The Tchad Newsletters 4 August 2000 - 16 November 2000

TCHAD NEWSLETTER 5 6 NOVEMBER 2000

Hi!!

When I said that I thought that my next newsletter might take a while, I never realized just how long that would be! I should like to apologize to all of you who contacted us asking whether we had dropped you from our e mail list. (It was nice to hear from you!!)

In September Paul’s mother sadly passed away after spending 10 days in ICU with a perforated ulcer and complications. She hung on so that Paul was able to fly to Zim to see her before she left us. Pat is sadly missed as she was an important part of our lives but we find comfort in the image of her sitting on a cloud somewhere with her great friend Sheena yakking about the craziness of life!

The reason this letter has taken so long is , as I predicted, that teaching is an all consuming job! On top of this I have a very difficult class …. I am teaching (at least I am trying to ) Grades 2 (7yrs) & 4 (9yrs) (the school has no grade threes at present) . There is, needless to say, very little overlap in the two curriculums and, on top of this I have one child who speaks no English and failed Grade three in a local school last year. I have been told by a very experienced teacher that my class would challenge even the most experienced of teachers. (Please, I’m fishing for sympathy) So ….. teaching is a juggling act and an even greater challenge than my time at Baragwanath Hospital. I don’t think that I will be making any permanent career changes but for the moment, teaching it must be. The alternative is to sit at home and supervise our house staff ! (To quote our American friends, “Yeah, right!!”)

Talking of house staff … we finally moved into the new house!! The house itself is huge and furnished only with the bare essentials (with emphasis on BARE) It’s a very echo-y house!! The rest of the house furniture is sitting in customs along with most of the Celtel office furniture, awaiting Paul’s payment of the exorbitant duties this country charges! Anyway, once everything is finally installed it will be a rather nice place to be living … we are unlikely to be able to live like this anywhere else! We feel more secure here as the old house was very exposed and we are getting used to the surrounding noises. There is something strangely comforting about the sound of an aeroplane engine blasting into ones bedroom at midnight, 2 am, 4 am etc etc. We have found that after a month of living here, we don’t really notice it anymore. (Yes, we are less than a stones throw from the airport …. In the unlikely event (we hope) of us having to be evacuated from the country, we won’t have to go far!)

We have a cellular network!!! (Paul’s number: +235 200200, Mine +235 200299 We don’t have a landline at present) Celtel launched in October to much fanfare and stress. Paul had paid for the popular Congolese (I think) band , WENGE, to play at the launch of the network. They were flown out and accommodated at the company’s expense but had signed an exclusivity contract whereby they were not permitted to play within a 300km radius of N’Djamena for the next three months. Well, it was discovered, in each case an hour or so before the event, that they had a whole lot more concerts lined up. So, rather than be a stick-in-the-mud and force the cancellation of these concerts, Paul turned each of them into a Celtel promotional affair. Needless to say, he was exhausted by the end of it all.

With the competition of the second cellular network (they purchased a license from the President without going through the whole tender process), sales haven’t been quite what Paul had hoped for but they are increasing gradually and he is about to start a major marketing drive. Africa is a fascinating place to do business; it keeps Paul occupied!!

I wanted to apologize for my previous comment about how un-spectacular the insect infestation was during the rainy season. About four days after Paul had e mailed my last newsletter I was sitting in the lounge and it started to rain …. Huge, noisy drops of rain hit the windows, the roof etc. Then this “rain” started crawling in under the doors and before I knew what was going on there must have been over 200 grasshoppers inside the house and a very very great many more outside. Poor Maurice (the cat) was ill for the first week after the arrival of this plague … he eventually worked out how to discard the spiny hopping legs before eating the beasts … and he hasn’t looked back since!!!

It’s a Chaddian thing, you know (OK so this is not only restricted to Chad) but suddenly the roads became even more dangerous to drive on as every man and his children ran around in a mad frenzy collecting grasshoppers at all times of the day and night! Grasshopper must make a welcome addition to their rather monotonous diets! Did you know that in Nigeria you can buy tins of candied grasshopper! Well, it took about 6 weeks for the grasshoppers (and most of the rain-blessed greenery) to disappear from the countryside and we are now heading for winter (HA!) It has become very dry again and we’ve had to get out the hand cream etc again.

