This is how Odette,
our old house help used to greet me when I came in from school. Is it now? Are
you back? Yes, I am, I have been back in Chad for almost a week now.
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| Mum and Dad's house on the TEAM compound for the next few months |
I have been living on
the TEAM compound in the middle of town with my parents. Next week I hope to
move into my new flat! I’ll be meeting with my flat mate, Ophelie this afternoon
to discuss moving in furniture and cases. So far things have been going well. I
have spent two afternoons at the centre making soaps and also cloth bags which
is the latest idea. The centre has moved since I was last there, it is now in
the same building as my flat! It has got two rooms, one which is used as a
storage space and office and the other where we all sit on a mat to make things.
At the moment, three other missionaries are working there, Anne, Annie and
Christina. Naomi who set up the centre will be coming back at the end of
November. The centre is only open for two afternoons a week so that the 5 women
who have done the rehabilitation course so far can come and chat and make things.
When Naomi comes we hope to do a second course with different women. I feel
quite at home being back in Chad and have been wondering what I would think of
the past week if I had never been here before. What would I find different?
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| A typical 'yellow' Chadian fruit bowl |
I’ve been enjoying
eating guavas and proper African bananas! The fruit in Chad is very seasonal so
I’m glad I haven’t missed the guava season. The other rainy season food is corn
which you can buy charcoal grilled off the side of the road. It tends to be
quite hard and burnt but it tastes amazing! I’ve also been enjoying the French
bread, as in all ex French colonies you can find French baguettes on every
street corner. It is one of my favourite things about the Chadian diet.
It is really hot and
humid at the moment as we are coming to the end of the rainy season. It has
rained once and I guess I would find that strange too, in Chad we don’t just
get rain we get big thunder storms with lightning, violent winds and thunder. A
few weeks ago I was in Didcot when there was a big storm last night and a lot
of flooding. I woke up in the night and felt quite at home with the sound of
the storm raging outside!
I think if I’d never been in N’djamena before
I would be shocked by some of the crazy driving! Cars and motor bikes just seem
to come from all directions. At the moment I’m lucky to be able to go round
with Mum and Dad in their car but soon I’ll be on my own and will have to
master the Chadian taxi and bus system. One of missionaries is going to teach
all the short termers how it works next Saturday by giving us a list of places
to go by bus!
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| Our basket of headscarves |
I suppose if I hadn’t
been here before I wouldn’t be used to wearing ankle length skirts, flip-flops
and headscarves! It seems normal to me and I am enjoying wearing my Chadian
clothes all the time as when I went to school, I wore western style clothes.
Language is the one of
the hardest things to master when you arrive to a new place. Most people here
in the capital speak at least a little French and if not they speak Chadian Arabic.
The French of course is fine and I can understand most Arabic if it is spoken
clearly enough. However at the centre the women speak French but also other
languages from the south of the country of which I don’t understand anything!
I think I notice this
most when I go back to England in the summers and we have really long evenings.
In Chad the sun sets between half 5 and 6 o’clock, there is no significant
change throughout the year. This means its dark really early which is fine when
you have electricity as we do in town but it can be confusing at first as it
makes it seem later than it really is.
A lot of houses in
Chad don’t have running water and even less have hot water! The shower in our
house gives us water straight from the pipes so the temperature depends on the
weather. When it is hot and you want to cool down the water is warm and when
you want to warm up (in February) it is freezing! At the moment it’s not too
much of a problem as in this season the problem is the humidity rather than the
heat so the shower isn’t too warm.
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| Material that we're using to make the cloth bags |
On Thursday I went to
a market just five minutes away from my new flat with Annie and two women from
the centre to buy material for making bags and oil for the soap. It was fun but
quite tiring as it was very busy and full of people selling a huge variety of
things. I guess if I’d never been here before I would have found it quite
overwhelming but I think I also would have been surprised by the amount of
cloth and things available!
I hope this gives you
some insight into my first week back in Chad! Before leaving I managed to reach
my target of £2,500, selling all my jigsaw pieces. Thank you all for your
support and prayers.
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| My complete jigsaw puzzle |
