All in a Day

Our first photo-less blog, sorry!

[Reminder: If you're catching up with us, remember to check below for other new entries posted earlier than this one!]

More Orientation

Today we met with SIL’s employee and public relations person for our orientation meeting. He is a Chadian man who has studied abroad, so with his understanding of both western and local cultures (including his great English skills and understanding of cross cultural issues and concerns) it was great to receive further insight into churches and general living in Chad.

We learnt that there are two main church groups in Chad: Catholics and Protestants. The Catholic Church dates back to French colonization and the Protestants are made up of a number of different denominations but have a union which represents them as a group. This is not only for practical reasons such as meeting with the Government but also to demonstrate unity across the Christian faith (very important in a majority Islamic nation).

Like in Australia, the church denominations vary on issues such as the role of women, the consumption of alcohol, memberships and western visitors. One note worth pointing out is that memberships are considered quite important here in Chadian churches. If someone wants to change to another church, they require a written reference from their Pastor before they are accepted at their new church. This prevents people causing problems in a church and simply moving on to other churches, where unresolved issues often resurface. The same procedures also applied to westerners in the past, however, there is not as much emphasis on this nowadays as it is recognised that this does not happen often in the west.

We were also given some more information regarding the establishment of relationships with locals. One of the main points was that when visiting a Chadian, we won’t be asked if we want something to eat or drink, it will just be given. It could be considered rude to question this, so it is best to be polite and accept. Chadian culture is to share what you have with others and especially if a westerner turns down their hospitality, the locals can be given the impression that they are perceived as unclean and that they live unhygienically.

An amusing demonstration of this scenario was when an SIL lady went to visit a Chadian family. Upon arrival she was given a cup of tea with one 'sugar.' Instead of sugar, the Chadean lady had unknowingly put in a healthy dose of salt! So as not to cause offense, the SIL lady just drank the tea, without comment.

Similarly, when locals visit us we are to just give them a drink rather than asking. If asked, they will most likely refuse because the implication of our question would be that we don’t really want to give them the drink at all!

We also discussed photography, which helped shed light on when and where it is appropriate to take and use the camera. We learnt that it is illegal to take photos of public and Government buildings and also Government officials such as politicians, police and soldiers. It is ok to take the camera when in town but permission from anyone who will be the subject of a photo needs to be attained before taking any. It is also a good idea to show your subject the photo afterwards for their approval. Simply snapping away can cause very difficult situations. 

Service Problems

The centre’s water pump which supplies water to the entire centre failed today and with no one able to fix it, we were without water in the centre. With no redundancy plan in place, ‘waterboys’ were hired to fill plastic drums of water that were placed around the compound for us to retrieve water from. This water is unfiltered, so we also had to buy bottles of water to drink. It didn't take long to realise how much we take for granted the convenience of running tap water and flushing toilets! Most people on the centre are used to living without running water from their time in the villages, so we are all managing fine. We're just getting a better taste of the real Chad!

As it soon became apparent that there was no-one on the centre who could solve the water problems, John has had to stop working so hard at the construction site and divert his energies into trying to deal with the water supply issue as a matter of urgency. The construction has also almost ground to a halt as water is needed to continue the work. We will post an update on the sequence of events as soon as we can!

In addition to the water crisis, we have now been without town power for over a week. Our generator has been working overtime and while one would normally assume this is due to town power issues, it turns out the rest of N'Djamena has power (most of the time). The power box for the SIL centre - which is directly in front of the compound on the street - has been the culprit. Apparently last time this happened it took the town electricity dudes a couple of weeks to even look at the box. When they finally did, all they found was a dead bird shorting out the circuit! Whatever the issue is this time, while the problem is ‘being fixed,’ 1 week of diesel for the generator is costing us as much as 1 month of normal town power usage!

Settling In

It has been a while since our last entry and we are struggling to get everything into our latest blog entry before current events make what we have written seem outdated! We want to get better at writing smaller more frequent entries, but for now make yourselves comfortable and we hope you enjoy reading our latest instalment! (we have left out things from the last few days so we could get something up, so keep an eye out for another chapter coming soon...)

