Guinebor II NADIF

We have a busy couple of weeks since I last blogged! All our mock exams are now over, we are slowly getting our results back, so far we have both been pleased. We’ve still got plenty of homework as ever but are finding more time to do fun things… I read my first book for month last weekend, I’ve found time to write a blog and Ruth’s been looking at uni stuff for next year (she’s got 3 offers now!). We also have been doing more fun things at school. My project on solar energy in Chad will be handed in next week (if you fancy practicing your French, you can visit our website at http://heliostchad.e-monsite.com/).

Our two solar cookers



Helios Tchad!

Last Saturday, our school organised an open day for “la semaine de la science” (Science week). Groups of pupils from the 3 highest years presented different experiments to teachers, parents and year 11 classes from other Chadian schools. Today, they are doing a quiz at the cultural centre on what they learnt. Unfortunately, today we couldn’t go but I took part in the experiments, presenting solar cookers from the chado-swiss organisation PROMOSOL and one we made ourselves from a tyre. My friends presented a solar dryer, an experiment with a photovoltaic cell and games still on the theme of solar. 




The photovoltaic cell experiment

We did this as you might guess for our project on solar energy; a big part of it is about getting people interested and teaching them about solar energy. We had great fun, especially me standing in the sun for 2 hours talking non-stop! It was tiring but good, people seemed very interested and the whole day was a success.



Heading out

Afterwards, you might think that I went home and had a rest all afternoon after the hard work but actually we had our Teen’s Bible Study litter pick! Mum’s been doing Teen’s Bible Study for a random group of missionary children, once a month for about a year. Lately we’ve been studying Acts and the early church. Thinking about this led us to wanting to do a sponsored “act” for the community, so we decided to do a sponsored litter pick in Guinebor II. We’re to be paid a certain amount per bag of rubbish.

Guinebor II NADIF and our helpers

 

The money raised will go to the hospital, we wanted to do something concrete so will buy some sort of equipment the size of which depends on the amount of money raised. Last Saturday afternoon we all went out into Guinebor with plastic gloves and bags. We ended up being helped by a large crowd of enthusiastic children and collected more than 40 bags! We could have stayed for hours (or perhaps days) but actually ran out of bin bags! Afterwards we burnt it all in the hospital incinerator. It was a fun afternoon, we all really enjoyed it and the villagers all seemed pleased if a little surprised to see us bothering to pick up rubbish. We even came up with a name for a group: Guinebor II NADIF. Nadif means clean in Chadian Arabic and is the name of the group of street sweepers of N’djamena. As it went so well, we hope to do it again someday!

 

 

Burning the rubbish

 

I hope this weekend will be slightly less busy… On Sunday afternoon we’re going to the baptism of the new-born child of Dago, the driver who takes us to school each day. Though totally different from last weekend, I’m sure it’ll be just as fun!