Our News!

Hi everyone! As we haven’t written for a while we have decided to do a very long blog about all our news. It has 6 parts and a little twist somewhere see if you can guess what it is!

1.Notre Vie d’école!
Bonjour, comment allez-vous? Maintenant, tout va bien à l’école sauf qu’on n’a pas un accent français. Mais heureusement nos amies peuvent nous comprendre. Rebecca a une amie qui s’appelle Victoria, elle est demi-tchadienne ; demi-russe. Ruth a une amie qui s’appelle Hélène, elle est tchadienne. Un des deux et l’autre voulaient venir à notre maison pendant les vacances ! L’école n’est pas si bien qu’en Angleterre mais ça va mieux et on progresse vite !




2. Happy holidays
We have just come to the end of 2 weeks of holidays. Our Dad says that they’re skiing holidays and that’s why they are so long though as far as we know no one has gone skiing from our school..... But unfortunately at French school you get homework to do in the holidays so we worked our way through it and we managed to finish it on time! We went out about 3 times during the holidays. Once to a pottery village just outside N’djamena which was really amazing and interesting.
We went to a museum which was an ancient sultan’s palace then we went round the village which was all painted (on the houses) and looked really pretty we also found out how they make pots in Chad. It was amazing to find such a place in Chad! Then we went to town with mum and bought lots of lovely material which a tailor in town is making into clothes for us. And we went to a hotel for a swim which was really nice and refreshing -we even had ham and cheese sandwiches which were lovely! But we’re back at school now and it’s been a pretty normal week, though on Tuesday Mum and some women from the hospital went to parade in town as it was international woman’s day! Apparently there were only 3 white women there but mum had a really good time. Next week Andrew North is coming to stay for a bit and also on Monday it’s Pie day! We are celebrating in maths because our maths teacher used to be in America and they write the month before the day so the 14th of March is 03/14 which is the start of the number pie. We’ve got to bring in cakes and pies and are going to watch a film. We’ve just 5 weeks then 2 more weeks of holidays......

3. From Rats to Cats
About 6 weeks ago our cat Mowzer had two healthy but not so cute rats on Ruth’s bed. The rats have now grown up a bit and look much more like kittens.
They were born by Ruth’s legs then they were transferred into the cupboard by Mowzer on top of the box. Next, at about 2 weeks in the middle of the night they moved down onto the floor and woke Ruth and Mum up. At about 3 weeks they were moved by Mowzer into the office cupboard which was a mess and the kittens were trapped not able to move just when they had started to run around two days before. So we moved them into the bathroom but Mowzer wasn’t happy, so now they are in our parents’ bedroom cupboard and love climbing the suitcases.
At the moment the kittens are running around like crazy and are always fighting each other or their mum’s tail. They haven’t really changed from rats to cats it’s more like rats to hamsters then hopefully cats. They walk and run around in the washing basket like it’s a hamster’s wheel while Mowzer watches looking bored as they run over her paws. About 2 weeks ago they started eating just like that. One minute drinking the next eating. We are planning to keep one and give the other one to our friend Aicha. Oh, and by the way their names are Ginger and Biscuit!

4. J.E.A est un nouveau monde
Lately we have been going to a group at church on Sunday afternoons at church. We have been going for quite a while now and it’s good fun. It’s like an African and more Christian version of scouts. There are 2 different parts-Lumières and Flambeaux the girls are lumières which means ‘lights’ and the boys are flambeaux which means pretty flames. We sing songs and learn stuff about the bible and also bible verses. At the moment we are trying to pass our 2nd étape, we have to learn stuff and do some trips. Soon we are planning on getting uniforms so we can really be part of the ‘troupe’ even if we are the only ‘nazares’ there! It’s much better than going to church with our parents and we really enjoy it!

5. Our new sandpit and giant moles?
Half way through the holidays a truck came to our compound and dropped of a load of sand right in front of the badminton pitch (we’ve been playing badminton for a while and have a net). We moved the pitch over a bit but when they came and stuck a huge pile of gravel on it we gave up and took it in(it’s too windy now anyway).The sand pile is fun to play in with the children who come round though Rebecca did manage to lose a shoe in there once! Any way it’s being used to make our new house and since they got permission the workers have been digging holes everywhere for the foundation. It looks just like giant moles! We are both looking forward t having a proper house and we are getting a bunk bed! The other day we bought nice material for the curtains in our room and have already got big plans for it! When it’s finished we will write a blog and show you pictures.