2 Weeks
Since writing last, we've been introduced to a little more of the N'Djamena outside our SIL walls. We've sampled cuisine from a local Chadian restaurant (bbq meat and veg skewers, chips and bread), shopped at some local markets and 'boutiques' and Katie has been with some of the other SIL girls to a tailor, all within a couple of blocks of the compound. It has been great to walk the streets and not only gain insight into Chadian way of life but also practice our French. John, the bargain hunter that he is, even started to learn Arabic at the markets (the other main language of the town) so he could barter properly for fruit and vegies.
  
Reactions of people on the street are interesting. While some people greet you as you walk by, it seems that not everyone is overly happy to see white people in their area. Although most people will of course look at you, greetings are not as frequent as you might hope. There is definitely a reserved air about the people and this has reinforced to John the need to learn more of the language and more about the culture before he ventures out with a conspicuous DSLR. We do not feel unsafe on the streets and we try our best to be friendly, ever mindful of the fact there is in effect a bigger spotlight on our witness for Christ being white people in an African country. Fortunately the children love to come and greet the "nassala" (white people) walking their street and shake our hands. One little boy seemed so excited to touch white skin that he hung on for as long as he could!

Guinebor II

The doctor based here at the SIL compound spends the first half of the week working at a local hospital which is about 30 minutes drive north (just outside N'Djamena) in an area called Guinebor II. Medical professionals from a variety of countries have come to Chad as missionaries to facilitate the management and running of the hospital. They work with a selection of local Chadian nurses who have been trained at the hospital. Although the hospital has been unofficially operating for the last 5 years of so, the official opening was held on Thursday Jan 13. Along with a few others from the centre, we travelled out to Guinebor II for this special event.

The hospital entrance

In true African style, the dignitaries arrived an hour or so late, although we were told this was pretty good for Chadian officials. We were honoured to be in the company of the mayor of N'Djamena and the Chadian health minister as well as quite a few other important people. The ceremony was about an hour long, with all the speeches in French, interspersed by summaries translated into Arabic. Apparently the health minister actually spoke very well (thanks for the running translation Uncle Dave!) expressing a genuine interest in the work being carried out at the hospital.

Listening to African music while waiting for the dignitaries to arrive

After the cutting of the ribbon and tour of the hospital (for the dignitaries), we shared some locally prepared food and of course, a Coke. As Chad is a predominantly Muslim country and Islamic people are not supposed to drink alcohol, apparently, Coca Cola is the drink to have. Coke is served at every important function, and it is superior to Fanta, Sprite and other softdrinks (which are also served). We also experienced African music for the first time with a Chadian musical group playing and singing both before and after the ceremony. There's definitely something about it that just makes you want to dance!

The hospital facilities

The drive was also enjoyable, though we think if you were a patient being transported to the hospital in an emergency you would think otherwise! The roads are paved for the majority of the drive (as long as you stick to the main roads), but toward the end of the bitumen, the roads are unfinished and there are several large unavoidable bone-jarring bumps before you hit the dirt...the dirt section is then another story altogether. Sitting directly above the rear wheels of a Toyota Troop Carrier, it is not an understatement to say we came close to hitting our heads on the ceiling many times! In the wet season, it is likely you wouldn't be able to make it to the hospital without a full blown 4wd. You also need your wits about you just to get to the hospital as when the bitumen finishes the dirt track/s into the hospital are not obvious. 

 

While the roads are the issue out of town, the traffic in town keeps the whole adventure exciting. Cars and motorbikes get extremely close to each other giving bumper to bumper traffic a new meaning. On the way out to the hospital we even had a motorbike bump into the back of our Troopie! He was following so close and couldn't brake in time when we braked thanks to the weight of the two big bags of millet (seed) he had draped across his fuel tank! We weren't travelling very quickly, so the Chadian rider managed to keep the bike upright, although the millet fell off and as we continued to beep our way through the traffic, the local looked up with a smile before receiving help from nearby pedestrians to reload his motorbike (our driver didn't even realise she had been hit). Never a dull moment on the streets!

