybe once more before the trip is over!

much love, ellen