This past week we took the whole family for 2 nights in a Maba village, the same one Josh visited about this time last year. Josh’s language tutor is from this village and had returned there to visit while we were in the capital. So we decided to take our family to visit his village and pick him up to come back and restart language lessons.

The road passed through this wadi (a seasonal riverbed, dry during most of the year)- happily not too deep for us to cross. For about a dollar some young guys will wade out and show you the best path across. Definitely worth at least a dollar.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday after taking our time and making several stops in towns along the way. We spent the afternoon greeting people and eating and drinking hot, sweet tea. People seemed to be genuinely happy that I returned and brought my whole family.

One highlight of the trip was our time down at the wadi about 1km from the village. Most villages are near wadis because even during the dry part of the year people can find water by digging a hole in the sand, going deeper and deeper until they hit water. With water not far below the surface for most of the year, and filled with water for several months of the year, wadis are the greenest places in the Sahel. Many wadis in Chad have mango, guava and palm groves. And the temperature beneath the shade of these large, leafy trees is significantly cooler than outside.

Another highlight for the boys was getting to ride donkeys down to the wadi to fetch water.