 
Library Construction

John is continuing to supervise the construction of the new library building which has required him to brush up on his structural engineering skills, with help from contacts back at home (thanks Reubs!). With the time difference, the internet connection speed (or lack of) and the internet dropping in and out all the time, this has proved difficult at times.

Communication on the construction site is mainly through drawings and the identification of associating French vocabulary. John's notebook, pen and pocket dictionary are never far away during the working day. As he continues to build relationships with the French-speaking construction workers, he has found some help from one or two of the workers who can speak a little English. Both parties are willing to learn and they seem to be able to find ways to communicate effectively enough for the most part.
 
Although he seems to manage ok with the simple things, when more complex explanations are required John often needs to call on the translation services of Uncle Dave or another SIL employee who has some involvement with the project. It has been a challenge to achieve the implementation of anything that is different to what the workers know, no matter whether the outcome would be greater efficiency, or higher quality results. This only makes life more interesting and overall John seems to be enjoying his work.

These photos span nearly 2wks work - the bottom photos are today's

This last week, the reinforcement for the foundations was laid out, the formwork erected and the first section of concrete was poured (all with hand tools and hard manual labour) on Saturday Jan 23. There were issues with each of these elements and John has happily got his hands dirty in order to show the workers with his actions what he has tried to explain. It turns out that this has helped to better establish relationships with the workers as they can see that he is willing to work as hard as they are, especially if what he suggests is actually making work more difficult for them (like using less water in the concrete mix). John's office hands are now blistered and worn from steel tying and mixing concrete (with  shovels) but he thinks it has been worth it. He was invited to eat lunch with the workers on Saturday, so he must be his way ok!
  
Wellspring Academy
Katie spent her first 3 days helping at Wellspring Academy last week. The school is small in number but growing already after being open only for a short time. There are around 12 expat children in the 2 classes who all seem to enjoy being at school and even find it fun! The day starts at 7.30am with a half hour break for morning tea at 10am before ending at 12.50pm. With the early start the day seems to go very quickly, but home time is definitely welcomed as it also means lunch.

Wellspring Academy

Katie's first task is in the school library. You may remember seeing borrowing cards at the back of library books before barcodes and computer systems were implemented for borrowing? Each book's title and the name of its author are supposed to be written at the top of the card at the back of the corresponding book. Katie has begun filling in these details for the 2000+ books in the school library! Once these details have been filled out for every book, the library will be able to operate as follows: the borrowing and return dates as well as the reader's name are written on a book's card at the time it is borrowed; the reader takes the book and the book's card is then filed away until the book is returned; the card is then placed back in the book before being re-shelved on it's return.

(L) Katie found this in the school library! (R) The famous borrowing cards

It is obviously a very simple system, however being such a time consuming task, no one at school has had the time to put it together properly. Both teachers and children have expressed how good it will be to have this system finally in place... and that's been enough motivation to help Katie chug through such an enthralling task!

The Wellspring library in one of the downstairs classrooms

SIL Chad Orientation

This week we have also met with the SIL Centre Director and the doctor to discuss some housekeeping issues for orientation. The Director gave us a very informative rundown of SIL's history in Chad (dating back to the 1950's) and we were able to see the regions in Chad in which SIL has had varying levels of involvement in local projects. These projects include language survey, orthography (creating a symbol/alphabet from sounds from the local language)  literacy, and finally translation (in roughly that order). Feel free to ask us to explain more about each if you are interested and we'll do our best to enlighten you!

The doctor gave us her general health and wellbeing spiel which included many interesting pieces of medical information. Did you know you can fold up eucalyptus leaves and stuff them up your nose to alleviate stuffy noses and help settle asthma troubles? Yes, John demonstrated...using the leaves from the native Australian gum trees that are planted around the SIL compound (they love it here!). Did you know some parasites or hernias can give you such bad diarrhoea that what should come out the bottom can come out the top?  Gross! Thanks for the details doc, we hope we don't end up recounting a first hand demonstration of that one!

