Due to technical difficulties (Africa?!), I am re-posting this entry. The entire story did not get published yesterday. Here’s the entire post; hopefully it will make more sense now. 🙂
If you visit weather.com these days and do a search on N’Djamena, Chad you will notice the temperature has gotten much cooler – it was only 64 degrees when we woke up this morning.
Isaac and Judah came into our house yesterday morning with much excitement because their friend next door (an American boy who lives on this compound) had an extra hoodie jacket to share with Isaac. You would have thought it was Christmas! Isaac started to take off his long sleeved shirt until I asked him why. He said he wanted to put the jacket on, so I explained that the jacket goes over his shirt to keep him warm. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “So,” he said thinking about it, “I put my shirt on, and then I can put the jacket on over and I will stay warm!” We just laughed – my ‘third culture kids’ don’t really remember what a jacket is since we only need one about 6 weeks out of the entire year!
Why is it cooler now? It’s typically a little cooler during the morning and evening hours this time of year, but weather.com explains that we are also experiencing a “widespread dust covering” – also known as a “harmattan”- a cold-dry and dusty trade wind, blowing over the West African subcontinent. This northeasterly wind blows from the Sahara Desert into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of the November and the middle of March (winter).
Prayer point: This story made me remember the many beggar boys who are sent off to faraway towns, away from all family, to learn the Quran for a few years. They often are found sleeping in the markets at night and begging for money and food during the day. Many don’t have shoes or warm clothes to wear, something that makes for an even more uncomfortable night’s sleep this time of year. Pray for the thousands of boys throughout Chad who are needy both physically and spiritually. Pray for us to know how to best minister to the beggar boys in our neighborhood when we return home soon.