I flew to Senegal to a teachers conference! I’m not sure that the school should have spent the amount of money that they did (considering I don’t have enough text books for my kids etc etc) but the experience was quite unique! I don’t know whether you remember me vowing and declaring that I WOULD NEVER EVER fly with Air Afrique again after our disastrous first trip to N’Djamena ……. Well….

When traveling in Africa, one needs to accept that there is often no other option (their lack of competition doesn’t help either). We were meant to fly out of N’Djamena at 4pm on that fateful day but, true to form, we only took off at 10pm and arrived in Abidjan at 2am, having missed our connection to Dakar. The airline “would have paid for us to stay in an hotel overnight “but, needless to say, the official responsible for 24hour visas had decided that he didn’t feel like working anymore and had gone home!(I am sure he was on Air Afrique’s payrole!) So, from 2am until 7 pm the next evening, we sat in the transit lounge in molded plastic chairs!! We arrived in Dakar at 1am , finally reached our hotel by 2.30am (only to discover there wouldn’t be any water supply to the bathrooms until 6am) and the conference started at 7.30am!! At least I wasn’t traveling with the kids!

The conference itself was very interesting and quite practical (I’m used to going to highly academic medical – type conferences) but whether or not I gained more than I would have if I’d been able to purchase books instead is very questionable. Dakar itself is far more civilized than N’Djamena (not difficult to achieve) and they LOVE South Africans. When I arrived at the airport, the customs officials let only me and my baggage through unchecked although they did detain me for ages chatting about the venue for Mandela’s next holiday, his taste in shirts etc etc. The main market is situated on Soweto circle and one of their main roads is called Nelson Mandel Drive. It’s so nice to say you come from South Africa and get a good reception (quite different from my experiences in Europe ten years ago!)

Two days before we were due to return to Tchad, we discovered that we had been bumped from the aircraft passenger list (Air Afrique again) and much panic ensued. There is only one flight a week to N’Djamena from Dakar! We had our husbands and the American Embassy in N’Djamena pushing their weight around to get us all back onto the flight (there were 5 of us) They succeeded!!! Meanwhile everything carried on at home; the kids had a great time with Dad and I think Dad quite enjoyed having them to himself ( and having a really good excuse to get home at a reasonable time at night for a change)

The day I returned, Paul was invited to the launch of the new oil project in Doba (approx 300km south east of N’Djamena) and so the kids slept at Christopher & Katie’s house …. Good friends of theirs and ours (their mother is the res. Rep for the World Bank and their father is an ex-science teacher from Zimbabwe!!) Anyway, the “sleepover “ went so well that it has become an institution (we take turns to have the kids……. But I digress….)

Paul flew to Doba in an old Hercules (army plane) together with all the top Chaddian businessmen and most of the government ministers. There were not enough seats to sit on( well, if you can call army-issue webbing a seat) & certainly no seatbelts and many people had to stand and hold onto those hand-sling things that they use in buses and underground railways etc. On the return trip Paul SHARED a seat with the Minister of Communications (needless to say they have a very good relationship) My question is this …. What if the plane had gone down ….. there was no plan made for safety of the passengers … and if the country had lost all of its ministers (this would be a disadvantage??) and all of its top business people where would that have left Tchad??? Maybe I just ask too many questions ??? Needless to say, Paul was very relieved to get back to N’Djamena.

What else?

Ah! We had a visitor! Hilary came to stay for a week (we always thought that she was weird!!) Fortunately she had been flying for two solid days and was suffering from jet lag. I think that she got out of bed half an hour before we got home from school everyday so that we thought she had been waiting around for us all morning (just joking, Hilary) It was such a treat to have a visitor from home (or any visitor, for that matter!) We did manage to go to Wasa, a game reserve in Cameroon. A work of advice …. There is 3m high elephant grass at Wasa towards the end of the rainy season …… we collected a wonderful ecosystem of grass-bugs on the front windscreen of Paul’s (the company’s) Pajero after having to “bundu-bash our way through the grass. It wasa not the best time of year for game viewing!! The birdlife was, however, very profuse: if we saw one Hoepoe we must have seen 200! Oh, and we did see a large herd of giraffe. Needless to say, the weekend was very pleasant (ask Hilary …. see if a lawyer is able to tell the truth!)