We meet the person in charge of employee and public relations next week. He is a well educated Chadian man that speaks English and has a good hold on the crossovers between our cultures and the cultural dynamics in Chad. We actually visited his home the first week we were here to see his gorgeous new baby and meet the rest of his family. When he first found out we were from Queensland, he greeted us with a huge smile and exclaimed, "Ah, you know my home village!" It turns out he once visited SIL folk at the Gold Coast and loved his time there. [side note: Chad is roughly 3/4 the size of Qld :) ] We anticipate an intriguing meeting with him.

We have driven through N'Djamena to a few places now and on Friday 28 Jan we are scheduled to take an hour's taxi tour of the city. This should be a help in further familiarising us with our surroundings!

Life at SIL Chad
There are many opportunities to socialise with staff and visitors here at the SIL centre. During the working day, many gather for a quick cuppa and chat at morning tea. On Thursdays, you can meet over a cooked lunch which costs $4 and again at the weekly prayer meeting in the afternoon. Friday night is movie night and there is always somewhere to go with someone on the weekends. Of an afternoon, after siesta, John and Uncle Dave have been working on their table tennis and football (both the round and oval types) skills. Every Sunday afternoon other local missionaries come to the SIL compound to play volleyball. We have quickly learned that you must bring much energy and enthusiasm for the half fun, half serious event.

We will also be joining a handful of SIL children for French lessons on Wednesday afternoons. This is taken by one of the SIL mums and will be a big help to us in understanding French vocab, phrases and pronunciation.

God has definitely had his hand on us and even though we've been here for less than 3 weeks, we seem to be settling into life well. We consider ourselves blessed to have so many family and friends thinking of and praying for us. It's a huge encouragement when we hear news from home, so feel free to write anytime!

Au revoir!

A Chadian Treat

When the centre doctor walks up to you with a mischievous grin, brown paper bag in hand and then says, “I have a Chadian treat for you to try,” you know you’re about to experience something out of the ordinary...

From previous conversations with other SIL folk, we quickly decided this was likely to be an edible insect, however the doctor wan't about to give anything away. Katie was first...

[German accent] "Close your eyes and open you mouth. John, you can't watch!" With an ominous rustle of her paper bag the doctor put the treat in Katie's mouth. At that very moment, Katie could feel exactly what she had gotten herself into. Hesitantly, she began to chew, the crunching making her squirm and shiver, until the 'treat' crunched no longer.

Now it was John’s turn. While the doctor was sifting through her paper bag excitedly for the perfect morsel, John waited with eyes closed and mouth open, uneasy anticipation written all over his face. The doctor then took her choice specimen and put it in his mouth. With a slight inkling of what he was about to eat, John hesitantly began to chew. 

The chilling crunch also caused John to shiver but it wasn’t enough to deter him. After missing the photo opportunity from the first try, even though he now knew what he was eating, he ate another.

While there was a slight earthly taste, the crunch resembled that of fried chicken wings. We had just eaten our first fried and salted grasshoppers!

Meanwhile, Aunty Elly came out to see why there was intermittent flashes of light [the camera] and laughter out on her verandah. As if the two grasshoppers weren’t enough, John went for a third, together with the doctor and Aunty Elly, who had managed to avoid eating grasshoppers ever since she first came to Africa in 1992! We got the photos to prove she has now taken the plunge.

John, our SIL doctor and Aunty Elly - crunch, crunch!

Apparently, fried grasshoppers are out of season at the moment, so it was very kind of the doctor to share hers (given to her as a gift) with us. She did seem to enjoy watching us squirm
…

N'Djamena, Chad!

We thought a good way to get this blog rolling would be to give an account of events since our departure from Brisbane on the 3rd of January 2011...(that's what a blog is right?)

