The Tchad Newsletters 4 March 2001 - 16 April 2001

NEWSLETTER NUMBER SEVEN ! 16 APRIL

Happy Easter everyone! What ? Another newsletter so soon ? Apart from it being the Easter weekend ( yup, Paul’s at the office! ) the school has a weeks holiday ( Spring Break) I still find it difficult to get my brain around the fact that those of you “down south” are heading into winter!

A fair amount has happened since I last wrote …..

We were invited by some of the American Embassy staff to spend one Sunday morning in the Embassy boat on the Chari river. We left at 8am complete with hats, long-sleeved shirts and sunblock, after having convinced Lauren that the water was very shallow and that we would be quite safe. (Ever since Paul fell, rather spectacularly, out of a small canoe at Lapalala when Lauren was about 18 months old, she has been petrified of boats!) We went on a search for hippos and elephants and were richly rewarded. We saw two large families of hippo and got nervously close to them …. The helmsman ( the man who operated the rather underpowered outboard motor ) seemed to take great delight in coercing them to move … I do recall one time, however, when WE moved pretty fast as the hippos started to disappear under the water and head towards us!

On the return trip to N’Djamena we were hailed by some Cameroonians who said that there were elephants a little way from the river so we climbed the rather steep riverbank and found a LARGE herd of elephants not very far off under the trees. The locals seemed to have a far healthier respect for elephants than hippos and we were NOT allowed to get very close. There was a village a hundred metres or so away, so I guess they may have experienced at first hand, the havoc caused by an irate family of pachyderms. For us, this was a FAR FAR FAR more impressive sighting of elephants than the “sighting” at Wasa a few weeks earlier (we really did see elephants at Wasa, Hilary. We can show you the photo to prove it !!)

The boat trip itself was very interesting … we passed villages, drinking camels, fishing nets and baskets set up in the river and all manner of fascinating examples of Cameroonian and Chadian life. ( For those who don’t remember, the Chari river forms part of the border between the two countries.) We even got stuck once or twice on the riverbed as the level of the river has dropped considerably….. in fact the day we went out on the river was the last day that the boat was to operate until after the rainy season is over. Our next trip has to be to Lake Chad … we are going there at the end of the week so watch this space.

Have I ever told you about the “ tappez – rouges “ that they have in this country (Paul blames the Americans … apparently they do this in the USA too! ) Every time the president or an important visitor ( such as Gaddafi) travels around the city they close all of the roads along the route …. for at least an hour or two before the event is to take place! This is all very well, but there are not that many ways around N’Djamena and one is likely to get stuck on some back road! Living near to the airport and Madame Déby ( the president’s mother) has its disadvantages ….

A few weeks ago I had Christopher and Katie (world bank children) over to play with Lauren & Guy. At 5.30pm I got this frustrated call from their mother to say that she had tried every route possible and wasn’t able to get to our house to fetch her children. Mary is, however, a resourceful sort and she found a secluded spot out of sight of any army officials and placed her “World Bank” flag into the holder on the bonnet of her car. She then convinced them that she was going to visit Madam Déby and they let her through. I wonder whether they watched her as she turned away from Madame’s rather elaborate house and disappeared down our road. Needless to say, she had to stay for supper as she could hardly have driven out past the armed guard only a few minutes later with her children in the car.

Well, last week, I had dropped Paul off at the office after school as I needed the car to run a number of errands that afternoon. I couldn’t get home again! All of the roads to the airport had been blocked by Déby’s private army as had Avenue Charles de Gaulle (main road) and the road out to Farcha (where our world bank friends live).(I should add here that the President’s private army is not well known for its’ politeness and good humour)

I was finally able to get back to school where Lauren and Guy had art that afternoon. We were sans water and shoes. Lauren’s teacher, who was taking the art class, very kindly went home to fetch drinking water for us. One gets very uncomfortable after 3 hours without water when it is 40+ degrees outside. I spent the time sorting classroom things out! At 4.30 pm I was convinced that the tappez-rouge would be over, but no…… after 30 minutes of driving around in square circles, Paul walked to an accessible place and we picked him up. The theory was that he knew the roads better than I did and would be able to find a route home … ordinarily, this would have been a good theory …. We eventually bought some chocolate biscuits ( the kids were, by now, ravenous and exhibiting the sort of behavior expected of a pack of half starved wild dog pups!) and we walked back to Paul’s office to wait out the tappez-rouge. It was close to 6pm when we finally got home ( so much for all of those things I was going to get done!)

Life continues to be a challenge ………..

