January 30th

Today we’re packing up to drive back to Mongo. Apparently we’ll have company: 4 Chadian ladies who need to go to the hospital in Mongo to see the eye specialist.

On Saturday we did make it to the market, after picking up three ladies that needed to go there as well. It is too bad you can’t film this experience: the smells, sounds and activity are overwhelming! Being the only whites makes one stand out for sure! We did find the produce we were looking for and made our escape…; after lunch more work on the different projects and in the evening we watched Aristrocats on the computer!

Sunday morning we walked to church. The service starts at around nine. When we arrived five past there were two other people. We started the service at nine thirty with some 40 people present. There are no benches, but mats are laid out on the sand, after taken off ones’ slippers, flip-flops etc. you find a comfortable spot against the outer wall. The ladies on one side, the men and boys on the other side and the unmarried girls in the middle.  Always enjoy listening to the singing!

Finished one project in the afternoon and played a board game in the evening.

We have unsuccessfully tried to send pictures: the provider here is good for texting etc. but pictures aren’t going anywhere. Opening one email can take more than 20 minutes!

SO:  we did leave for Mongo  at 2 p.m. – after saying our goodbyes to Cynthia who was such a great and very grateful  hostess I (M.) never had to cook one meal during those days J, and all of her “to do” list for us got done.

 The road to Mongo was very rough, very dusty (whenever a truck would come towards us, we had to slow down to about a speed of 30 km  due to the BIG clouds of dust that would give us a total “brown out” for a couple of seconds.) Our top speed was 60 km…..  People, goats, camels, cows and chickens crossing the road makes one want to pay REAL attention!! After this shake down of about 1 ½ hours we dropped off our “hitch hikers” at the hospital. A few minutes later we arrived at the SIL compound to be greeted by Andrea who took us to our abode a 5minute walk down the main sand road for the next 3 weeks where we will be by ourselves since our new hostess Emma an American Wycliffe translators, is off to meetings on Thursday. She showed us our bedroom and our kitchen next door where we will be able to cook our meals. Our bathroom is across the courtyard so at night one hopes to not have to tackle that hike in the dark….. Since there is no running water (all the water needed has to be scooped out of barrels) and the list of instructions which was long…. Including looking after the house helps, the dog and cat and preparing the dog food, I felt quite overwhelmed by the time supper rolled around which Emma had prepared. At 7:30 p.m. we went to our very hot room to bed (a double) exhausted and slept until about 6:30 a.m. In the daylight and after a good night’s sleep everything looked a LOT brighter!!

We had tea, coffee and some of our own brought granola and walked to the SIL compound. That is where most of our work is – the main one being the move of a water tank that on one side is supported by a mud support wall which runs a gigantic crack and on the other side by a metal frame. Weeks ago Henk had asked to have a new frame built and ready for the move. We were glad to see it in storage. To disconnect all the existing pipes, lowering the water tank carefully, and then hooking it up again seems easy but with limited tools  and parts and limited man power it will be quite a challenge……. After all the pipes get hooked up again somehow, someway, the big cracks in the walls need to be filled with cement.

Right now during our first morning Henk is fixing lights at Emma’s house – our home for the next weeks. We have a little fridge which keeps water cold – when it is so hot, cold water is sooooo good !

Emma leaves for Ndjamena on Thursday and she will send some of our pictures from there so you can “picture” our blog a bit better.