 

[We have found that much to John's frustration the situation with photography in Chad is tricky. There is so much he would have loved to have captured so far, but he has to be very careful (if you get caught taking photos around town you could get in big trouble). He will do his best (he is motivated to find ways), but for now you'll have to use your imagination with prompting from a few of these images from within the SIL compound! The internet speed isn't exactly conducive to uploading photos either - again we'll do our best]
 
Monday 3 Jan 2011:
We left Toowoomba at around 8:30am to get to the airport in Brisbane by 11am. The night before, John had picked up that something wasn't quite right about our travel itinerary...unable to figure out the problem, it wasn't long after leaving that we realised we were going to have an overnight stopover in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on our way to Chad! What a lovely thing to find out only hours from departure. We decided not to worry about, figuring we'd just work something out when we got there. This only seemed appropriate, and our African adventure had definitely begun!

After being farewelled by our parents + the newly wed Scotty & Emilia Braithwaite and Joshy Hamilton (loved the surprise guys!) at the Brisbane International Terminal we boarded our first flight, headed for Bangkok on Thai Airways. Throughout the 9.5 hour flight we didn't sleep like we had hoped but dined on tasty Thai curries and watched movies instead. Once we arrived at Bangkok airport, we found ourselves walking a ridiculously long way (seriously would have been a kilometre or 2!) just to get to the transfer desk to collect our boarding passes for our next leg. We waited at the unmanned transfer desk for a couple of hours until around midnight when check-in for our flight opened. Although we were very tired by this time, our attempts to get some sleep during the wait were thwarted by the hard plastic seats, noisy cleaners and bag watch duties. 
 
Tuesday 4 Jan 2011:
When check-in for Ethiopian Airlines finally opened, we collected our boarding passes and found we had to walk pretty much back to the other side of Thailand to board our next flight! We had another long wait before the flight left, so we made the most of the amenities (note for future transit in Thailand: be prepared to share the open-plan bathrooms with a friendly resident cleaners - not necessarily of the appropriate gender), freshened up a bit and tried to rest again, still while on bag watch. We were very tired by the time we boarded our next flight.
Apart from the obviously tired and therefore much grumpier Ethiopian Airlines flight attendants, our 9 hour flight to Ethiopia was also uneventful. We found it easier to sleep during this flight probably because we were so tired, messed up with the time changes and it was now night time. 
  
Ethiopia
A sunrise actually takes quite a while when you're running away from it at 845kph. Sleepily watching the sun light up the trailing edge of the aeroplane wing and slowly the ground far below as it tried to catch us was a nice sensation. We arrived in Addis Ababa in the grey, shapeless morning light just after sunrise (6:30am local time) without realising Addis was located in such mountainous country. Much to our surprise, but probably fair enough since we were actually at a reasonable altitude, we got off the plane at Addis Ababa to the welcome of police and military guards rugged up in full length overcoats, scarves and beanies! It was a bit chilly, but it was an amusing sight considering we were comfortable in our T-shirts.
 
After our Ethiopian stopover epiphany en-route to Brisbane nearly 30hrs prior, we decided we'd try to stick it out in the terminal at Addis Ababa. We had no idea where else to go, how much to pay and what the security situation was like in Addis, so after bumping into a young Pom who assured us that his (just completed) overnight stay in the terminal was fine, we thought we'd save our dollars and do the same. We only lasted a few hours before deciding it would be better to get checked into a hotel for sleep and sanity's sake without the bag minding (our friend had only flown in from Nairobi, Kenya and his bags had gone on ahead of him, so he only had only needed to look after his small backpack). 
 
Once organised, we found ourselves on a fascinating 15 minute journey through the hectic, polluted streets of Addis before arriving at our 4.5 star hotel on the outskirts (?) of town. We probably got ripped off, and it was definitely weird starting a mission trip with an overnight in such luxury compared to what we had just driven past, but we didn't know any better, so we tried to put this out of our minds and rest. By late morning, we were sleeping soundly. Our stay also included meals which was good, but we had to try and remember which foods were best to avoid, so we couldn't just get stuck in and eat our fill. Although it would have been great to get out and explore, there were like 4 or 5 security guards at the door of the hotel, so we were under the impression we shouldn't stray far without someone who knew the situation. We spent our whole stay at Hotel Riviera sleeping, resting and breathing in the cool, dry, dusty and truck-exhaust-filled air from our 'highway view' windows. John entertained himself watching life go by on the noisy, congested highway and parallel access roads. The constant traffic was punctuated by the odd donkey-drawn cart and spontaneous football (soccer) matches played on the recently threshed fields beyond (he counted up to five games played at one time).