We have experienced a real American Halloween … the kids went Trick-or Treating (Guy went Twick-or Tweet - ing) at the American Embassy …… I don’t know when those people ever find time to do any work!? And there was an evening costume function and haunted house at the marines’ base. Now that our children have experienced the fun (and excessive supply of “candies”) associated with Halloween, how are we ever going to get away with not celebrating it every year!?

Guy Fawkes Day came and went without even a puff of smoke. What’s that ???? asked my American colleagues! And, certainly the French don’t celebrate it!

I had better leave some space for Paul (what I mean is there is a smell wafting from the kitchen which smells suspiciously over-cooked and I’d better go and see what I have done now. I am so good at burning things on our new gas stove ( I was worse with the old one!!!) I shall try to send you a short note before the Christmas holiday (we get to go to Europe … what a wonderful place to go in the middle of winter!!!) Hope everyone is well.

Cheers for now

Love Fiona !!

The Tchad Newsletters12 June 2000 - August 2000

TCHAD: NEWSLETTER 4 AUGUST 2000

Well, hello again! It has been a while since my last letter: it may well be a while before my next .. I start work next week!

It’s a cool 26 degrees outside today ….. the locals are wearing their jerseys! The rainy season started with a vengeance some time in July. Whilst it only rains every 2 – 3 days, when it rains, well ….. IT POURS! Most of the trees that were going to fall have already done so but I still wouldn’t want to be outside when it rains. The Chari river has risen dramatically. Many of the islands & sand banks present in the river when we first arrived have disappeared & I haven’t seen the hippos for a while. I have been told that towards the end of the rainy season, the houses on the Cameroonian side of the river get flooded and many collapse, only to be rebuilt in the exact same location in anticipation of the next rainy season (and so on and so on and so on!!)

The insect population has increased significantly but is no where near as bad as I had been lead to believe it would be by our American & Mauritian friends. The insect situation is only slightly worse than that in Zimbabwe! It’s obvious that, having lived in Africa all of our lives, it has been much easier for us to adapt to life in Tchad compared with our ex pat friends!

And the frogs! There are small frogs everywhere. A few weeks ago, I walked into the dining room only to find 10 – 15 frogs the size of a thumb nail hopping around merrily. They must have squeezed in under the door. We had great fun trying to catch them to put them outside … kept the kids entertained for ages.

We have also been infested with mosquitos. Even with screens on the windows and everything closed up all of the time, they get in. It is very hard to avoid getting bitten, especially if your name is Lauren … they love her!!! They also don’t restrict their activity to the night like all other self-respecting mozzies … they are on the prowl 24 hours a day. With malaria being a real problem at this time of the year (a number of Paul’s employees have already contracted the disease this season!) we have opted to take anti-malarials for the rainy season as it is impossible to avoid being bitten (ask Lauren!) As soon as the rain stops and the puddles dry up at the end of September, the malaria risk disappears! Then “winter” starts in November (I believe the temperature actually drops to 20 degrees in December) Ah, bliss!

The rainy season has also had an interesting effect on our lizard population. I would call it spring-fever except that, traditionally, spring precedes summer and not autumn. I guess one cannot impose these weather traditions on a place like Tchad. Well, Laurens sex education has had to begin …. I couldn’t lie to her when she asked me why the lizards kept on climbing onto each other’s backs! So, along with the tiny frogs, there are a few small yellow-headed lizards which have been added to our garden zoo.

We have regular moo-ing and braying outside our house: we are very near to the abattoir and, at least three times a week, 4 or 5 herds of very bony cattle are herded past our driveway. I had been expecting the cattle to become fatter the further into the rainy season we get but this hasn’t been the case. From what I have seen, no matter how much food is available to the Chaddien animals, they remain skinny (the goats are the only exception to this)

We know a family who has two local dogs (which, by the way, make the SA pavement specials look positively pedigreed!) Anyway, these dogs get fed a huge amount AND supplement their diet with lizards and frogs and bugs that they find in the garden AND are de-wormed regularly and yet they are still very thin. They look no better off than their very much less fortunate brethren. My theory is this: (clearing of throat) the animals (except the goats, who are able to remain FAT even during the dry season) have evolved over centuries to survive on less than no food at all and no longer have any “fat cells” in their bodies (these have become defunct over time) and so are incapable of ever storing fat. I have heard that it is not safe to have a “western” dog here as it appears so fat to the locals that it has a very high risk of ending up in someone’s pot.

