Hi all & welcome to our latest Blog.
Having been here for almost 3 years now it is encouraging to us that the reserved Chadian staff at the hospital are now much more open and friendly towards us. We always knew that it would take a long time to build relationships due to the huge differences in our cultures and language difficulties, but do feel we have now made significant progress. Making close contacts and friendships is still difficult but we were recently encouraged as were invited to one of the hospital guards wedding celebration in his home village. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to see how the local people live as we were welcomed into the heart of his village and into the houses of his family and friends which was an amazing privilege and experience.
Hassana has worked at the hospital since soon after we arrived,
taking over from his father who became too old to continue to do the role. His
father needed to retire but also wanted to ensure his son had a job to guarantee
the family could be supported so we agreed for Hassana to take over, much to
his father’s delight. In the early days there were doubts over Hassanas attitude
and ability to do the job. However we are glad we persevered with him as is now
one of our more welcoming, helpful and friendly guards with a great smile whilst
adopting the English phrase of “no problem” at every opportunity. He is also
one of our staff who is now benefiting from taking reading and writing lessons
which he is extremely grateful for. He
was previously married but tragically his first wife died 18 months ago leaving
him with 1 child to support. 
We were quickly shown into the home of his next door neighbour,
who happens to be the hospital driver Dago. It was actually the room where he
slept, along with a bed there were sacks of maize and a motor bike kept there
for safe keeping. We were invited to sit on the mats on the floor. The groom
came into the house, with his best man to welcome us and for us to congratulate
him, before leaving to circulate with all his other guests.
We were then
presented with a lovely bowl of salad and bread to eat along with hot sweet
tea. This was followed by another large plate of communal food for us all to
share together, by which time we were joined by Dr Isaac and his family for
which we were grateful as there was no way we could have eaten all the food
that had been provided for us.
We were beginning to think it was all a little strange as we
were separate from all the other guests and hadn’t seen the bride. We were told
that the bride is confined to her new home for the first 7 days before being
allowed out into the compound for a further 40 days, after which she is then
allowed to go to the market. The elder women of the family were in a separate house
to the bride celebrating. We unexpectedly were allowed to visit with the women,
where we met the mother, grandmother, sisters, and aunts etc. who were all very
excited and pleased to see us, we felt very honoured, particularly the men of
our small group.
They then suggested that we could go and visit the new bride
in her house, where she was being attended to by her friends and younger female
family members. The house was elaborately decorated with all the girls housed
in the back room. This time we sat on sofas in an outer room while she was suitably
dressed by her attendants prior to being encouraged to come out to say hello to
us all. She appeared young and very shy, but happy to be getting married. The
best man guarded the front door to ensure no one else entered uninvited.
We as Christians felt very honoured and privilege to have
been invited into a Muslim wedding and that they were equally happy for us to
be there. As we left all the other guests greeted us and appeared pleased that
we had come to celebrate with them. With all the tensions and conflict around
the world this was a good illustration of Christians and Muslims joining
together in friendship to celebrate a joyous occasion.
Blessings
Malc & Sue