Starting out 2024

This photo has nothing to do with the blog but it is from our visit to Festival Dary,
a Chadian Festival that celebrates Chad. It is a lot of fun if you go on a day where there are no riots.

It’s a new year, and some new year miracles are happening—first, I’m writing this instead of doing some other useless thing. Second, my priority checked bags actually both arrived nearly first off the plane in N’djamena and I got out of the airport before almost anyone else. Manon and Joe were waiting in the car to pick me up. Pika continues to hate car rides unless she knows we are going to buy some goat meat for her dinner. Ziggy was not invited along because she is very mad at Manon for getting another kitten and keeps trying to attack her. Now Zig sleeps with me and stays exclusively in my house. Manon is sad, but those are the consequences for getting a kitten that can walk and chase mice. The consequences of keeping Zig mean she is constantly falling into the dogs’ water bowl and knocking her food all over the kitchen but she is so cute.

Manon's new kitten

Zig is unimpressed by her new neighbor

I’ve already had one visit here in Chad, which I thought was going to be fairly easy and painless. My boss, his son, and 2 new colleagues were coming. Well, the woman colleague’s plane was canceled due to the snow and she couldn’t make it. This was sad to me because I’m almost always the only girl here, and it would have been fun to have another one along. It was also sad because she was bringing me her winter clothes to wear on my trip to Antarctica. Yes—I’m going there next week. 

Excited to eat grilled camel meat

I turn 40 this year, which is an age I always thought was SO OLD as a kid. Probably because when I was a kid, it was en vogue to throw grave yard parties with black balloons and “over the hill” signs for people who turned 40 and we had a lot of those parties for my parents and others of their expat friends. My life did not follow the traditional plan where I am now married with several children who will give my old age purpose and visitors and black balloon parties, but I think I should embrace the things I did end up with—flexibility and freedom to travel. So I have one more continent to visit to “collect them all,” and I’m heading there next week inshallah!

I also get to embrace these 3 things that do not particularly like being embraced.

Anyway, back to this most recent trip…

I picked up the guys and we went to visit projects in Dourbali. Everything went fairly smoothly except that the night we spent in Dourbali we ended up taking a woman to the hospital who was in a minor motorcycle accident. My diagnosis is that she made herself hysterical, but was actually not badly injured at all. It is a good thing I am not a doctor because I have no bedside manner. I let Matt drive her to the hospital because it is the greatest joy of his life to drive in Chad when roads aren’t paved. I ended up driving back to the hospital later that night to pick her up when she was discharged because Matt was already asleep. I got in bed around midnight that night.

BTS of a Matt video in front of a terrible water source.
Good news: a well is being drilled in this village right now!

The next day we visited another village and they insisted on us riding camels and horses into the village as they celebrated. Matt and I rode the horses since we’ve ridden plenty of camels in the past and let the others ride the camels. I’m not a fan of horses much but these ones were fine, except it is awkward to ride astride in a dress. I’m glad to see people happy to have clean water, but I do feel awkward in those types of celebrations. People here get a kick out of it, so I try to have fun with them. 

The presented us with camel milk, which I told Matt to pretend to drink. He did well.
The kid's sign is asking for education for children in the village,
sadly that is not something we do, but I hope that there will be a school in this village someday.

Anyway, all was well. The visit went well. Jeff drove back some of the way until we got to the paved roads and had a great time. I took everyone for pizza back in N’djamena. They’d all done so well eating the Chadian food and enjoying it, so I always reward people with pizza after that trip.

The next day I went to pick up the guys from the hotel to take them to breakfast. Matt and Nathan were there, but Jeff didn’t come. I went inside to find him, knocked on his door and he appeared in his underwear with a miserable look on his face. He had diarrhea and vomiting all night and was still going. I said to rest and I would come back later with meds. Matt, Nathan and I went on to the French bakery for some nice pastries. Then we went to my house to drop off their bags so we could go see the hippos. I called Claire for medical advice, she gave me the names of meds to get and Abiner went off to find the meds. Then I got a call from Jeff. He said, “The police are here and they are wanting to arrest me. I don’t know what to do.” I told him to pass me the phone and had the following conversation:

Me: “The nasara is sick and I left him there to rest. I’m coming back to pay for the rooms. Please leave him alone so he can rest.”