So, as you can see, we are surrounded by living creatures, even if they are not all pets. On the pet front, with copious quantities of tears from Lauren, we had to let the two large tortoises go (yes, the ones that I actually paid for.) Paul took them to a hopefully deserted but green spot and set them free. The problem was this: the cats (Maurice & Michelle) like stalking and pouncing on the tortoises. Now, the two small tortoises, having been blessed with some brain cells, see the cats coming and retreat into their shells (sensible things!) The two large tortoises, on the other hand, obviously decided that being pounced on by kittens was not acceptable and would reach out with their bony beaks and try to fight back. I don’t need to tell you that cats are faster than tortoises and that the tortoises always came off second best. After the third trail of blood along the paving outside from a badly scratched neck, we decided that it was only fair that we let the tortoises go. I do hope that the risk of them ending up on someone’s plate is lower than that of gangrene of the neck.

Don’t think that this is going to reduce the number of creatures in our garden … Paul has just phoned to say that Basie (his Afrikaans consultant… now there’s a story I must tell) has bought four baby hedgehogs in order to save them from becoming “hors-d’ oeuvres d’ hérisson “. So, guess where they are going to live (until they manage to escape) I can just picture Abakar’s face ( our gardener) …. He was the one who brought the bleeding tortoise saga to my attention. I just hope that the hedgehogs have some sense of self-preservation (I don’t think I could go through Laurens floods of tears a second time) I also hope that the cats are not partial to prickly-paw!

Right, now on to the juicy bits. A month or two ago, as we were preparing to have a braai with some Americans who had lived in Zim for a few years and who had recently returned from SA with some boerewors, Paul got a frantic phone call to say that Basie (of hedgehog fame) had knocked two men off a motorbike and, owing to the aggressiveness of the rapidly growing crowd, had left the scene as fast as he was able. I won’t bore you with all the details or brag that, after all these years I am still capable of making an excellent (if a little too hot) fire to braai boerewors on. The evening for us was a little disastrous but that was nothing compared to the time the two accident victims were having.

The one chap was bruised but OK but the other had broken his leg in three places and was in a coma. The local hospital admitted him but the surgeon was on leave for two weeks and so, little could be done with him there. After MUCH negotiation and many hours of Paul’s time taken up (and his vast capacity for being diplomatic being tested to the limit) the family decided that they wanted to send him to Egypt for treatment (I’m not sure that they didn’t just want him out of the way so they could tell Paul that he had died in order to collect their 6 000 000 francs CFA (approx. R60 000). Paul offered to take him to the French Army’s medical base for treatment (that’s where all ill ex pats end up) but the family refused. They claimed that if the French were allowed to operate on him, he would die (read:” be killed”) I was beginning to understand just how much the Chaddiens dislike the French. Well, after the payment of many medical bills (including food, vehicle oil etc etc) by Celtel, the surgeon returned and fixed the mans leg and all seems back to normal. The insurance company is still, however paying out money. During this whole saga, the family threatened to kill Basie and told Paul a number of times that if Paul had been French, they would have killed him too. So to all of you who have accused me of making Tchad sound like a really fun place to live, it is not without its risks!

It’s funny, but Paul’s African background is standing him in good stead. The people that he has to deal with seem impressed that he is not just another ex pat, or worse, another Frenchman. Well, we thought so until he was introduced to a very high up official (I think it was the Prime Minister but I may be wrong) as having been born in Zimbabwe to which the reaction was, “Oh, you’re a colonialist.”!!!! Thankyou, Mugabe!

Some other interesting facts about Tchad:

The country has just had a celebration in honour of it being 100 years since the beginning of French colonial rule …. A really strange thing for an African country to celebrate, I thought! They’ve even erected a huge monument to commemorate the occasion!

