Tag: Abeche

Farming – Chadian Style

On July 17, 2016

Many Chadians are subsistence farmers. Often they’ll have a small plot of land on the outskirts of town – a few acres where they’ll plant crops during the rainy season. Our house helper, Ashta, owns a fairly large plot just outside of Abeche. Every year, starting in early or late June, depending on when the first rains come, she prepares her field for planting. She plants millet, peanuts, and sometimes okra, not to sell but just to supplement her family’s food supply during the year. We have greatly enjoyed visiting her in her fields, where the boys like to help with the work and just wander around, exploring. Yesterday we went to see how they plow the field in preparation for planting. Sometimes they use tractors, although they are old, expensive and they break down often. Other times, like yesterday, they use horse or ox drawn plows, which are much more reliable. It’s a whole family affair, since kids in Chad are let out of school for the entire rainy season for this very purpose. So every day Ashta’s kids are out in the field while she’s working at our house, and then when she leaves around noon she joins them.

: Taking a break for some tea and bread

Field trip

By josh

On August 5, 2015

In Chad

A few weeks ago Isaac and I joined a group of friends for a 35km trip south of town to the large wadi (seasonal river) from which our town gets water. We had a great time, and learned a lot too. It felt a lot like a field trip in school.

The water is initially pumped from the wadi into a treatment station a few hundred yards away. Even during the dry season, there is water running underneath the wadi.

Most of the year, this is a river of sand, with the water retreating beneath the surface after the rains are gone.

There is a road, made of stones, that crosses the wadi, which is currently submerged under 6 inches of water.

The road crossing the wadi.

What mud?

Although not really planning on Isaac getting muddy from head to toe, I should have known better. As soon as they saw it, the kids catapulted themselves into the muddy water and we could only watch helplessly from the edge. “Oh well”, I thought, “at least there aren’t any crocodiles or hippos.” A little further south, the rivers have their share of both.

So after checking out the wadi, and Isaac falling into the muddy water several times, we headed back up to the treatment plant. We had gathered quite a crowd by that point, as is pretty normal when a group of white people are found wandering around in rural Chad.

Drawing a crowd…

So after waiting a few minutes for permission from the boss of the plant to give us permission, we entered the plant. You could hear the loud drone of the 810 KVA Caterpillar diesel generator that provides the power for the processing at the plant.

Diesel generator that powers the water treatment facility.

Of course a diesel generator is useless without diesel fuel, so there are two gigantic tanks for storing the stuff.

How long could I run the generator at my house with one of these?

Not the filter, but a date palm. Guess you can grow anything with limitless water.

Then on to the giant filter that filters out sand, debris, and who knows what else from the water that is pumped in from the wadi. This part of the process also adds calcium to the water (unless my French fails me). Why calcium? Why not eliminate giardia, amoebas, parasites, etc. at this point? If you drink a lot of this water in Abeche, you’ll know very soon that these things are alive and well, and you’ll have plenty of time to catch up on reading as you spend your days in the bathroom. Yes, I do speak from experience.

At last, after the filtering process the water is sent out to Abeche through four large pumps. This water travels 35 km and is stored in a large cement tank in Abeche until used.

Pumping water to Abeche

Water is a very interesting topic when you have to work so hard to get it. Of course, similar processes are involved in the U.S., but I always just took for granted that when I turned the faucet on, water came out. Magic. Endless. But now, when water comes from the city (a new phenomenon for us since the coming of rainy season), we scramble to fill up everything capable of holding water, not really knowing when water will be available again. When water isn’t available at our house from the city, we pay to have someone bring it by push cart, as I’ve mentioned before. So either way, we have a new appreciation for water.

And compared to those living in rural villages, we have it easy. Many women and girls walk miles to get water from wells during the dry season, which is most of the year. They carry it on their shoulders, or on the backs of donkeys. As has so often been the case since arriving here, stories from the Bible have come alive to us since the culture here hasn’t changed in many ways since Bible times. The daughters of Jethro trying to get water and being chased away by shepherds until Moses intervened, the Samaritan woman at the well, etc.

Please pray that we’ll be able to effectively relate these stories and others to the people here, and point them to the source of Living Water so that they will never thirst again.

Yeah, but do you have a pet ostrich?

