An encouragement has been the warm welcome and developing relationships in the camp.
A discouragement has been the getting to and from. It is now taking 2.5hrs to wait for vehicle.
An encouragement is that the road is now paved and smooth and it only takes about 40mins once the vehicle is moving (and in good condition).
A challenge was going to visit a lady who had just given birth to a baby. This involved walking across a sand dune in the sun, and wind for an hour and a half.
An encouragement was the people’s reaction to me actually doing it.
A challenge was finding H when she moved from the camp into town.
An encouragement was sitting reading with her short stories and having a number of other ladies in the neighbourhood ask if I could teach them to read.
The challenge is that this will need to wait for a while as I don’t currently have enough time in the week. But hopefully we can see something happen in a couple of months.
An encouragement has been reading with S and J in the prison. Almost as I arrive J is sitting next to me wanting to continue in Genesis and wanting to keep reading more chapters than we have time for.
Another encouragement was meeting the relative of another lady in prison who saw us reading. She also wants to read. So we read the first chapter that day. The next day I visited her at her home and in front of others she asked if I had brought the book, then read two chapters.
A discouragement was going yesterday and finding that she wasn’t home. Please pray for wisdom and a way forward with this lady who is keen to read. Also pray for an openness in her family that they too will either want to listen or at least not be opposed.
A challenge is the weather. It is now +40C in my house during the day, +60C in the sun. It is also starting to get humid and so quite draining.
An encouragement is that I only have another 3 weeks and I will have a month’s holiday outside of Chad. I am really looking forward to this time where I can relax, sleep, recharge and be renewed. It is also planned that my mum will come and join me for a week of this which will be nice.

Last week, I was walking through a major sandstorm in Hadjer Hadiid.  I had to throw a shirt over my face and close my eyes, as the wind carried loads of sand in straight-line gusts for about 45 minutes.  I couldn’t stop it or ask it to pause until I was safely inside a building.  It reminded me of Jesus’ words: “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The wind was blowing with one teacher I spent time with last week, though I am not sure where it will go.  He really believes education is the answer for his people.  He repeatedly stated that the white people have helped them with many things while others do nothing.  I shared with him that it is not our whiteness of our skin that leads us to help, but the conviction of our beliefs.  I read Isaiah 58 with him and talked about the fasting (actions) that is pleasing to God and that the “light breaking forth” was what he was seeing and testifying about.  I told him that while I believed education is one of the ways God blesses us and something he calls us to apply ourselves in. The foremost answer for Darfurians is not just any learning, but the learning of the true way of God.  We talked about many other things and read Isaiah 49 and Revelation 5 together as well.

Yesterday, as I headed to Jackie’s, I asked the Holy Spirit to anoint me so that people would take notice. I got out of the taxi-van and gave a tape to the driver, explaining as I always do, that it concerned JC who died and rose….As I walked a few yards away I heard another taxi-van driver leaning out the windown calling out to me, “Give me a cassette!” “How do you know I have a cassette?” He saw me give one to the other man. As I told him and the others straining to hear out the windows the good news found on the tape, a few others walked up to listen too. I love it when I have opportunity to share with a little crowd like that. The other 5 tapes were happily received, and I felt Father heard my request. I should carry more with me, as sometimes there are many more who want them. A week ago two old men fought over the tape as I didn’t have enough to go around.

And a few days before that on my way home in a taxi after dark from the English Club, I had a captive audience of one woman and three men all attentive to the gospel message I shared….to the point that two of us missed our stops!

When we first arrived in Chad back in the 80s the main way for the general public to get across the country was seated on top of huge articulated lorries. These lorries were stacked high with goods first and then the passengers had to scramble up to the summit and sit tight. Forty or fifty people could be seen perched aloft, including whole families, grinding their way across the country. The roads, so called, were rough and rutted. The vehicles not only bumped violently but swayed from side to side. It was not unknown for them to turn over. A cross-country trip could easily take a week. “How did people manage not to fall off?” I hear you cry. Well, let’s just say that I know at least two people that sustained lasting injuries from falling off trucks on the N’Djamena road.