There is a very narrow, one lane bridge which crosses one of the larger tributaries of the Chari river en route to the border post between Chad and Cameroon. They have a lollipop man at each end of the bridge who control the flow of traffic with their red / green lollipops. The bridge itself must be at least 50m long and not the most modern! First you suffer the frustration of waiting for the sign to be turned around to green ( no-one actually waits in an orderly line … there is a lot of pushing and shoving and squeezing towards the front , if you could imagine this of a whole lot of cars and trucks) Then you shoot up a quick prayer heavenward as you begin to navigate the bridge. I didn’t mention that pedestrians, bicycles and motorbikes don’t appear to have to wait for the “go” signal and so, apart from surviving the dangerously noticeable wobble that the bridge produces, you also have to dodge all of these other people and vehicles coming straight for you. This would be a little less stressful if it weren’t for the fact that bicycles and motorbikes are used to carry large quantities of goods in this country and sometimes a bike and it’s load can measure two metres across!

Anyway, towards the middle of the bridge, part of the “safety” railing has been knocked out ( it has been like that since I got here a year ago). A few days ago, one of those huge desert trucks had an accident. ( the ones (trucks) you see in pictures of the Sahara Desert which are loaded up with goods and on top of which are precariously perched many many people swathed in turbans and long flowing clothes) Apparently, the truck went over the edge where the railing was missing, got stuck in those railings that were still there and dangled over the side of the bridge. The bridge must be at least 30m above the river at the moment and the river is VERY shallow . Over 40 people were thrown off the top of the truck and fell to the river below to be crushed by huge sacks of sugar and salt which quickly followed suit. It seems that every week, some major accident occurs in this country! It is a relief to everyone to know that they are building a new TWO lane bridge at the moment …. everyone is waiting in anticipation for its completion …. ????? (but that’s a whole new issue!)

Paul recently went to Amsterdam for a meeting (thank heavens, we were running out of essentials such as Lip-Ice, which you cannot buy here) One of his family obligations when he goes there is to return with a half-round of Dutch cheese (approx 4kg). The day after he purchased this “orange-gold”, they slapped a ban on the exportation of all animal products (including cheese etc) out of Holland as a precaution against the spread of foot & mouth. Paul decided to try to smuggle it out and plead ignorance to the ban if he got caught. After all, he doesn’t speak Dutch!!

He was successful in getting the cheese to Paris but, while he arrived in N’Djamena as planned, the suitcase with the cheese (& chocolate) did not! It was either sitting at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris at approx 5 degrees Celsius (we hoped) or in Bangui in Central African Republic at 40+ degrees Celsius!! To make matters worse, Air France suddenly closed down their operation in Chad …. There were no flights, the offices didn’t open, people (and our suitcase) were stranded in all sorts of obscure places etc etc . Apparently, the local tax department had discovered an “inconsistency” in the airline’s books and had suggested that a tidy sum in the back pocket might smooth out the problem. Well, the French reacted as one would like to expect to this request but their closing down of service was a little inconsiderate (I guess if you have a near monopoly you don’t lose your customers … the only other option is Air Afrique … and I don’t even want to talk about them!)

Meanwhile, we had written off ever seeing our case again …. If it was in Paris, it was sure to have been broken into by now and the cheese and chocolate would have been infinitely edible; if it was sitting in Bangui at those temperatures, the suitcase would have got up on its own and walked out the door! Well, just less that a week later, Air France resumed service and, miracle of miracles, our case arrived untouched! The cheese and chocolate are WONDERFUL…mmmmmm

Well, school ends on 18 June (as does my career as a junior school teacher…hooray !!! ) Lauren has started reading and is writing short sentences … our little girl is growing up….. Guy is his usual happy self …. He has developed this terrible sense of humour, a characteristic which people are going to both love and hate!!

We will be heading to SA via Kenya (for a few days of game viewing) to spend time in Joburg with old friends and Durban with my family which gets larger and larger ( in number) as we speak! I may well send you a short (I’m sure that I am capable) message before we go …. I have to tell you all about our visit to Lake Chad ( at 40+ degrees C )

Hope that you are all well and enjoying the cooler weather (we are eating our hearts out !)

Until next time

Fiona, Paul, Lauren & Guy!

The Tchad Newsletters 16 November 2000 - 5 March 2001

NEWSLETTER 6 5 MARCH 2001

Dear All

Happy New Year!! (well…… happy almost the middle of the new year!) Paul has been needling me to write another newsletter and I finally have an opportunity. (I have made a deal with the kids that I can have a long turn on the computer today … ) It’s Tabaski (a Moslem holiday and a very bad day if you are a sheep or a goat – about 500 of them will be losing their lives in N’Djamena alone !!!!) and so the school is closed and here I am, FINALLY writing another newsletter.