Police: “We know he is sick. We don’t want to cause problems for him, but there is a problem at the hotel. We are arresting everyone. Can you come get him?”

I live 5 minutes away so I hopped in the car and went to get him. 

Probably one of the last times Jeff was smiling in Chad.

I get there and the place is crawling with military, police and tons of people. People are carrying out lamps, sheets, food, mini refrigerators, and it is mass chaos. I go inside and find the nice guy from reception and make sure he is not about to be arrested. He assures me he is fine, but the owner of the property and the Chinese renter (it is the Hotel Hong Kong) are having a spat about the rent and the Chadian owner took the Chinese renter to court over it and they were currently there and fighting it out. So everyone has to leave. Not as bad as I had thought, but I guess if you can’t speak the language and stuff is coming out both ends and police bang on your door you would think that is pretty bad. Jean from reception said, “Do you mind if I get your bill to you later? Everything is a bit unorganized right now.” He was not wrong.

I brought Jeff back to my house where Antani had graciously cleaned my room up nicely for him, but he collapsed on my very uncomfortable small sofa instead and insisted he was fine and didn’t want to move. I brought him a pillow, made him take some meds and drink a sprite and then we went off to go see hippos.

Matt and Nathan were excited to see the hippos, but we made the mistake of putting everyone in the same wooden canoe and we nearly sank while paddling to the little island where the hippos were sleeping. They also didn’t want to go closer because hippos are a little scary. Before we made it to the island, Matt kept trying to get us to go back, but the guys refused, probably because turning around would have tipped the boat for sure. Both Matt and Nathan’s shoes were soaked, which I felt bad about because they were flying out later that night, and it isn’t fun to travel with wet squishy shoes. Matt said the hippos were not worth the boat trip, but we got two canoes to pick us up and the trip back to shore was not bad. Nathan said he enjoyed it anyway. Chad weather came through for us and their shoes were dry by the time we walked back to our truck.

See? They didn't sink!

Then we spent some time buying soccer jerseys for Matt’s other kids and finally we got back to my house to check on Jeff. I noticed he was no longer on the couch, so I went into my bedroom where he was sleeping on my bed. I congratulated him for moving to a more comfortable location. (Really the only people who like to sit on my couch are Joe, Pika and Ziguégué). He said, “I think your couch is like a futon or something because it folded up.”

It is not a futon. He just was too big for it and it collapsed. Fortunately Manon has an extra couch in our storage room and she let me take that while Matt tried to find enough straight nails in our nail jar to fix my old one. I like the new couch better anyway, but I need to buy new cushions for it because my ones are too small.

My new couch will look like this once I get cushions that are the right size.

Jeff skipped our late lunch/early dinner too, but perked up for souvenir shopping before heading to the airport. (Dr Claire saves the day for the neverthirst team again. She says, “I always know to keep my phone by me when you have a neverthirst team here.” And Matt says we need to keep her on retainer. Honestly, she has even helped with medical advice when I’ve been in Niger, Ethiopia, and Uganda even.) Their flight was delayed again, but I think everything else has been ok because I’ve not had any other messages from them. I doubt Jeff will ever want to come again to Chad, and now I need to find another go-to hotel, but otherwise it was a mostly successful trip. I’m happy to say that I think Nathan had a good time, so at least we are passing good memories on to the next generation.

Another recent visitor--cute little CODA.
His hands are blurred because he is trying to sign to me.

