the trip to livingston

today we woke up around 5:45 to get ready to leave. we knew that we wanted to stop and see one of the villages that world vision helps out, so we had to have an early start.
i cant explain what the village was like when we got there! they lived in huts, with straw for the roof, and mud for the walls. these people had even less than the people in Lusaka! they had nothing in their houses, and they only had a small population. we met this woman named Beatrice, who has AIDS, and was shunned from her community. she was so sad looking, she was week and even though she was on ARV's she looked like she was dieing of depression. he said all she does is sleep, and sometimes she gets sick to her stomach because of how she is treated. i cant express it on the computer, and i don't have alot of time so i cant express the severity of this story to you ! but her husband died, she has three children and one of them also has AIDS. her house is next to her parents, and they have also shunned her from the community, they encourage her not to take her medicine because they say it would be better if she was dead. everyone in the community doesn't like her because she has AIDS (even though there are people in almost every hut around her who also has AIDS) and they treat her children the same way. it was so sad because she was crying as she was telling us the story, and her daughter was next to her also crying. i felt so bad because i didn't know what else we could do for her except encourage her to keep going. she really wanted to move away, but i don't think that would help. she kept saying that her brother wants to beat her, and that he and everyone else say that she deserved it because in order to get this it must mean that she was sleeping around. what was so sad was that so many people are so uneducated here about aids, and that is why it is so stigmatized. which is exactly what i have been researching for my wise project.
however after that heart wrenching experience, we arrived at Livingston, and were able to catch a glimpse of the falls. it is beautifully! we are sleeping in tents, which have beds inside of them. it is nice, and the view from the "hotel" is beautiful!