The rainy season this year has been the heaviest for many years, although the rain is very welcome it is also very disruptive. Journeys to and from the hospital have been difficult at times and we have even been unable to travel at all on a couple of occasions. The added bonus of the rain has been a transformation of the surrounding area from a dusty brown to lush green in places. The rains are due to finish this month and the area will soon return to its normal dusty state. We have witnessed some incredible storms and flooding but minutes afterwards the sun returns and begins to rapidly dry the land, leaving just the deeper water behind.
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| On the banks of the Chari - Cameroon across the river |
We are currently taking a break from the language learning as school is closed for a couple of weeks, but our lessons recommence in the first week of October. We decided to take advantage of the break to travel north to a place called Douguia for a night away to relax. This was a small village on the banks of the river Chari where we stayed at a small hotel. We were the only guests for 1 night but were unable to stay longer as the following day the hotel was full due to a conference. However it was an incredibly relaxing time just to sit by the river and watch the small rowing boats travelling across the river to Cameroon and back ferrying people to and from the market. On arrival as we were the only guests we got to pick our own room which was half of a small thatched mud hut. But this proved more difficult than we thought. The first smelt of damp, which was due to a leaking pipe in the bathroom which had been attempted to be repaired with tape, the next had a toilet but the cistern never filled with water so we plumped for the 3rd which had a torn mosquito net in the window which we plugged with a flip flop left by a previous guest. We had thankfully taken our own mosquito net for the bed. The evening meal was a real treat of simply cooked meat with fried potatoes and onions, but incredibly tasty. The highlight though was the owner offering to spray our legs and under the table before eating to ensure all the bugs were killed off. He then proceeded to spray the whole room so that soon the floor was covered with dead or dying insects, whilst the windows and doors were constantly being attacked by other insects drawn in by the lights. Despite this we had a lovely meal and a really good night's sleep awaking much later then we would normally in spite of the noise of the local birds and monkeys. However on awakening we counted the bites at over 30 on our legs which we think occurred whilst sitting by the river watching a beautiful sunset.
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| Elephant Roche |
The following day we were fortunate to find a local Chadian guide to take us to Elephant Roche. We explained that we spoke a little French but this didn't seem to deter him from going into great detail to every question we asked, so was good practice in the art of listening and trying to understand. The trip involved driving further north to some rock formations which from a distance resemble a large and small elephant. We again were fortunate to be the only people there and were able to climb the rocks and take in the surrounding panorama of flat plains. Apparently we had missed the migration of Gazelles to Lake Chad so will need to return in a different season.
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| A stop for supplies |
Travelling to and from Douguia we got to see a different aspect of Africa which we had hoped to see before coming here, as opposed to a bustling city which is now our home. On leaving the city we encountered busy villages built up around the main road where you could stop and buy practically anything you needed. We have grown in confidence so are able to attempt to buy goods at any location, where our attempts are often met with blank looks but also a lot of laughter.
We also travelled past many small isolated villages, which always contained a shady tree under which the local men were laying. We travelled through open plains of green lands, managed to see some wild life and even vultures feasting on a recently deceased animal. Now back in N'Djamena we plan to spend the remainder of our week exploring the city in more detail and hopefully visiting the one museum before recommencing our studies.