Oh, and if the power goes off, always check that all taps are switched off (electricity is used to pump water into the buildings, which means, no electricity, no water.) In the middle of the accident crisis, there was a power failure at the office. Paul unlocked the office the next morning to be greeted by a wave of water and the sound of Niagra Falls coming from the bathroom. He had just bought three new computers which had been unpacked and were waiting patiently on the floor for some new desks to arrive. Needless to say, that day was spent on flood damage control and the dismantling of computers in order that they could dry out. Thankfully, the computers still work! It keeps us entertained !!!

Oh, how could I forget! One of the reasons this letter is so late is that we returned to SA for a few very hectic weeks (apologies to all of those people I never got around to contact) You see, Paul had a meeting in Jhb and so I decided that he could down-grade his business-class flight to an economy one so that we could all go at minimal cost to ourselves! Well, at the last minute, the company moved Paul’s meeting to Amsterdam and so, I flew to Harare and then Joburg and Durban with the kids. They traveled amazingly well …. I was very impressed!

Flying into and out of Tchad is no mean feat as you may remember from my first trip. Well, it is actually not necessary to fly via Paris; there is an Air Ethiopian flight once a week into and out of N’Djamena. So we left at 4am on a Friday morning, arrived in Addis Ababa later that morning and were ferried to the Hilton Hotel (covered by the ticket although I paid a small surcharge to stay there as opposed to a lesser hotel … and thank heavens I did; if the Hilton has holes in its carpets and tiles falling off the bathroom walls, I’d hate to see the cheaper hotels!) We spent a night in the hotel (it was, by the way, clean and the food was excellent) and then flew to Harare the next day where we stayed with Paul’s Mom for a few days. Then on to Johannesburg and Durban and finally the great trek back to N’Djamena!

I could have bought another 5,6 kg’s of stuff in SA … our luggage ONLY weighed 54,4kgs on our return (it was about 23kgs on the trip out to SA) We were lucky … when we arrived at the airport in N’Djamena, Paul had bumped into someone who sold had him a number of generators ( I think). This man turned out to be very well connected (wrt the customs officials) and we were hurried through without so much as a questioning glance! Not that I bought anything of great value … just stuff like balloons, some dress material, clothes, cream for the kids’ skin (they are allergic to most), birthday gifts for ours and other children …. You can spend R100 on a colouring-in book and packet of crayons in N’Djamena ….etc etc.

The break was wonderful … I arrived in Joburg feeling like a real plaas – jaap … everything was new and shiny. If you have ever lived in Zim or another African country and visited SA for a holiday, you may remember that initial feeling of awe at the number of new cars, the wonderful array of goods to buy etc etc when you first arrive in Johannesburg. Well, multiply that feeling by at least ten!! I kept asking myself why on earth I would choose to live in Tchad but, having returned, one re-adjusts quickly. Now, I can hear those cynics amongst you wondering how I could say that SA looks wealthy etc but believe me, compared to Tchad, Zimbabwe seems filthy rich !!!

Having reached page five of this letter, I think that I should end it before it gets too long and you battle to down-load it. I just wanted to thank everyone who fed and fetched and carried us whilst we were in SA … we really had a great time!!

Cheers for now,

Fiona, Paul, Lauren & Guy

The Tchad Newsletters 3 May 2000 - 12 June 2000

Tchad: 9 June

It’s me again. We are still alive and well. This is in fact a fascinating place to live for a few years IF you are prepared to be adaptable and open minded. Don’t get me wrong …. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life here but…

I’ve discovered that the reason people walk or cycle across the road without looking is because there is this belief that if you can’t see a car close enough to run you over, then there isn’t one there. But if you do look first, you may see a car and then your chances of getting run over are much greater. It’s like the one about the tree falling in the forest and making no sound unless there is someone there to hear it.

I did actually start driving while Paul was in SA … the company chauffeur lost his job for a variety of reasons. I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders!! And it was fun dodging the traffic, puddles, goats, dogs, children etc etc. It forced me to find my way around … I have a better idea of where things are now. I also met most of the English speaking people who live in N’Djamena … took about two days to do so ( that should give you some idea of how few of us there are) The company has now employed 2 drivers, one of whom is specifically for “Madame Herrmann’s” use. At least he gets me where I need to go on time. He also speaks no English which is, in fact, a good thing .. it forces me to communicate in French and, so far I’m not doing too badly!!