In the 90s, with the roads no better, an alternative mode of transport became popular with those ready to pay a bit more. This was the Toyota Land cruiser, which packed 12 in the back. These vehicles consistently made the trip in around 24hours, which had to be an improvement. Hard on the heels of the Land cruiser, came what became known as the “Abéché bus”. Powerful trucks were fitted with a substantial bus compartment on the back, overcoming the demanding terrain with sheer power. They had numbered seats- what a luxury of decency and order! – and consistently made the trip in under 24 hours, The ceiling was high, there was overhead baggage space, windows you could open and close and even curtains. The roofs were designed to hold baggage and merchandise and from the original one or two busses, a fleet of over 30 has grown, the bench mark in quality for the mass market.

Then progress came in another area. With the new oil wealth coming into the country and probably with some investment from China, an extensive road building campaign has been unleashed. The paved road extends further than it ever has before. The dirt road is kept in better order than before. Bridges have been constructed where there had previously been none. Greater speed became possible, with less bumps and judders. This is where the story takes an unexpected side turn. The better quality roads opened up way for the infamous minibus. You take a tough little vehicle intended to take, say 10 passengers. You strip out all the original seats and put in iron benches with thin cushions and you can pack in 16. You pack in four rows of three and it looks full. Then you squeeze a fourth person into each row. With a caste iron roof rack the baggage and other goods can be stowed on the roof. These inhuman contraptions can now compete with the busses for the big routes and have already taken over the less popular ones. They are more economic. They are quick, efficient but several steps backwards when it comes to comfort on the road.

I made two trips by wretched minibus. For the first one, I paid the extra to get one of the two precious front seats by the driver (seating for two but leg-room for one). However, some hours after I paid it became apparent that my bus had insufficient passengers and I was unceremoniously transferred to another that was almost full. They refunded the difference in ticket price, but being the fourth person on the end of a bench is no one’s first choice. Neither my seat nor the one in front of it had a back to it. This is was to allow people to climb over it. I was concerned about the lack of support. I need not have worried. We were packed too tight to be rocked about. On the return trip, I secured the very best front seat by booking three days in advance. This gave me the luxury of always being the last person to get in. As I went to take up my coveted  position for the first time, I glanced into the dark interior and felt a pang of irrational guilt. How wretched and anxious they all looked, as they set with grim composure, ready for the off. Oh, for a proper bus!.

1. As a protection against the sun

2. No need for sunglasses or a baseball cap

3. As a dust filter

4. To wipe your sweat

5. As a cover (yep, it’s getting below 35 centigrade)

6. As a purse (money safely knotted in one corner)

7. To blow your nose ( or someone else’s) *

8. As a conversation starter on the street

9. As camouflage (yeah, I do blend in a little better)

10. To gain respect

11. …

We, that stands for the mother, four daughters, two little sons and me. The other sons and the father sleep in a separate room. I quite enjoy the closeness of this setting. It seems to be a time of chatting and laughing while the oldest daughter might be doing some homework by the light of a torch. Eventually one after the other falls asleep.

The new day starts early. Very early, indeed! Each child has its chores. Tea needs to be brewed and porridge heated up. One child takes the donkeys to the well to get water, another one irons the school clothes with a charcoal iron. Before seven o’clock, however, the yard quietens down remarkably, when most of the children have left for school and the parents have gone about their business. It’s only around noon when they all come back and every day activities are being taken up again: Sweeping, washing, getting water from the well, and starting with the preparation for the evening meal. Again, it’s a time of chatting, arguing and laughing. Please pray for this family and for me to find ways of fitting in well and to be a positive addition to the family.

Comings and goings: Dawn is away until the end of the year. Geoff and Miri are due to arrive late July to work in N’Djamena.  Two short termers are comig out during the summer to help at the centre.