Chad!

     Well for those of you who are curious as to whether I made it to Chad, you may now rest easy.  I indeed made it in one piece along with all my luggage.  In fact, God was really looking out for me on this trip.  My long term visa was even finished after only one day which could take multiple days if the wrong people are working.  I have to give a huge thanks to Jonathan, a YWAM worker here in N’djamena, who went to the necessary places to get me registered in the country and to process my visa.

     So, first a tip for all of you travellers….apparently if you are travelling on two different airlines, the baggage fees are according to the first carrier, not the airline you are actually flying the most with.  This was a hard lesson to learn at 4:30am, but with no other options, I just bit the bullet and payed the exorbitant fees.  My first flight to Washington DC went off without any troubles, although due to it being the first flight of the day we had to go through some routine checks, and before we even got off the ground one of the passengers was sick.  So we returned to the terminal where he opted to get off.  Upon arrival in DC I had to locate the international wing and then check in with the people at the desk so that they could verify my passport and give me an Ethiopian airlines ticket.  I had a few hours to spare I tried to convince myself to walk, knowing that I had a long flight ahead, but instead ended up snoozing briefly.  I filled my water bottle assuming this would be my last free water chance for quite some time.  Then I boarded the plane for my 13.5 hour flight.

     The benefit of the window seat on such a long flight is that it makes for better sleeping and a little more leg room.  The downside to it is that if you want to simply stand up and stretch, you have to make two other people get up, people who are also sleeping.  As soon as my seat neighbors got up, I too went and stood in line for the bathroom just to get a little stretch in.  I had my own personal TV and could choose the movies I wanted to watch.  I probably did too much watching instead of sleeping but my body just had no idea what time it was.  I left DC around 11:30, having gotten to see the moon set and the sun rise while at the airport or on my first flight.  Then on my next flight I watched the sun set and rise and the moon was still up in Addis when I landed.  I was also fed 3 meals, at times which seemed opposite for my body.  It was a long flight but eventually I made it.

     In Addis I tried again to convince myself to walk, but 4-5 laps around the same shops and waiting areas got a little boring.  The nice thing about the Addis airport is that there are lounge chairs along side the usual seating.  So I snagged one of those for a bit to simply stretch out, elevate the feet, relax before boarding again.  Soon enough I was on my final leg of the journey.  I had planned to get lots of sleep on this flight, but instead found myself sitting next to a Chadian who lives in Louisville Kentucky where he goes to school.  So we chatted most of the flight.  It was quite interesting.  I thought that my family is spread out, but he had siblings in South America, Africa, Europe, and other African countries.  He does have 11 brothers and 1 sister however.  Needless to say the flight went pretty quickly and I made it to N’djamena where I was greeted by extremely warm and humid weather.  The kind of heat where someone just sits and is dripping with sweat.  We disembarked, went through customs, and I was able to meet up with Moses.  We stayed in the TEAM missionary guest house.  I was able to meet a variety of people who Moses works with on a regular basis.  An MAF mechanic and his wife had us over for dinner, a fellow YWAM colleague showed us a pre-school and primary school that was in progress as well as a new building being constructed, and many other friends which allowed me to try and listen to the French conversations (I can understand a few words here and there, but miss most of it because my brain doesn’t process the information very quickly.  Especially with the heat, I feel like I am operating in slow motion).  It was fun to stay at the missionary guest house and meet a variety of missionaries who have all had various experiences in Chad.  My roommate was a doctor who has been here a little over a year.  It was fun to hear her accounts of Chad and I was able to ask questions.  I was assured that as I traveled South, the temperature would cool, so on Friday Moses and I headed to Sarh.

 

     Through travelling to Sarh, I got to experience viewing a good portion of Chad out the bus window.  We took the local bus, which was really a big van.  There were 30+ people on board and all the luggage was strapped to the roof with a tarp tied down on top.  It took two people on the ground, practically hanging on the ropes, to tighten them down.   We boarded and began our long journey.

     Out the windows I was able to see the countryside.  I could see as the landscape changed from being really sandy with scarce vegetation to greener land.  I could also see the devastation that flooding had caused for many people.  The rainy season here has been extra heavy causing flooding.  The people have been forced to build temporary housing close to the road, which is higher ground, in order to have dry housing.  Unfortunately much of their rice crop has been too deeply submerged in water and ruined.  The people are doing a lot of fishing.  The nets we saw really looked like giant scoops and people were just dipping them in the water and scooping up large amounts of small fish.  It was fun to see the kids splashing in the water.  I even saw one boy do a cannon ball into the water (ahh the good ole universal cannon ball).  Prayers for these people whose houses and crops have been destroyed would be wonderful.

     The first part of the drive was warm and sunny.  The second part had some pretty heavy rains, which were actually coming in the windows.  The poor lady behind me got flooded out.  I got quite damp myself as all the cracks would fill with water, then we would hit a bump and the water would spill out.  The floor of the bus was slightly flooded.  The roads here in Chad vary, depending on which stretch we were driving down.  Some of the roads are nicely paved; others are paved with holes in them.  There are nicely pact dirt portions as well as holey dirt portions, nothing that couldn’t be navigated around.  Driving here is sort of a free for all.  Typically they Chadians drive on the right side of the road, but it is basically drive on the smoothest side.  They also pass at will and really the motorcycles drive wherever they want.  In the city in particular, there are motorcycles going on both sides of the cars, making turning quite the tricky business.  Their car horns really get a workout here.  Each time they pass someone they honk.  They also use them to get people, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, and whatever else might be wandering across the road, off or at least out of the way.  Donkeys and cows typically don’t pay any attention however and do as they please.  The drivers must be alert and we just prayed that the breaks were working properly.



Drying out.

     We arrived in Sarh in the evening and I was able to finally see my new home.  I did some unpacking so that I could hang damp clothing out to dry.  I am still anticipating decorating my room.  The kids made me pictures to hang up aside from those that I brought and hopefully will receive (wink wink).  I have hung up the hammock that the kids loved!  I will also have a bit of Mexico in my bedroom (thanks Ben for allowing me to bring some Mexico to Chad).  We spent the weekend recovering from all the travels and I got to spend time with the kids.  Monday we will try and figure out how to divide up the schoolwork.  Pray that we can figure out the best way to help the children learn.

     Thus far only 1 mosquito bite!