Now I’m sitting under my fan in my room typing this and feeling very cold as Pika licks my legs for no reason. I am happy that the warm clothes I ordered on Amazon made it to Debbie’s house so that I can have some warm clothes for Antarctica because if I’m cold in these clothes under the fan, I’m not going to be ok hanging with the penguins without some extras.

Pika is unsure of these chili lemon gummy bears, but I love them.
Thanks to my niece and nephews for the Christmas present.

So I can say I posted on the blog in 2023

It’s been a very long time since I have written on the blog. The only excuse is extreme laziness. People keep asking me about it. And some people have even said, “Oh this will end up on your blog for sure!” And I feel bad because nothing has ended up on my blog at all recently. This is concerning because I write the blog so that when people tell me to write my memoirs, I can just send them to the blog, but if there is no blog that means that someday I might actually have to write them. I guess I could just use the laziness excuse again.

Fun time in Kenya

Well, here are some short recaps on various things that have happened to me this year, which I’ve been told should show up on the blog:

My parents came to visit me! It was their first time in Africa, and they opted to fly via Addis Ababa, one of a few options on the way to N’djamena. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out we arrived right before Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas, which is just after not Ethiopian Christmas and not Ethiopian New Year. Ethiopian Airlines did not manage increased amounts of baggage well. One guy told me he brought 15 pieces of luggage with him. We each only had one suitcase, but none of them came for 3 days. My mom and I had decided to go for comfort over fashion for the trip. My dad drove me crazy in all the airports as he slowly and methodically took off his belt and shoes at each security check (fortunately this time he did not bring a pair of scissors in his carry on—he did forget his covid vaccination card again, but we had a photo so it was fine), but he looked decent in all the photos. Mom and I looked…comfortable but not fashionable. We were just about to go buy new clothes when all my contacts who I had roped in to help us find the bags managed to pester the right people into finding the suitcases. We got them the day before we went on to Chad, so that was lucky for us.

5am in the airport, looking as good as most people do at 5am in the airport 

Lost bags in Addis International

Other than the bag stuff, we had a great time in Addis, visiting my friends and trying the food. I forgot that injera is somewhat of an acquired taste and that my parents’ tolerance for spicy food has decreased with age and distance from Indonesia, but they liked most of the food anyway.

With Moussa and Alala in Chad

In Chad we crammed into my tiny house full of happy dogs and plenty of sand. I had so many friends to visit and we drove out to Dourbali to spend the night chez Moussa as well. My dad had promised to paint a mural on the wall of his church building. He’d spent weeks designing it and running it by Moussa who had opinions. The final design was chosen, my dad did an official picture, using all the good colors and framed it up nicely too for a present. When we got to Dourbali, he threw his back out trying to push the truck out of a sand pit even when I told him not to. Then he was in agony for several days until the medicine Claire prescribed fixed him up again. Fortunately, he was still able to get the outline of the mural up on the walls—with two of Moussa’s pastor friends holding him up.

Holding up my Dad as he draws

Not bad for a guy who can't stand up on his own

A local church member colored the mural. I have a full photo of it somewhere, but couldn't find it.

The other highlight of the trip for my parents (besides meeting a million people I talk about all the time, telling me how much nicer Claire’s house looks than mine, and eating pain au raisin at Amandines) was visiting the hippos in the river. Dad told me he really wanted to see some cool African animals and apparently Joe and Pika don’t count. We got to see a big group of hippos just a few meters away from us. Then we went to Kadessou’s house where his wife had prepared a huge feast and he gifted a giant Massa shield to my dad. It was an epic day for Dad who was actually walking around unassisted by that point, thanks to Claire Bedford, PhD (pharmacist Doctor). Mom was tough and feisty the whole trip and went on extra visits while Dad was convalescing in bed with Joe keeping him company and Pika guarding the door.

Taking photos of hippos, with Mom walking slowly in the background,
wearing my clothes.

Hippos!