By josh

On July 29, 2015

In Chad, Culture

Visited the palace of the Sultan the other day with some visitors, and I brought Isaac along. The Maba Sultanate dates back nearly 400 years, when it split off from the Sultanate of Darfur which encompassed western Sudan and eastern Chad. When the French finally conquered the region in the early 20th Century, the sultanate was all but destroyed. A puppet sultan was put in place to do the bidding of the French. But after Chad’s independence in 1960, the sultanate was restored. Today it exists, not officially as part of the Chadian government, but alongside the government. The sultan is allowed to run his own Islamic court to decide local matters, and is still very influential in the region. He has the traditional palace, where he no longer lives, but instead lives just across the street. His black Hummer is parked outside. And his pet ostrich is still kept inside the palace walls, fenced in (barely) and strutting around like he owns the place.

Isaac and Lillian pose in front of the ostrich.

Blessings from the sun

By kimberly

On February 20, 2015

In Chad

Home made granola!

We are always thankful for the most noticeable blessing of the sun: it gives light and heat. Since moving to Chad, and especially since moving to our new house 10 days ago, we have many other reasons to be grateful for the sun:

I can cook my yogurt in the sun and make goodies like granola and banana bread in my solar oven.
The sun heats up the water that we use to shower with and wash our hands.
The sun also makes it possible for me to have consistent refrigeration and even a freezer that never has to be turned off. This makes my life so much easier, because for the past four months, I haven’t been able to store food very well for my family – we had a generator to run several hours each morning and three hours in the evening. As hot season is approaching, things like yogurt, leftovers, and milk were turning bad quickly.
In the very near future (read: as soon as Josh has time), we will also be thankful that the sun’s energy gives us constant lighting and even fans to keep us cool. For now, we use a generator during the hot part of the day and for a couple hours in the evening and it is not too bad, but we will be happy to be able to turn on lights and fans whenever we want.

What an amazing part of creation God chose to make!

Camel Ride

By kimberly

On January 15, 2015

In Chad, Family

Mommy and Isaac riding a camel!

I am a little late at sharing this story, but it is too good not to share with you! Isaac and I had the opportunity to ride a camel after Christmas. We went with a group of short term workers here at the orphanage, and it felt very touristic. If you want to come visit us in Chad, we now can possibly offer you a camel ride (sounds adventurous and exotic, huh?!) and even a climb up one of the mountains outside of town at sunset (romantic, maybe??). Anyways, Judah and Josh walked next to us as our camel took us through the desert. The ride lasted about 30-45 minutes and was comparable to a horse ride, just higher. Oh, and our camel liked to stop and reach up in the tree branches above to get a snack here and there. We had to hold on tight, but really the actual ride was quite relaxing and would have put Isaac to sleep if we had continued much longer. We had a bought of excitement in our group as another camel who was a bit angry threw off a boy and his father. They were ok, and even got back on another camel. The camel herders (I don’t know what they are called) calmed the angry camel and got him to kneel down to the ground, but 10 minutes later we saw him running fast through the desert! It began to feel like a scene from an old western movie when a man on horseback chased the camel down at full speed right in front of us! That was surely an experience we won’t soon forget!

First Sumaya

By kimberly

On January 15, 2015

In Chad, Culture

Earlier this week, I was invited to my first baby naming ceremony by another friend who is here learning Arabic before moving to another town. This friend lives fairly close to me and the new baby’s family lives in between me and my friend. It was very similar to the ceremonies I have attended in Senegal. We arrived around 1pm and greeted the many women scattered throughout the compound who were cooking the large meal or socializing on mats in the shade. Then, we were taken into the mother’s bedroom where she was sitting with her 7 day old baby on the bed underneath a mosquito net. She will stay in her bedroom or the compound for 40 days, if I understand correctly. We greeted her and the few friends and sister who were there with her and gave her our gift (blanket, socks, etc). We had a small snack of cookies, candy, and Chadian tea. We chatted with the family and my friend introduced me as one of their neighbors. This family has four wives and 40, yes forty, children. The compound is huge and each wife has a house of her own with mud brick walls around. The lady we visited this day has seven living children but has lost six children. The husband is in his 70s and I would say this lady was my age or a little older. We visited with her sister also, who was a very friendly woman. She was nursing her baby and when she finished we noticed how thin the baby’s arms were. It looked just like the photos of malnourished children we all have seen. She said her daughter, now 8 months old, had been sick for some time but is now better. That sight was a shock for me and heartbreaking also, but truly, this is a reality here that I am sure we will face over and over again in ministry. We finished our visit with the mom and friends by praying for her and the baby to be healthy and strong and for God to bless her family. Then we were taken to the house of another wife where ladies were sitting on a mat chatting until the food arrived. We had rice, meat, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, and a host of other things that were all quite tasty. We sat around a common large plate and there were several small bowls with different dishes for the celebration. I had to leave a bit early unfortunately, because our first language lesson was starting at our house, but my friend was able to stay and help wash dishes with them.