It is official, I will be working at the American school as of August 21st!! Never thought that I would end up teaching junior school children. It will be a challenge! Both Guy & Lauren will be at the school so it really will be a family affair (fortunately, I shan’t be teaching either of them.) I also have to think of an after-school activity which I can offer as there is a great demand for organized activities for the children (English speaking) in this town. There is nothing for them to do after school. In fact, during the “summer holiday” (July & August) most people leave Tchad for their holidays. I am dreading this as there will be no-one for Lauren & Guy to play with. There is a possibility that Paul may have a MD’s meeting in SA in July and so he may downgrade his business class flight to an economy one so that we can use the money to all fly back to SA for a few weeks!! Seems such a long way to go but, if the opportunity arises , well …

12 June.

Is it cold where you are ??? …. We are roasting! ….The house next door is no longer empty and instead of this being a good thing, what it actually means is that we have to share the generator with another family when the electricity goes down ( it is down at the moment) So, when we are using the generator, there is not enough power for the air-conditioners to function properly and they only operate on “fan”. This is not good when it is 45 degrees outside and there is no insulation in the roof!

Our family has increased in size yet again …. We thought that we might actually be able to make it through two or three years without pets but that was not to be! You see, there were these two kittens who desperately needed a home …. Real Tchaddian cats … tiny faces and huge ears …. And so they now belong to us! (Cats are easy to transport in an aeroplane!!) But that’s not all. We had Paul’s “local partner” around for a “braai” last night and they arrived with two very small tortoises!! (about 5cm across their shells, head to tail) Their parents are apparently 60 – 70 cm across. Now I will have to buy lettuce regularly … at about R10.00 a time, they could be as expensive as the cats to feed. Lauren decided that she was going to dream about names for all of these creatures whilst she was sleeping last night but she woke up this morning, not having had any success!! Anyone have any bright ideas??

I have a chap here at the moment building a new hut for the pool filter … the last one landed in the pool during one particularly violent storm. He is trying to use a welding machine to cut some poles to size so, every three minutes I have to rush to the electricity box to throw the switch again … the Mains keeps tripping out. The electricity supply to this house is amazing .. there are wires everywhere …. I hope (but am doubtful) that everything is actually safe. Talking of electricity …. Our electricity bill is higher than the rent for this house … and we are very careful not be excessive with the air cons (however, I drew the line when both Guy & I developed a permanent heat rash) Fortunately, the company pays these costs but they are a little frightening!!

Yes, we have had some rain which has thankfully dropped the temperature slightly (38 degrees instead of 46!) Tchad has Zimbabwean / highveld thunderstorms. The air gets heavy about an hour before the rain starts then the wind gets up and suddenly all hell breaks loose. We have already had a large part of a very pretty tree fall down on our new pool fence (that’s another story altogether) The rain hammers down for about 20 minutes and then suddenly stops and the sun comes out apologetically. But it doesn’t end there …. The soil here has a very high clay content and, thanks to the Chari River, the water table is very high. The water sits on the roads (very few are tarred) for weeks! Driving becomes a bit like the “Camel Challenge”. Suddenly I am glad that I don’t have to drive! The cows, at least, are very happy. Grass has suddenly begun to grow everywhere so there is food for the animals ( I haven’t a clue what they eat in the dry season) The goats are really fat and make the cows look as if they have been living in Ethiopia for the last few months!

We are not badly off; the local houses are constructed from unbaked bricks made from mud and dung. They do not survive well in the rain. I went with one of my ‘newly met’ friends to a village not far from N’Djamena where they make pots (we eventually found the village after we made our own road across the muddy plain) We walked through some of the houses in our search for pots to buy …. These people are really poor .. they have so little: no furniture to speak of, a few pots and a mat to sleep on and to top it all, half of the houses had partly fallen down in the recent rains. Such is life in Tchad!

I had better end this news letter now … I have to rescue Justine from the kids so that she can go home. (Justine looks after Guy in the mornings and both kids some afternoons so that I can get some work done.) Ah … Murphy’s law …. Just as I am finishing this with perspiration dripping from my nose the electricity supply has been re-connected and the air con in my office has started working! Oh, I never mentioned that we will be moving in the next few months to a bigger / better house near to the Prime Ministers residence. (The significance of this location is that, if we are on the same electricity circuit, then we should “never” suffer from power cuts!!) Paul has had to find another house for his Financial Director (he has to find one of those too) and when this house came up we decided that it was infinitely more suitable for the MD!! We will be getting a house full of brand new goods (sent from SA) so I guess we will have to stay here forever as we will never be able to live this well again.