A huge amount has happened since I last wrote in November: In December we went off to Amsterdam with the company and nearly froze to death … we had a great time although Amsterdam isn’t quite the same with two small children in tow. I was able to take the kids out to Zevenaar to visit Karen & Kurt and the boys ( Paul’s cousins) which was great! Thanks! Then we went on to London where we stayed with friends of Paul‘s ( thanks Chris & Gill) and managed to see Paul’s father who had made a special trip from the south of England just to see us (thanks for making the effort … it was great to see you) After a few days in London we traveled to Whittington Farm somewhere between Birmingham and Worcester for Christmas where we stayed with friends of mine with whom I grew up in Bulawayo! (thanks Nin & Guy , Charlotte, Isobel, Emily & Harry (and the rest of the Graves!!)… it was a real trip down memory lane for me and I had a wonderful time! I do hope that the foot and mouth currently making the news has not affected you too seriously)

We then went on to see Isy & Andrew in Hemel Hemstead (old Harare friends of Paul’s) where, the following morning, we were treated to snow ( and a rather uncomfortable 3 mile walk to the railway station with all of our now very heavy luggage) You see, the Brits were in such a state of shock over the snow that none of the taxis were able to get out of their garages etc etc. We were eventually given a lift by a very kind truck driver (who had previously been a farmer but, what with Mad Cows Disease and the expense of farming in the UK, had had to leave the farm his family had been running for generations!) His offer of a lift couldn’t have been better timed … Lauren had just sat down in the snow and refused to budge another inch!

Well, we eventually caught a train back to London and were on our way to Heathrow to catch a plane to Paris (which we were sure to miss as it was due to leave 5 minutes after we estimated we would arrive at the airport. ) Needless to say, some of the terminals had been closed owing to the snow and Air France’s computers were down (Air Chance, someone had said to me on the London underground…. I had decided that they obviously hadn’t experienced Air Afrique which I guess you could call Air No Chance!) Thank heavens we were traveling Business class … Paul was able to scramble over hundreds of angry, impatient and tired people, jump the VERY VERY long queue and get us onto the next plane. We eventually left London at 3pm (on the flight scheduled to leave at 8.30am) and arrived in Paris MUCH later than anticipated. We were collected by Florence, our very long suffering friend who had waited all day for us to arrive and we stayed in their Paris home for a few days to rest!! (Thanks Florrie & Arnaud, we had a wonderful time)

By the time we returned to Tchad, we were exhausted … next Christmas, after the MSI meeting in Amsterdam we plan to find a beach in the Greek Isles or to sit on a boat on the Nile River in Egypt …. As long as we don’t have to charge around the countryside with children and luggage every three days!

Returning to N’Djamena wasn’t so terrible .. the weather in January and February is really rather civilized (22 – 26 degrees C) My class has been changed from Grade 2 & 4 to Grade 1 & 2 which is a far more sensible mix (although I’m not sure that I am at all cut out for this age group!) Anyway, it is a lot easier for me as I can do a lot of things with both grades and I have more free time as the whole class goes off to French together!! I am, however, counting the days (6 weeks until the spring break and then another 7 weeks until school breaks up for the “summer “ holidays. I have officially resigned and will not be teaching next year (although there is a lot of politics going on at the school and I may have to volunteer to run the school if the current director does not return !! I am certainly a better (less frustrated / less intolerant) administrator than I am a teacher)

That’s next (school) year’s problem which, if I am fortunate, will not actually come to pass. My plans for next (school) year include sorting out my French, sorting out the school library on a volunteer basis (it is a disaster) getting fit and generally having a good time (just as an MD’s wife should!!) … My “payment” for organizing the library is to have access to the American embassy gym which is on the school premises but which I have no time to use at present. I may also do a little bit of consulting for World Vision (on a payment or non-payment basis )

But that’s enough about me… Tchad has lost a couple of visionary (and unusually honest) politicians in the last few weeks. The first was the telecoms minister who spoke fluent English, played the guitar etc and with whom Paul had a very good relationship (they shared a “seat” on that rather dangerous trip to Doba in the Hercules which I told you about in November!) Although it is not official (he had been sick for a very long time) everyone is convinced that he had contracted that unforgiving disease of Africa. It was very sad … we were going to invite him and his wife to have dinner with us at home a few weeks later.