6. Our School life!
Hello, how are you? Now everything is going well at school though we have yet to perfect our accents! But our friends can still understand us. Rebecca has a friend called Victoria; she is half Chadian and half Russian. Ruth also has a friend called Hélène, she’s completely Chadian. One of them came, and the other one wanted to come, to our house during the holidays. School’s not as good as in England but we are progressing fast!
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Well we think that’s about it for news, we’ll try to email and blog more! Hope you are all ok back in England, we miss you all lots.
Ruth and Rebecca

Answers to picture blog (don't read them first!)

Hi these are the answers to the picture blog! Sorry that they are a bit late!

P1 These funny looking ‘skittles’ are actually old plastic bottles filled with sand which we are using to play skittles with children in the village Guinebor II near us. We have been going out with Clare a short termer every Saturday afternoon to play with them and have made some friends! Also our friend Aicha who lives nearby and speaks English has helped us too as she speaks Arabic.

P2 This is a picture of our tortoise’s Alfie’s home. We got around September time when a man with him turned up at the hospital and our mum bought him of him! He’s very funny when he walks but strangely for the past couple of weeks he has been asleep underground, we think he might be hibernating but for a different reason as we are in a mini hot season again…..

P3 In this picture Mowzer is up a tree. Normally as soon as she steps outside she sees a lizard run straight up one and chases it (she has become a very skilled lizard catcher!). But the problem is lizards can jump from a tree to the ground and still be OK, unfortunately Mowzer can’t and occasionally pretends to get stuck as she must feel rather silly……

P4These plants are called carcangee (in arabic) satit (as they called it in Guinea) and are really a form of hibiscus! You can get two sorts white-which we use the flowers from for a sauce with boule and red-which we use the flowers from to make a drink which makes your lips and tongue turn red!

P5 This a mango tree which was planted with many others a while ago before we came. Unfortunately for this tree it was planted too far away form the tap to be reached with a hose pipe and didn’t get as much water as it should. But now it seems to be revived if the hospital gardener sticks with watering cans!

P6 This plant is called Gombo (in French) and Okra (in English) though we don’t know what in arabic! During the rainy season lots of plants were grown and this in particular. It can be used in many different sauces dried or fresh and we had it in guinea too! The wife of the guardian of the hospital has been growing it all over the compound to sell at market!

P7 These bricks are the start of our house which will be built when the hospital is open and finished! Our Dad is carefully planning it out to make it as cool as possible in the hot season! So this time next year we should be moved in.

P8 These cute little chicks belong to their mother, yes and also to the guardian of the hospital. Their father is the lovely cockerel that wakes us up at half past five every morning. Thankfully Mowzer hasn’t taken to eating them, yet……

P9 Now this might seem a bit strange but when we were on the way to school in the rainy season we managed to get stuck in the mud. So Dogo (the hospital driver) grabbed a spade and tried to dig us out. Meanwhile Rebecca had phoned our mum and they were coming to help, some minutes after that with Dogo still digging us out a huge digger came towards us down the road! We joked that it might come and save Dogo the job of digging us out as it wasn’t working. But when the digger came closer Dogo shouted a few words in arabic to him and just as our parents arrived ready to tow we were being dug out by this digger who’s driver was Dogo’s friend (he knows everyone!). Our mum wasn’t there in time to take a picture of it happening but she took this picture of the digger afterwards whilst we zoomed (literally) off to school!

P10 This is a picture of some of the lorries that used to come past us each morning starting at 5.00 at the latest! They are getting sand to take to a road in town that the president is having built so that we don’t have what we call “tapis rouges”( red carpets or huge traffic jams) when the president is coming back to or leaving the country. It will run to the airport and they have postponed the 50 years of independence celebrations until January just for this road so it needs to be finished quickly! Thankfully the Lorries are now going a different way (as they messed up ours!) to annoy the missionaries who live by there!

P11 In this picture Mowzer is being lifted down from the eaves of our roof! Lately she has taken to climbing up and into the roof to explore and get stuck. We have done our best to block it off but she always finds another way! But now her latest adventure is to go out of the compound and meet her boyfriend that she found….. So she spends all night out miaows at the window at 5.30 (to replace the lorries!) and spends the day asleep!

P12 The children in this picture go to a youth group at our church called Flambeaux and Lumières. Lately we’ve been going every Sunday afternoon to join in! We haven’t yet got our uniforms and everyone thinks it funny that ‘Nazaras’ want to go there but we have fun and have made some friends! This picture is of when at a baptism they were encircling the people that were baptised though we haven’t been part of anything like that yet……

Hope you are all ok and in case anyone didn't know our Dad had to come back to England for a swallowing problem to be checked! But he is back now and the hospital should be opening soon!

Ruth and Rebecca

P.S Thanks to anyone who sent Rebecca birthday presents!