FROM N'DJAMÉNA TO ABÉCHÉ

After a few days in N`Djaména, the capital of Chad, we traveled across the country by bus to the city of Abéché were I will be staying and teaching at the Learning Center. Abéché is the fourth largest city in Chad, about 80,000 people, about 750 km from the capital, and about 180 km before the border of Sudan.

The Green circle is the Abéché ministry area

Four of us traveled by bus, the Center leader and three short-termers.  We left the bus station just after 6 am. The bus station was a commotion of Ruckshaws, food and product vendors, buses, passengers, motorbikes, goods being loaded and unloaded, security, with no apparent order to the crowded bustle. We were asked for our passports by some men dressed in white whom I would not have identified as men with the authority to ask for such papers but the Center leader assured us of their authority and we gladly complied.

This is not a picture of our bus. We traveled in a newer comfortable Chinese bus with air conditioning but no bathroom onboard. The bus was full and crowded. After a check of the main component for bus travel, a loud horn, we were on the way. The horn sounded at least once a minute and sometimes more often to warn motorcycles, other vehicles, passengers and animals that we were behind them and not slowing down. We zigzagged through goats, and cows, donkeys, and sheep and a few horses. We did have one encounter with a rather large turkey sized bird who was not fast enough to miss the front passenger windshield. The fellow sitting in front of the window got some glass in his eye and on his clothes but we kept on busing. A fellow passenger blew the glass out of his eye.

Pushing the windshield back in place and plugging holes with tissue.

We made two stops along the way, one for a bathroom break and the second for lunch. The bathroom break was in the middle of nowhere. Men went to the field on the right and the woman crossed the road to the field on the left. A few scrubby trees did not provide any privacy. Squat, use your robes as a temporary enclosure and do your business. Remember to use your left hand only. Luckily I was in no need to go to the bathroom but it was nice to stretch my legs. Blow the horn again four or five times and we are ready to keep busing to our destination.

We also stopped in a very small village for lunch but we had brought our own boiled eggs, hot dogs in a can, cheese, bread and water. Good to stretch out the legs. Then four or five blasts of the horn and we are on the move again.
We were given a nice cold soda to drink in the late afternoon and arrived around 5 o'clock in Abéché. As we were trying to find two Ruckshaws to take us to the center, along with all our luggage, we were asked for passports again.
I am grateful to God for the enjoyable trip across the beautiful raw country of Chad. I particularly enjoyed the mountains which have a very unusual shape and structure. Next week I hope to tell you more about the Center.

Amazing rock formations