Yours in perspiration

Paul, Fiona, Lauren, Guy

The Tchad Newsletters 28 April 2000 - 3 May 2000

Tchad: 28 April 2000 –3 May 2000

Well, hello. Here we are! At last, our air-freighted items have arrived without anything missing….as far as we can tell thus far. I’ve finally got my computer back!! Never thought that I would ever say that about a computer (I am, after all, a computer-phobe.)

The trip here had its moments …. One problem with flying with two small children in business class is that one is paranoid that they may be disturbing the other BUSINESS CLASS passengers (would you want to sit next to a two year old if you had paid for a business class seat!??) They were in fact, very well behaved IN the aeroplane but both kids were totally hyperactive whilst I was trying to check in, clear customs etc (I forgot to fill out the departure forms etc but the airport staff were very forgiving). My hand luggage weighed ten tonnes and the handle broke on one of the bags!! Thank heavens Paul’s father was flying back to the UK that same evening and I was able to leave my luggage with him whilst I sorted out Lauren & Guy (or at least, tried to) He also organized for me to skip the boarding queue which greatly reduced my stress levels!! For this, I will be forever grateful.

Our connecting flight from Paris to N’Djamena was then delayed by 6 hours which meant another six hours of entertaining the children, this time in the business class lounge ( at least we had that facility available to us ) The airline gave us a meal at lunch time & we finally left Paris at 4pm, an hour after we were supposed to have landed in Chad.

Business Class on Air Afrique is a waste of money. We arrived in N’Djamena at 9pm and had been given no food during the flight. The amount of effort it took just to get some bread for the children to eat was enormous!! Anyway, we arrived in one piece which is really all that mattered, to temperatures of 35 degrees C ( at 9pm!!) It turns out that this was not typical for this time of night ….it was just our luck. (It’s normally about 31!!)

So, as I said, here we are!! Lauren is in the American school as the French one wouldn’t accept her … something about a quota system that they have i.e. They have to have a certain number of French children before they will accept one non-French child. The fact that she is not a citizen of one of the EU countries further reduces our chances of getting her in. The school is, however very interested in me as a part-time English teacher, if I improve my French (which I am doing with the help of a private Chadian tutor at a cost of R15 per hour!!)

I have also been offered a teaching post at the American School to teach all subjects to 8-10 year olds !! I would only have 3 – 4 children in the class ( there will only be 12 or so children at the school next (school) year. (I will probably take this job as it is more full time (mornings only) while the French job is 8 – 10 hours per week) The school is also far more enthusiastic about me working for them & I may well be sent to the USA for a one week conference / seminar.

The American school is opening a nursery school in September & so Guy will start then …. he cries every morning when Lauren goes to school as he wants to go to his school ….September can’t come soon enough. The new school year starts in September with only a 2 week break in December …. We may only return to SA for a holiday next July / August as the school holidays then carry on for 11 weeks!! Last Christmas, the MD’s of each African cellular service were flown to Amsterdam with their families for a Christmas party & if that happens this year, we will probably spend Christmas in Europe!! (Finally, a white Christmas)

Yes, it’s very hot here… but you get used to it … and you spend a lot of time inside where there is air-conditioning. (This year we are apparently having a cool year…temperatures are reaching only 42 – 43 degrees …normally it gets to 49 – 54 degrees. Apparently we have been lucky!!) The house we are in belongs to Shell and they have a very large generator which kicks in within seconds of a power failure. Since we have power failures every day and they often last for hours, we are very fortunate indeed!! The majority of the time they are not actually power failures … they turn off the electricity every evening at about 8pm to reduce the amount of fuel used ….. the electricity is generated with diesel. Apparently in the (very hot) summer of 1998 there was no electricity at all because the government couldn’t afford the diesel. (i.e. no air-con)

We are in a very pleasant four bedroomed house which, as yet has no curtains. You cannot buy curtain hooks, curtaining tape etc so I have to wait until Paul returns to SA so that he can purchase these things. There are a lot of very tall trees in the garden (with the river not far away, there is plenty of ground water) and some plants – cannas, elephant-ear, small frangipanis, banana trees and an array of waxy and furry ground covers all of which, need watering at least twice a day (early am and after the sun has gone down in the evening) Between the “flower beds” is dirt …. a rather clay – like soil.

