Nana (my mom) and her friend Brooke visited us the week after Christmas and we are so thankful for their visit. The travel in country was a bit sketchy and a cause for some stress, but their laid-back attitude mitigated the stress. We had planned to fly our family (using the in-country airline, Tchadia) from Abeche to the capital, spend a few days at a nice hotel with our guests, and then fly back to Abeche. Since Tchadia now cancels more flights than they actually fly, we ended up driving to the capital (14 hours, several times push starting the car from some overheating problems). “That’s OK” we thought, “because we’ll all fly back to Abeche together.” Except that the day before the flight they couldn’t tell us if the flight would actually go or not. So we punted again and just drove back. Now Nana, we feared, might not be up for a long drive with no A/C (part of the overheating problem) and no Starbucks. But we were wrong. She did amazing, as did Brooke, and we had a great drive. We saw lots of camels, which they were thrilled about, and even saw a camel caravan loaded down and moving to their next camp.
We made it in under 12 hours this time, which was amazing. Tired, but happy, the next day we had the huge party we had planned to celebrate Nana’s visit. This is expected in Chad, especially for someone who traveled such a long way. So that morning I headed off to the animal market with Abdoulaye and Brooke to pick a couple of sheep that looked like good eatin’. Meanwhile Kimberly managed an army of ladies who had come around 7:30AM to begin the process of cutting, peeling, slicing, pounding, etc. to make the sauce and all the sides to go with the meat.
It was a great party, and we had lots of people there to celebrate with us. Nana met all of our friends and neighbors, as well as some people we had never seen before. Nana and Brooke dressed up in their finest Chadian clothes, which Kimberly had bought for the occasion. We ate around 1:30PM, which is the normal lunchtime here in Chad, especially for parties like this. The food was wonderful, and Nana didn’t have to eat anything too exotic (that was one of her conditions for coming on the trip). Great day.
Thursday was a day to rest, as well as the last day for Nana and Brooke in Abeche. Our Chadian friends couldn’t imagine coming all this way just for a few days, since their visits usually last weeks or months, but we explained that Brooke had to get back to work. We passed Thursday at the house playing games, talking, and just resting.
Friday it was back to N’Djamena with Mission Aviation Services (MAF). This is a wonderful organization that works in hard to reach places to help missionaries get around. If you’re looking for a worthwhile organzation to support financially, consider these folks. The flight was on-time and uneventful, and we were back in N’Djamena by mid-afternoon. They flew out in the middle of the night.
We are thankful for a wonderful and encouraging visit!