Mom with Nadji and family, while Dad convalesced chez moi

With the Massa shield

I was a bit concerned about the Massa shield making it all the way to America. It would have been destroyed as toxic waste if my parents were Australian because it is made out of local grass and wood, but I was mostly concerned about they allowing it as checked baggage. Fortunately, due to my consistent presence in Hassan Djamous International Airport, people know me there and I talked my way inside (normally illegal without a boarding pass) so I could get it wrapped in plastic and checked with their other bags. 

My airport friends who like that I speak Arabic gave me their badge so I could go inside with my parents.

Supervising the wrapping of the shield.
It made it all the way to Nashville!

After that visit, I was traveling every few weeks: within Chad, Niger, Uganda, DRC, Jordan. and Madagascar. Madagascar was for fun…a friend who doesn’t want to be named and I needed a bit of beach time and relaxing fun. Fortunately, said unnamed friend is a wonderful organizer and all I had to do was buy my ticket and keep her going until she could get to the trip date because she was exhausted and overworked. 

I thought I would catch up the blog after my parents left, after the Niger trip, after the Uganda/DRC trip, after the Jordan trip, after the Madagascar trip, but it’s months later, I’ve been on the Kenya trip and the Cambodia trip and the Ethiopia trip, and I still haven’t managed to pull it off. 

Niger/Chad travels

Some of my favorite South Sudanese in Uganda

Rolex with Philip on the way to DRC

Sunrise on the Nile #nofilter

Went to Jordan for work, but got to see old friends and their 4 kids
(they didn't have the kids back when we lived in Lebanon together years ago)

Reunited with my Arabic teacher in Jordan
(2007 pics below and present day above)

Good times with my favs in Kenya

❤️

Zip-lining with the Chad and Niger guys in Kenya

Work hard/play hard at neverthirst

I did not get many photos in Cambodia.
Ok-I got a lot of photos, but most are close ups of food, not interesting for other people.

Ethiopia fun

I feel like I should call it a Year Off from Blogging because I am very unmotivated and also very lazy and always tired. I’ve accepted the fact that I am aging rapidly and my body is just not capable of all the activities that used to be so easy for me—typing things on the computer, eating 6 bags of gummy bears for dinner, not having back issues.

I did finally decorated my living room, thanks to birthday presents from friends,
 after all the pointed comments from my parents.

For my birthday we also went kayaking and ate lots of cake

I had all the best of intentions to write about each trip. I also meant to write about my kayaking birthday celebration, our new kitten, watching Biola and Bukola’s kitten for them for a few weeks, the river clean up project we started, all the fun adventures I’ve had with my new group of deaf friends who are patiently teaching me Chadian sign language. Fortunately Chadian sign language is closely related to American Sign Language since it was an American missionary who brought deaf education to Chad (among other African nations). I would tell you to go look up Andrew Foster on the internet because he was a very interesting man. Because I’m super nice, here is a link to his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Foster_(educator).

They patiently help me learn new signs

Abiola and Bukola before they popped over to Nigeria for a few weeks. Kitten not pictured

We're paused for rainy season because the river is so high,
you can't get down to the shore anymore because the shore has come to us.

Road trip with Antani and kids and friends.
13 people in my truck!

Boat trip with Kadessou

Probably most of the funny stories would have been about our brain damaged cat, Ziguégué. We, using the internet in the way it was intended, have diagnosed her with cerebellar hypoplasia, which is literally brain damage. It means she walks like she is drunk, turns lots of accidental somersaults, and makes Manon and me laugh a lot. She also is deeply in love with both dogs, especially Pika, and loves to try to jump on her and attack her tail. Pika does not find this as amusing as Manon and I do.

We got her when her eyes were still closed and fed her
yoghurt and evaporate milk with a syringe.

Antani, Abiner, Joe, Pika, and Zig came with me to the airport for one of my trips.
I had Barka drive because he told me had a license. That is when I found out he doesn't
know how to drive a stick. So I yelled "embrayage" (clutch) when I needed him to push it with his foot
and shifted gears for him with my hand. Then I called Mariassou to pick them up.
I have high hopes that Barka will learn how to drive manual transmission soon.

