Settling back in

Hi welcome to our latest Blog and thanks for your continued interest in us and our life and work out in Chad.

We have been back in Chad for just over a month now and have been blessed with a relatively quiet month at the hospital in which to ease ourselves back into the work. We have been amazed at how quickly we have slipped back into our simple lives here and are not missing the comforts of the UK too much. Cold showers and a gas fridge are probably the 2 things we would like to change though. Before our return the rains had been sporadic here although certainly enough to for us to change our known and trusted route into town due to standing water. On our first weekend back the rains returned with a vengeance starting on the Sunday evening and continuing through Monday, which happened to be a bank holiday to celebrate Chads Independence Day. Along with the rains have also come the mosquitos and Sue in particular is showing signs of being eaten. This will also mean the number of malaria cases we will see will also increase. Although encouragingly there is a supposedly country wide project to distribute mosquito nets to every 2 people in Chad, led by UNICEF and Malaria No More. However we have yet to see any being distributed here in N’Djamena.

Nmercie and little Sue

Sue and new baby Sue

We arrived back at the hospital late on the Sunday evening the 3^rd, so spent the Monday sorting out the house and unpacking. Despite the fact that Nemercie, our house lady, had been in and washed all the curtains, swept and washed the floors there still seemed a lot of dust so all items left behind needed to be dusted off before we could unpack. During the day members of staff came to the house to welcome us back and to reassure themselves that Malcolm was really better. One such visitor was Nemercie with her new 4 month old baby whom she has named Sue, she is a bonnie child and it is such an honour to have her named after Sue. Malcolm was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a boy as we know she would have called him Malcolm.

Flooded Village

As the route into town has had to be changed we decided to follow someone in on our first trip while taking note of various landmarks, such as left at the pile of bricks, or right at the red roof. While in town we managed to get our shopping with ease, everything seemed to slot back into place and some of the street sellers and street children remembered us and asked why they hadn’t seen us for such a long time. 

Floods outside hospital gate

The return journey back to the hospital didn’t go so well, as when we came off of the tarmac road  we quickly realised we had gone wrong as we were surrounded by either standing water or marshland and simply couldn’t find the route through. With the aid of a local lad who jumped in the car to direct us, we made it back to the tarmac road and had to call for assistance, thankfully Dago the hospital driver came to our aid and guided us back to the hospital. Sunday we thought we would give it another go and this time we made it into town to go to the International church where we were able to catch up with old friends, followed by lunch in our favourite local restaurant and then make it safely back to the hospital, this time thankfully unaided. On 2 consecutive Tuesdays following ladies fellowship since then, both Sue and Rebecca have been forced to stay in town overnight as the rains have been so strong making the roads unpassable. Fortunately beds with friends or fellow mission agencies in town were available!

Marion in Malnutrition

The first weeks back Malcolm spent long hours catching up with 5 months of accounts. The hospital surprisingly was very quiet during July and continues to be quiet which is allowing time for us to settle back in. The one busy area is the vaccination clinic which is now in full swing giving vaccinations to pregnant women and children up to the age of 5.

There have been a few structural changes within the hospital, such as new work services and cupboards which all help with the general appearance and efficiency of the hospital otherwise things are pretty much as we remember. The temperature is in the thirties but feels hotter as the humidity is so high, thankfully the nights are OK and we are managing to sleep well. 

So as not to miss the UK too much we brought back with us some mature cheddar and some chocolate which thankfully didn’t melt so we are still able to get a daily fix of chocolate. Thinking of inventive meals with mince and aubergines is still proving challenging and unfortunately for the first time in over 2 years here we had a batch of rotten eggs, 7 out of the 10 we had brought in town were bad.

So all in all we are settling back well into life here in Chad and the daily challenges it presents for us.

Please keep in touch

Love Malc & Sue