Defeated

A few months ago I had a day when Chad defeated me. It was miserable hot here. I know people assume that it always is, but there are different levels of heat and this was a top level. My AC doesn’t work well (some may say that it doesn’t work at all, but I get hopeful sometimes), so I had fans on me (yes multiple fans) and every time I got up to leave the vicinity of the fans, I felt warning prickles in my skin before sweat immediately started pouring. Also upon getting up there was always a puddle of sweat wherever I had been sitting, on the other side of my body from the fans. The power was rarely on for a full day and almost never on two consecutive days. We were constantly having to use the generator, which means we were constantly having to put fuel in it and also repair it because it was always breaking down. Our generator uses diesel, which was a problem because there were constantly diesel shortages around town, which also affected my truck because it uses diesel too. 

In my mind, I'm really tall. Then I see photos like this.

When you’re constantly hot and sweating and can’t get away from the misery of it, you’re often also cranky—not just us weak foreigners either, because no one is immune to these temperatures. So hot, sweaty, cranky and of course—covered in dust because this is the Sahel.  

There was one particular day when I needed to leave the house to go take a kid to the hospital for a surgery he desperately needed that I’d promised to arrange for him. He and his father had come in from a rural village in the area where we have been doing water projects. The boy had a tumor on his genitals that had been there for years, slowly growing. He’d come into the city to get help once, but it was when the hospitals were on strike. Disappointed and discouraged, the family had given up on finding help for him. Fortunately, hospitals are not on strike anymore. We were able to find surgeons who could help him, and they told me that the tumor was from a parasite similar to the Guinea worm (look that up if you want nightmares) and he got it from dirty water. This was a good reminder to me of all the secondary consequences of lack of clean water—not only thirst and dysentery but tumors caused by parasites. And I don’t have to look up horrifying pictures on the internet because Chadians, made of sterner stuff than I am, love to send me scary photos of tumors and stab wounds and infections, which I am totally unqualified to do anything about so I call Claire usually. Although now sometimes I ask Manon, who worked on an ambulance in France. She is my neighbor living in the other house in my compound, from France, but as anti-French sentiment is high here, we are telling people she is from near Geneva (true) and letting them assume she’s Swiss. She’s wonderful anyway, and Joe, Pika and I love to have her around. Anyway, all of that was beside the point…

This kid was so tough and stayed so cheerful.

I taught him to make origami frogs and jump them into cups.

Everyone loves Manon, especially Joe and Pika

Back to the story, I was hot, sweaty, cranky, and needed diesel for my car and the generator (because we had no electricity). I had to pick up the kid to take him to the hospital that evening and was supposed to give blood too (O negative for the win!) though that got canceled because they ended up having enough. I decided to go out and get diesel, but I had to go by the ATM to get cash first. So I loaded Joe up in the truck (he loves a car ride) and went out to go run my errands, but there were workers outside digging a trench between the paved road and the dirt road that I live on. In order to get anywhere from my house, I need to get out to the paved road because the other side of my neighborhood is a river. I asked the guys what they were doing and how long it would take, and they grunted something about an internet cable (which if it HAS been put in, I have not benefited from it at all) and that they have no idea when they would finish. I wasn’t very nice to them, and then I was mad at myself for not being nice when they were doing manual labor in the hot sun probably while fasting (it was Ramadan). I went around the block to get to another road out, but I could see them digging that way too, so I realized that I needed to finish my errands quickly or I would get stuck. I dashed to the ATM, but there was no cash. I went to another one. Also no cash. I went to the fuel station—no diesel. I went to another one—no diesel. I’m now very low on fuel in my truck and have no money and I’m still hot and sweaty and cranky and now I’m also worried about getting back into my house. I decided to run back to my house so I didn’t get stuck outside with Joe. I made it back in from one block further down. 

Pika knighting Joe as Lord High Defender of the Compound against the Roof Cats

I parked my truck and let Joe out and then vented to our guard about how I’m now stuck—no money, no diesel, no way out of the neighborhood and what am I going to do? I said to him, “Chad has defeated me today!” 

Great to have a brother like this guy!

But then because I still had to get stuff done, I called my people. I called Mariassou to pick me up outside on the paved road to take me to an ATM. He came. He drove me around. We found zero (0) ATMs with cash. He took me to the office where Kadessou loaned me some money. I called Djibrine who can always find any random thing I ask him for to bring me some diesel. He popped over to my house with a jerrycan full of diesel he got from God knows where and helped me fill up my truck. He had extra for the generator. I now had money to pay him. He also brought me a roasted chicken with fried potatoes and hot sauce because he knows I love it and he likes me. 

Djibrine, looking like he's posing for Chadian GQ

We visited on the Eid and had lots of amazing food and fun.

Later that day the trench was covered over and I was able to get out and take the boy to the hospital where the nurses were very kind and friendly to him and his father, both of whom are completely illiterate and couldn’t even read the number on the door of their hospital room. Nesie and I sorted food and blankets for them. While we were there, Abiner and Sabit took Joe and Pika for their afternoon walk, without which they annoy everyone by running around the yard barking all night. 

Sabit takes such good care of my dogs

Manon, treating a foot wound Joe acquired in his eternal fight against the roof cats.

Since this blog is usually about funny things that happen or adventures I get to have, I thought it might be honest to admit that, while I do love living in Africa, I’m not always as tough as I hope you think I am. But as I look back on the craziness of that day, and how annoyed I was at everything and how I felt defeated by Chad and frustrated with how difficult it was just to do basic things, I realized that even when life in Chad sucks sometimes, I’m lucky to be there because I get to be with my wonderful Chadian friends who are Family to me—picking me up, loaning me money, bringing me diesel and chicken, walking my dogs. And the truth is that life is hard—here and everywhere else too. I have no regrets living here, even when I’m just a weak, whiny white girl. I’m thankful for the people I have around me who are always there for me and I’m thankful that I get to be here for them too sometimes.

Chad

Antani loves Joe enough to let him come into her house when we stop by to visit.
And Joe expects nothing less because he thinks he is a human and why should he wait in the car?

Antani prepared food for Joe as an honored guest since he doesn't take tea.

Spoiled dogs owned by one spoiled nasara.
Anina jalhaneen! Nous sommes vraiment gâtés.