On va l'ecole

Our garden and water supply

Our neighbours house within the compound

We have now been in our new temporary home for 2 weeks and have managed to unpack a few important items to try to feel at home. However as we shall only be here for 2 months there is little point in unpacking completely. It is amazing how quickly we have adapted to having so few items around, our Bibles and a Kindle to read, a few board games plus the Laptop to keep us in touch with the outside world. However having a very slow Internet is frustrating after what we had taken for granted in the UK, we are unable to receive or send large attachments such as photos and can spend ages waiting for a webpage to update, but at least we are able to communicate all be it at a much slower pace. The house is great and is powered by solar so we can have ceiling fans on during the particularly hot periods of the day. We also have a fridge which enables us to keep food fresher and also to keep water cold to drink, which is a real bonus. We live within a small walled compound with 24 x 7 guards on the gate for security, this appears to be the normal practice here. We share the compound with a Chadian family with 5 small children who seem to be able to play and amuse themselves with very little. We often look out of our kitchen window to watch them reading together or running around happily. We have spoken briefly with them and they seem to have accepted us, but our French or Arabic is not yet good enough for a proper conversation. The area we live in is a distance from the main town centre but we do have a local shop which sells cold drinks and essential items if we run out. The nearest "supermarket" is a good 20 minutes walk away or longer if it's a particularly hot day. Supermarket is a bit of an exaggeration as is more like the size of a convenience store in the UK with aisles that are often empty of any stock. The freezer seldom has anything in it but occasionally cheese appears but is soon snapped up. It is a case of when you see something in stock that you might need you have to buy it, as you don't know when it will next appear. Makes food shopping a whole new and in some ways more exciting experience, when we think of the amount of food the aisles of a store like Tesco has and which is often thrown away,  there simply is no comparison.
We have been going to our French language school for 2 weeks which is situated on the other side of town. This requires us to take a taxi ride to the main market in the centre of town at 7 each morning. Taxis here are not as back home, they are very old battered vehicles with no handles, seat belts, cracked windscreens and in some cases holes in the floor. They take a set route and you share with anyone else who happens to be going in the same direction, but are very cheap and an effective way to get around. Thankfully the police have recently clamped down on the number of passengers they are allowed to carry as any more than four and it gets very hot! Once in town we have to cross through the main market, which at this early hour is just getting going and manageable. The carcasses of meat for the day arrive in the back of taxis which we observe being dragged out from the back seats before being carried away on the backs of men to their stalls to be cut up and sold that day. We take note of the taxis used to ensure we avoid them in the future as cant be a pleasant ride afterwards with the smell and abundance of flies. We deliberately walk to school from the market, around 20 - 30 minutes, to enable us to experience a little of how the locals live here and to try to acclimatise to the heat. On this side of town there are open sewers, rubbish everywhere, dust and mud roads for streets. In the rains the sewers fill and flood the surrounding areas including people's homes which is incredibly unpleasant for them and a haven for diseases. But the people although reserved and suspicious of us appear friendly and welcoming, particularly the children who smile, wave and the brave come up and say" Bonjour" or "Ca Va."
It is a harsh place and at times we question why we are here and what God's plan for us is. Each day brings another adventure, not always pleasant, but we are adjusting slowly and with God's help hope to be of use.

The First Few days

We have safely arrived and started to adapt to our new life here in Chad. The travel arrangements and flights out here all went really well with all bags arriving without needing to be opened or checked at any point, which was a blessing. The views from the plane as we flew over North Africa were stunning, so much desert area with few signs of habitation but with the odd road or track leading to a town or village. We landed in Chad during a violent storm with huge lightening flashes illuminating the area as we descended, but thankfully was a relatively smooth landing. Arriving in rain wasn't quite what we expected, however the accompanying heat was and we were soon soaked in sweat as we passed through passport control and into the baggage hall. Waiting for our bags was a long and slow process, with the vehicle transporting the bags from the plane twice crashing into the arrivals hall, before the bags all finally arrived. Once collected each bag had to be manually checked against our baggage slips given in Birmingham before finally being allowed through to the X-Ray machine for the final check. Then for some bizarre reason each person and individual bag had to go through a revolving turnstile type gate to get out of the airport , which again caused long delays and further soaked the already sweat drenched clothes. But we had safely arrived and were warmly welcomed by Mark and Rebecca, who scooped us up and transported us out to the hospital in the desert. This turned into an eventful journey as we managed to get lost but did finally arrive at the hospital, but did make me wonder if we would ever master the trip from town if those who had been here a while could still get lost!

Hospital Football Team

We spent the first few days trying to get used to the heat and dust, but seemed to be constantly drenched in sweat particularly at meal times. We tried not to do too much too soon and to simply observe and take in our new surroundings and get to know our new friends. The following week Malc started to shadow Rob, the administrator, to gain an insight into the work of the hospital and his future role. Sue also managed a few ward rounds and visits around the hospital helping out where she could. As the rainy season is imminent we managed to help out by assisting in putting up the much needed mosquito nets over every bed in the hospital. As the week progressed the weather changed from the intense heat to sand storms followed by huge rain storms which turned everywhere to mud and slime. We have never seen such intense rain and lightning, has been stunning to watch but does make getting around much more difficult. Getting to African church on Sunday was an eventful drive, but well worth the effort to experience the service. It was a very vibrant service, lots of energy ,beautifully dressed colourful ladies, great singing and dancing, much needed hand fans, masterfully used by the locals to keep the temperature comfortable. It was a privilege to be part of the service and there was over 635 people attending, so God is clearly at work here.
The time seems to have flown by and we have now moved out from the hospital where we were initially living and are now staying in a mission house in town so that we can commence our French language training. We shall start by having intensive learning at the summer school for 2 months followed by regular lessons starting in September. The trip to school each day involves 2 separate taxi trips and a walk through the main market to start at 8, so early starts are now needed, but at least the days are a little cooler with the onset of rain. We shall still be going to the hospital 1 day a week for Malc to continue with his administrative role.