God's protection....

This last week has been wonderful. On Monday we split up into our 3 church groups and visited the market in Choma. The Choma market is only about 5 minutes down the road driving and it only is about 30 minutes away by walking. This time we drove because we needed to pick up groceries for the whole group. Beth, one of the missionaries here, gave us a tour around the closed market first. She took us into SPAR, which is about the only grocery store that has what you need almost all the time. Beth knew about half the people in the market it felt like, so I was glad to have her as our group's guide. Zambians don't stand in line at the grocery store, it's more of an organized bunch of chaos at checkout. As we entered the SPAR there were a bunch of Zambians in the front of the store waiting to pay for their groceries. Behind the counter was a metal fence which separated the groceries from the front of the store. The groceries were all stacked up on top of eachother in about a 20 ft by 20 ft space. It was really crowded, but really interesting to see the difference in grocery shopping!
After grocery shopping, we went to the open air market down the street. This one was a lot more fun, because you can actually barter the prices down. We all shopped for pieces of material to make chitenge's, (the cloth that african use for everything) however I didn't buy any yet because nothing really stood out to me. On the way out of the store we saw a boy, whom our group remembered from church. He was on the street selling fritters, which were most likely made by his mom at their home. His left side of his face was extremely large and we assumed he had an extremely abscessed tooth. Beth bought 10 fritters from him and asked him what was wrong. He just responded that he was sick and that it hurt. It was a little sad to witness, especially because he was so young.
For the last couple days we have been preparing for and having nursing classes, along with more orientation meetings. Throughout this trip many people have been praying for our safety and protection. And this morning God gave us more of His protection. One of the girls walked out of the front door of the compound to do devotions this morning and she slipped on the rug on the way out. Underneathe the rug happened to be a snake curled up in a ball. With God's protection she was able to get up and get away from the snake before it even woke up. God's protection was with her and we are so, so thankful! It was such a blessing of protection! Thank you God! I hope that you praise and thank God for his protection and his blessing on your life everyday! :) You need it more than you know!
Blessings,
Alivia