This is a colonial life … we have Martin who cleans, irons and prepares veges etc but does not cook; Justine who comes in every day to look after Guy so that I can do my thing and who also babysits in the evenings when necessary and we have a 24 hour guard service which doubles up as a gardening service. When we get home, we hoot at the gate and the guard lets us in!! I’m not sure that I am at all comfortable with these arrangements but it isn’t forever and it certainly makes life easier.

Paul is off to Amsterdam next week and then to Johannesburg the following week so I shall be holding the fort. I am hoping that the next time Paul goes to Amsterdam, the kids & I can go with him …. There have to be some benefits to living in this place. Paul will be provided with a shopping list for each trip!!!!!

Things are really expensive here …… about three times the price of things in SA. I guess that it costs a fortune getting stuff here … they also seem to have mastered the art of damaging everything in transit. Paul bought a dented washing machine, a damaged gas stove (both were in pretty good condition compared to the others that were available) and I have yet to see a box of Corn Flakes which hasn’t been squashed!! I’m sure that they jump on the ones which manage to reach the shops in good condition in order to maintain the same standards of quality. (Fortunately, the cornflakes tend not to get crushed)

This is not a good place for a dietitian …. You cannot find wholewheat or even brown bread, there is no All Bran Flakes, no brown rice etc etc. You can buy some of the fancy children’s cereals (chocos, rice crispies etc ) in the French shop for about R50 per box (we bought a box but it stays under lock & key and only comes out on Sundays) The vegetables are really good (they grow them on the river-bank) but, because of the heat, they don’t last very long. We also live on (white) baguettes (French bread!)

Fillet steak is cheaper than chicken!!!! In fact, fillet (R20 per kilo) is cheaper than mince meat (imported from France at R85 per kilo) and stewing meat (available locally at about R25 per kilo). SO …. With GREAT DIFFICULTY, we have had to get used to eating fillet !!!! In fact, we may buy a mincer and then we can mince the fillet for mince meat and we have also made stews out of the fillet !! Chad does have its’ up side, after all! My biggest concern is that when we return to “civilization”, the kids are going to refuse to eat “normal” meat and are going to insist on fillet!! They may have no choice but to become vegetarians (at least I will be able to cope with this).

The driving! I’m convinced that the local driving school (if there is one) was trained by a consortium of Johannesburg taxi drivers …….. and they have gone one better …. The drivers here (all of them) are worse than your worst Jhb taxi operator!! There has been no problem for Paul to adjust to driving on the right hand side of the road ….. no-one does …. People drive where-ever there is a gap! One also has to contend with the motorcycles (“any colour as long as it’s blue”), bicycles and pedestrians, all of whom veer into the road, cross the road, go down the middle of the road etc etc etc without looking first to see whether it is, in fact, safe to do so! There is a law which may contribute to this lack of concern for their own safety: if you kill someone on the road then , no matter who’s fault it is, the surviving person (you!) have to pay the deceased’s family US$ 60 000 (or a number similar …. I may be out by a dollar or two) IF you are a European, then that number seems to increase exponentially!!

The effect that this has on me ? Well, as yet, I have not driven in N’Djamena. Most of the time this is not a problem as I have the use of Justin, Celtel’s driver (chauffeur!?) However, it can be very frustrating when I end up being late for my French classes!! Of course, we only have one car available to us so I have little choice in the matter. We could look at buying a second-hand car here ( read fifth or sixth hand) but it wouldn’t come with air-conditioning & so …..

The above is a basic account of what our lives are like here. We have actually settled in well and are meeting people & making friends with other people who speak English. There are a number of small children amongst the local American community. We are waiting to hear whether we have been accepted into the American Club (their security is very strict) and if this happens then we will have a regular Friday evening get together at the club-house. I don’t see how they can refuse us membership with my being employed at the American School (in fact, by the Embassy) I will probably be teaching the Head of Security’s son!!

That’s all for now, we would love to hear from you all!!

Hotly yours

Paul, Fiona, Lauren & Guy