Rain, Shingles, and French

Hello one and all from Chad.  Well life here is continuing with school, cleaning, cooking, and of course rain.  Though rainy season is drawing to a close, it is still raining nearly every day and the mosquitos are still wreaking havoc on the people.  Sickness is a major part of lives these days.  There was a baby born to one of our neighbors and a few days later it died from malaria.  Sickness and death is a very common occurrence.  Our compound has not been exempt from sickness, although we are fortunate to be able to afford medication and mosquito preventative things (nets, bug repellant, coils).  I fortunately have been spared from the common sicknesses plaguing others, for who would want to be common.  Instead my body decided that now would be a good time to have shingles.  Fortunately the pain is minimal and sporadic but still uncomfortable.  For those of you who know me, I seem to come down with random sicknesses and often ignore them until they are no longer ignorable.  I am assured that medication would quicken the pace of my recovery but it is not necessary, and since I probably couldn't get it here anyway, I await until my blistery rash is gone.

On a positive note, we have been blessed to have a friend come and teach French to the kids and me.  It has been fun testing my knowledge and helping the kids add to theirs.  Unfortunately our tutor has gone back to university and we are left on our own to try and teach one another.  It was excellent while it lasted and has inspired me to continue introducing words to the kids (even if I don't pronounce them correctly) because it has been a great review for me.

 Happy October to one and all!  I hope that fall brings you lots of delicious apple and pumpkin foods along with great company!

Back in Chad!

Well folks I have finally made it back to Sarh!  We spent quite a bit of time in N'Djamena waiting for our Visas to be processed.  Unfortunately what could have taken 1 afternoon took three days.  I arrived in N'Djamena on Tuesday afternoon and we took the 13.5 hour bus ride Saturday.  We stayed with a Pastor's family.  They had a few guest rooms above their classroom (where they did run a Bible school and hope to resume soon). 

The kids in N'Djamena

There was no easing into the world of French.  It was immediate listening to French conversations.  My brain was rather tired, but my favorite thing to do was play with all the kids.  I realize that playing ball is not something adults here do, but that is the benefit to being obviously foreign.  It was so much easier to hang out with the kids because they didn't require conversation.  We could figure out games to play together without speaking.  Also the youngest daughter (of 7 plus friends coming and going all day long) who was 2 ½ years old would come and grab my hand and lead me places.  It is too hard to refuse a cute little girl who speaks my kind of French (1 word statements).  I must also admit that I am sorry my fellow Americans but I slightly embarrassed us in my inability to eat fish.  I have decided that eating fish off the bones (we are talking fish the size of my hand with lots of little bones) is an art form that I never learned.  My mouth is just not talented enough to separate bones and meat effectively.  I tried my hardest, but mom and dad just never taught me how to eat a fish head.  The other difficult part was that dinner was eaten after dark which makes picking out bones even more difficult.  Luckily I only swallowed one (not a very pleasant experiences).  Many people asked what the food was like so let me tell you what I ate with this Chadian family.  Breakfast was always baguette with chocolate spread and tea/coffee.  Lunch was typically tomato stew type dish with either the fish or beef in it.  This stew was placed over rice, pasta, or manioc boiled or in a sort of mush form called bol (not sure on the spelling).  Dinner was left over lunch (no refrigerator = no leftovers).  Also one night we had fried fish and veggies (looked like spinach).  We also got a lovely avocado with banana and salt with maybe a hint of lemon.  It was delicious!  Another cultural difference is that I never saw the children (except the youngest) eat food.  The parents and children ate separately.  I don't know if that was because we were guests, but interesting.

As for our bus ride, it felt like quite the luxury.  Our bus had air conditioning and even played strange movies.  Our ride went pretty quickly (I pretty much slept the whole way).  The trip would be much faster if we didn't have to make stops for the military to check ID's of men, but we made it before the kids went to bed.  My room needs lots of work and all my clothes need a nice washing (as they smell of mildew).  I look forward to getting things organized in my room as well as the school stuff.  The first few weeks of school will probably be winging it, but then I hope to do some true planning to make this school year spectacular!

Chui the shoe-loving pup.

Tigger the feisty kitten

So here are the changes I have noticed thus far…there is a feisty kitten named Tigger living in the house.  She is not really interested in human affection, but we will just have to change that.  Miss Chui the puppy is no longer a puppy.  In fact she is nearly the size of Simba the elder dog.  She is pretty funny however because she likes to lay down on feet which results in lots of tripping.  The biggest change here in Chad is that the world is green!  Plants are growing everywhere and they are full of life.  The mosquitos have also grown in large numbers.  So with repellent and eager children I start school tomorrow!