The Book of Colossians and Our Unbelieving Neighbors

By kimberly

On January 3, 2015

In Bible, Chad, Islam, Ministry

I have been reading and studying Colossians this past month, and it is so rich. It is a great book to use in discipling new believers. One observation I made during my study – chapter 2:20-22 talks about the “regulations” that the Colossians had submitted themselves to, even though they had “died” with Christ. Verse 23: “These [rules] have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Legalism seems to be a natural part of our humanity – if we have a list of rules to conquer, our pride can fool us into thinking we are doing ok. I can’t help but read this portion of Colossians and think of my Muslim neighbors all around who have not yet submitted themselves to the “beloved Son” (1:13), “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:14). Instead they are bound by legalism, believing that somehow their prayers, fasting, modesty, chanting, alms giving – “good” works and following of the rules is enough to reconcile them to God. However, Chapter 1, verse 21 and 22 tell us that we were “once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,” (indulging in the flesh) but Jesus “has now reconciled [us] in his body of flesh by his death in order to present [us] holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” Pray with us that “God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that [we] may make it clear.” Pray that many will feel the hypocrisy in their own lives, the futility of their works before a holy God. Pray that we will “walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time….that [our] speech [will} always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that [we may know how [we] ought to answer each person” (4:2-6). Pray for us and yourself also – that we as believers will not fall into the lie that ministry or good deeds gains us approval before our Father. Thank you, Jesus that your death has made us alive, “having forgiven us all our trespasses” (2:13).

House Search

By kimberly

On January 3, 2015

In Chad, Family

We began our house search the day after Christmas, after waiting almost a month for the man who we now call our friend to return back to Abeche to help us with our house hunt. “Abd” has been a believer for 15 years and we are blessed to have his help here. We saw many houses with lots of potential, but two really stayed at the top of our list. One was brand new, a good price, good yard,and super nice. We loved the house! The downside is that the location is not the best – it is on abusy foot path/dirt road, but not in a neighborhood. We were getting encouragement from Abd that this was the best choice because it was move-in ready, and we couldn’t disagree with that. We went to bed that night very torn, and I tossed and turned all night, very anxious about the choice we had to make. The next day, we both still felt stressed about it, but felt unsure about what else was available. We prayed for God to grant us wisdom, talked to another worker here who had some good advice for us, encouraging us to continue our search and be very clear with Abd what our goals were for being here. Yes, we want to learn Arabic, and yes a house a little more “isolated” would be the obvious choice for anyone just moving here for the sake of moving here, but our house search is a little different than what it would be in the States. We have more to consider than just how it suits our preferences – we have a ministry to consider, how are we going to interact with the lost, how will we learn their culture and live life amongst them if we are separated from them? Why would we leave America and everything comfortable, come all the way to Abeche, Chad just to live in a nice house away from people? Doesn’t that defeat our purpose?! So, once God imparted some wisdom into our thought process, we realized we needed to consider a different house – one we had looked at first and liked but needs some work. We went back a couple days later to see it again, make notes about what work would need to be done before we could move in, and see what potential the house and compound had. We left very excited and encouraged! The yard is big for the kids, there is a row of shade trees on one side, and there is tons of space to host Chadian visitors and guests who will come to visit from America, as well as have our own office or prayer room and a large kitchen for me! We took a walk around the neighborhood to pray for the people, ask God to use us to bless them if this is where He is calling us to live, and even greet a few people. I got to pray with one woman who is a refugee from Sudan. This house does need some work – we will need to pull up old laminate flooring and paint the walls, as well as put in some kitchen counters. We have the month of January reserved here at the Orphanage, so we don’t feel too rushed to get moved in. We are working on writing up a contract on the house and we have workers who can do most of the labor, since we will also be studying Arabic. Rejoice with us that this big decision has been made and that God has granted us not only his wisdom but the peace that comes with it. Pray that as we work on getting the house ready to move in, God would also continue to grow our heart and vision for the people in the neighborhood.