Football (soccer) training Ethiopian style

Wednesday 5 Jan 2011
7.30am Ethiopian time. We roused ourselves from our restless sleeping and piled into the transfer bus to be driven back to the airport. Driving in Addis (and we're sure most of Africa) is a little crazy; left-sided too, so we were happy to be passengers! We passed a freshly rolled Toyota Hilux in travelling in the opposite direction on the way and there are people crossing the roads all over the place (even when the traffic is 3 lanes and moving at over 80kph), sometimes carrying massively heavy looking loads too. You definitely need to be switched on when driving. The smell of pollution would take a bit to getting used to as well as smoking indoors.
 
We arrived at the Ethiopian airport and after taking our bags back off an eager porter, we waited in line outside the terminal for 40 or 50 minutes to get to the first screening desk. Although a massive line quickly built up, we weren't actually that far back in the line: the delay was due to:

• The airport staff were only manning one scanning machine
• There were 4 or 5 people standing around, but every time the guy at the computer saw something of interest, he stopped the belt and got up to check the bags himself - the others stood and watched!
• Perhaps most infuriating was the fact that every time flight crew arrived, they walked straight to the front of the line, cut the queue and put their bags through before those that had already been waiting for what felt like hours (us!). This meant the queue was basically stationary.

People in line were starting to get very irate (africans included) and eventually some Americans blew up, caused a fuss and things started to get moving again. This was a nice introduction to African efficiency!
 
After eventually passing through and waiting inside our boarding gate, we were told that our flight to N'Djamena was delayed. At first it was for 45 minutes, then 2 hours and next thing we found ourselves in one of the restaurants being given lunch. John asked some questions and found out that the plane was at the airport, but it was having mechanical problems, so although it meant more delays, we were glad to hear that the problem was too hard to resolve and a replacement plane was being flown in. With an initial departure time of 10:30am, 6 hours later at about 4.30pm we were on our way to N'Djamena. All this waiting around in the terminal made us thankful that we did actually leave the airport and get some sleep the night before!
 
TChad
We were really looking forward to flying into Chad in the daylight hours so that we got an idea of what we flying into. 845kph isn't fast enough - this time the sun caught and overtook us while we were in the air. We arrived in total darkness (if you want to see spectacularly dense city lights at night, don't come to N'Djamena!) at around 6:30pm local time. 
 

Compared to the tedious processes in Addis, we raced through customs at N'Djamena's international airport in record time (and they only spoke French!) using our key phrase "la SIL" (say SIL how it's spelt i.e. no acronym) and piled into Uncle Dave's Hilux. Wow, it was great to see a familiar face after nearly 70hrs in transit! We drove through the streets of N'Djamena to the SIL compound via the presidential palace (en-route, not on invitation!). Apparently if you stop a vehicle anywhere along the road in front of these walls you are considered a security threat and likely to be shot at. 

 

The temperatures are not too different from Brisbane at the moment, but it is very dry and very dusty. Basically we are guaranteed that there will be no rain until March. It will stay dry and dusty while slowly heating up over the next few months. In March it starts to get very humid and keeps getting hotter. Apparently it will get to the point where it is so hot and humid that noone can stand it any more, and the rains will break. There will be some relief while it rains, but then the extreme heat will stay and the place will dry out again. We'll keep you posted on the climate as time goes on.
 
SIL
We are living in unit 5 in B block. Our unit is probably better than we expected and is bigger than the unit where we spent our first year of marriage in Brisbane! We are on the 2nd floor and pretty much opposite to Uncle Dave and Aunty Elly who are down the other end of the verandah. There are lots of trees in the compound. We can hardly see anything from our windows because of them buts that's not a bad thing. 