I’ve also discovered that my Chadian friends do not respect the names I’ve chosen for my pets. For several years, Joe has been known around the neighborhood as “Gane Gueye”. Initially I thought they were calling him “Danaby” because of his beautiful tail (it's hard to hear on the street while walking the dogs), but they said they want to call him Gana Gueye because Joe is a cool dog and Idriss Gana Gueye is a cool Senegalese footballer. I’m fine with that because I am a fan of the Senegalese team. 

Moussa decided a long time ago to call Pika “Kakilé”, a Fulfulde word meaning something like “beware of the dog.” It does suit her until you get to know her and realize all she wants is to unconditionally love you and lick your feet or arm for about 20 minutes while you’re watching a movie (or Le Bureau des Légendes with Manon and me).

She did not appreciate being a fake wet nurse for Zig.
This may be partly why Pika runs away whenever Zig gets too close.

And Antani has been calling Ziguégué “Karambani,” which she says is Ngambaye for someone who is always getting into things (she thinks—she isn’t Ngambaye, but the Ngambayes are proud of their language and it has been incorporated into a lot of Ndjamena slang). It is apt. I’ve been told by others that it is actually Chadian Arabic. I think that is more likely as it is one of the 4-5 languages that Antani speaks. Ziguégué, for the record, is Chadian Arabic for a small gift or snack. People were concerned if we called her that then the dogs would think she was fair game to chew on, but they have never once come close even to biting her (though they’ve growled at her when she has bitten their tails/legs and tripped over them when they’re eating). This was unexpected because there is a cat that hangs out on our roof that they hate passionately. They’ve tried so hard to jump on to the roof, using the fire of their fury, and chomp its head off, but they’ve not managed that just yet.

She's a music lover

Zig and I like the stringed instruments

Happy playing together

And here I am, back from yet another trip since I started writing this but not having finished, and then Claire mentioned again that I’ve not written on my blog in a while (true) so I went back to read over when I wrote. And I’m thinking it’s good enough for now…There are things that happened that haven’t been mentioned, but if you want to imagine my life, bref—it’s crazy amounts of travel, visiting people and places I enjoy, eating all my favorite foods from those places (shekela tibs, rolex, klichi), having meetings that are sometimes productive, filming lots of videos for neverthirst donors… interspersed with a few weeks at home, working on the computer, taking Hausa lessons when the internet is working (as I write this it is not working, which is why I’m actually finishing this but how will I post it?), playing with my dogs and cat, watching French tv shows with Manon, helping Sabit and my deaf friends learn a bit of English, trying to speak better French so I can be nice to Manon who really appreciates when I bother to use the subjunctive tense, hanging with Claire chez moi when she needs to get away from the hospital, making Thai food with Antani during a rainstorm, running slowly around my neighborhood remembering when I used to be young and fast, plotting the downfall of the Cameroonian bar next to my house, which has started having weekend parties that go from 3pm to 5-6am (unacceptable), taking my friend’s kid to the French bakery near our houses and filling her up with chocolate ice cream, eclairs, and cake and then sending her home…anyway, it’s not a bad life.

I did not take this photo. It was in the news when a hippo decided to trot down the street,
and the military came out to make sure no one died.

I'm so lucky to have Manon as a neighbor because not only will she
pick me up from the airport, correct my French without laughing (sometimes),
get arrested with me when we go out looking for hippos on the river, but she also
accepts all the pathetic animals I bring home unquestioningly and even helps take care of them.

Pre-Eid visits with Pastor Moussa

My favs who I always visit on holidays.

I was Claire's plus 1 at the coronation party for Charles at the British Embassy

Post-spilling chocolate ice cream all over her dress, 
we played with Zig at my house.

Non-Massas at the Massa Festival

I should probably write a blog post about the cat next...