Then the following week, Paul was woken up by the sound of crying at 4 am one morning. Thinking it was Guy , he went through to check on the kids, who were fast asleep. It turned out that during a rather violent dust storm which I had wheezed through that night a small aircraft had decided, contrary to advice from the control tower, to take the chance and land at the airport. As visibility was very poor, the pilot flew very low during the approach to the runway. They hit a tree on the Cameroon side of the Chari river (you could see the mangled plane from the garden of our friends from the World Bank) It took three hours for the French military and the Chaddian forces to reach the accident site owing to the plane coming down in a different country (it would have taken 1 minute by helicopter had they been able to just fly over the river but permission had to be given by the Cameroonian government first.) The two ministers on board (Messeurs Amin & Dadi) were very well respected by the international community and were a great loss to the government! The Dadi’s lived behind us and the crying Paul heard must have been Madame Dadi or one of her daughters. The thing is, they too were on the list to be invited to dinner at our house!

Death in this country is so common-place. I have lost count of the number of funerals our house staff have been to since we arrived here .. and they were all legitimate funerals. Did I tell you about the HORRIBLE blunder I made a few weeks after arriving in N’Djamena. Well, my French has improved considerable since those days…. Our cleaner, Martin , doesn’t speak good French and so from a communication point of view, we were a very bad match … it has gotten better!! One afternoon Martin told me that his son had lost a child ….and I, hearing that his son had had a child, said CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I think that he has forgiven me now but I felt sick for a week!!

On a lighter note, we went back to Wasa a few weekends ago, this time with the American Embassy staff and the Ambassador. What a difference … what took us at least an hour to get through the border the previous time, took all of 2 minutes. We also had an armed escort all the way to Wasa. I couldn’t believe the difference in the countryside! You may or may not remember that our last trip took place at the end of the rainy season and that the elephant-grass was at least 3 metres high! Well, everything was dry and brown this time… and while we saw more animals, we still didn’t see that many. We unfortunately missed the elephants … well, we did actually see them.. four large herds…just recognizable through binoculars in a part of the park which is not accessible by road! Again, the thing that struck me most was the bird life. This time around we saw hundreds of Maribou Storks hobbling around like old hunch-backed men in cloaks. We also saw a huge flock of pelicans including a nest containing some very hungry babies. All in all, we had a very relaxing time although we were a little annoyed that they had still not filled up their swimming pool.

On the return trip we decided to visit another Cameroonian town, Maroua (?spelling?)which had been recommended to us as a good place to buy things . Anyway, we were not overly impressed although our judgement may have become a little clouded by the fact that Guy chose this particular time to have the only serious case of gastro he has had since we arrived in francophone Africa. He also threw up on the way back to N’Djamena which, when you are enclosed in a small space, is not very pleasant (those of you who have experienced this will understand what I am saying and those who haven’t will, I’m sure, have no difficulty in imagining it … and be thankful that this is an experience they have managed to escape!) Apart from that, the return trip was uneventful … I even had the dubious pleasure of driving the worst part of the pot-holed road back to N’Djamena as Paul had an attack of post-prandial hypoglycaemia! ( he needed an after-lunch nap!!) Anyway, driving that road brought to mind an old Zimbabwean joke which could, just as easily be applied to Cameroon or Tchad or, for that matter, almost any other African country.:

How can you recognize a drunk Zimbabwean?

He’s the one who is driving straight!

Summer arrived in N’Djamena while we were in Wasa … temperatures jumped from a pleasant 27 degrees to a less pleasant 40 degrees in the space of three days! So we are condemned to sweat it out until the rains arrive in June!!! Many of the aid organizations (such as World Vision) are preparing themselves for a major food shortage this summer … rainfall last year was far less than it should have been (the Chari river didn’t flood as it usually does … a very bad sign) While it will affect us marginally as the price of basic foodstuffs go up, there are already people in Abeche to the far west of N’Djamena who are already suffering from severe malnutrition. I guess it is the story of Africa … when they do have good rains, they also have severe plagues of locusts and so, much of the food grown is destroyed. It must be very difficult to develop and grow economically when one spends so much of ones time worrying about where your next meal is going to come from.

Well, I think that I had better end this letter now … the kids are starting to beat each other up and the noise is making it very difficult to concentrate. I should like to promise that I will write again soon but I know how long you have had to wait for this letter and I have a new policy of not making any promises…. That way, you may get a surprise sooner than you think!

Best wishes to everyone

Love Paul, Fiona, Lauren & Guy.