"B Block" - All of the windows you see to the right of the verandah on level 2 in the photo below belong to our unit

Loungeroom (L - from front door; R - looking back to front door)

Bath and throne rooms

Bedrooms (T - main bedroom; B - 2nd bedroom)

We are quite at home with running cold water (no hot, so we have to boil water to get that), filtered tap for drinking water, flushing toilet and shower (also only cold - we've been showering camping/Indo style...boiled water mixed with cold in a bucket and scooped over after lathering up with soap). The electricity cuts in and out quite frequently, but usually a generator kicks in before too long while the town power is out which is quite a luxury.


We had a housemate for a few days after our arrival. He was a bit greedy though and he ate way too much of the few basic supplies we were given to start our stay. As rude as we may have been considered as new guests, it didn't take long for us to get sick of him and we decided we should come up with a new living arrangement.


By deduction, we figured out he was living in the portable evaporative cooler that was in our bedroom. We moved the cooler to the spare room and that seemed to limit the disturbances, but we were still going through too much food. Another cooler relocation, this time to outside our unit, proved unsuccessful as our company seemed to like the comfort of the spare room! Currently we have decided to be polite and leave him in peace. We'll figure something out soon...

These little fellas
are everywhere!

As well as our housemate, the SIL compound hosts many other more friendly folk - a lot of whom we have met already (and not necessarily remembered their names!). There are Chadian guards at the front and back gates, as well one positioned about halfway through the compound. We also reside with a few mozzies (not too many yet), pigeons who screech around the roof and lizards who climb the outside walls. Pet cats are also in the compound but no resident dogs, they are outside the compound and bark at all hours of the night/early morning.




Together with Uncle Dave and Aunty Elly, we'll be hiring a cook to make our main meal (lunch) and househelp to do the cleaning and washing. While we would normally think it unnecessary to hire help and it is such a foreign concept to us, in Chad it is providing an income for a couple of local Chadians who would otherwise have no means to work. It should also be a great opportunity to practice our French skills!

The weather is quite nice for us at the moment, but for the locals it is cold. It is going to take some time getting used to the dry air which sucks any moisture from your skin and the dust which, we've been told on a windy day renders visibility across the compound to virtually none. 
 
Sunday 9 Jan 2011
While still recovering from jet-lag, we have found that we improve slightly each day. Apparently with the time difference combined with strange food and water, it usually takes about a week to find your feet again. We slept through properly for the first time on Friday night which was good. We start 'working' tomorrow (with orientation for the first few days) or later if we feel we need the time. John had a tour of the compound on Friday and is already getting involved in the oversight of the construction of the new library building.
 
Things seem pretty chilled and everyone quite friendly.  We've already been getting to know others in the compound. People signed up to feed us for the first 4 days which has been a great opportunity to learn who we are serving with here. We also went into town for breakfast at a local patisserie yesterday morning - croissants and hot chocolates were so good, followed by a trip to the shops for basic supplies. There is a street with more western shops in it, so we found some familiar supplies like Kellogg's cornflakes, Nivea cream and Palmolive shampoo. We had fun practicing our limited French with a lot of help/ translation from U. Dave and the accompanying SIL ladies.
 
Next week there are big celebrations in town for Chad's 50th year of Independence so the streets are being cleaned and new flags being put up everywhere. Apparently dignitaries from other countries are arriving for the event, the airport is being closed and there will be parades and air shows. There will be so many people in the streets that we are told it will be virtually impossible to get anywhere. We have been told that it is probably better that we don't venture out as it is a bit unknown what the situation on the streets will be like. John is busily trying to figure out how we (or he) might be able to get out to see some of the events!
 
God is good and continues to show us His way daily. We hope you have had good New Years and are ready as you head into another year with everything that is ahead. May you find freedom as you seek Him in your lives.

An update on the housemate - if you hadn't figured it out, we were welcomed by quite a large resident rat! John set about constructing a rat trap yesterday (your prediction was correct Dad [Graham]!), but Uncle Dave popped by and suggested that we try Mukulu (the Chadean village they lived in for years) style. They just trapped it in the spare bedroom and rattled it out of hiding from the cupboard. Uncle Dave had a big stick, so let's just say it will no longer be a problem!