DAILY LIFE

Let me share a little bit about daily life here at the Center in Abéché, Chad. We usually get up around 5:30 am just after sunrise and about an hour after the first call to prayer has blasted from the loudspeakers of the two Mosques in our neighborhood. The call to prayer lets me know it will soon be time to get up. We also have African Ibis which make strange chicken sounds, and doves and roosters next door, so no alarm clock is needed. Some mornings we also have boys reciting verses from the Koranic school over the back fence.

First order of business is a trip to the bathroom. The toilet is a hole in the cement floor. A shower stall is next to it. When there are cockroaches running around I have learned to tap on the floor with my foot and the vibrations cause them to scurry back down the hole. Sometimes there are a number of flies and a constant ammonia-like smell.

"Toilet" and "washbasin". Watch out for those cockroaches

 Then outside to brush my teeth and wash my face. We do not always have city water. On average we get water every third day and not always with good pressure for showers. So we store water in 45 gallon barrels and take bucket showers. I have had the intense pleasure of three real showers with city water in the last two months.

Then I make my way to the kitchen to prepare a delicious cup of instant coffee and head back to my room for Bible reading and prayer through Operation World. Then I check emails from home, say "good morning" to Gloria, and after that have a time of personal prayer.

Each one of the team has a day when they are responsible for cooking. My day is Monday. We set the table for breakfast sometimes with eggs, or pancakes, or oatmeal, apple or banana, or Fangaso (a doughnut, double the size of a Timbit, fried in and dripping with peanut oil, which we dip into sugar mixed with cinnamon) but always French baguettes of bread, with marmalade, Nutella, mayanaise, peanut butter and honey. We cook on a two burner propane stove. We also use a solar oven to make cakes and breads.

Two burner propane stove

Solar oven with cake cooking

After preparing breakfast on Mondays I go to the market to get what I need to prepare lunch. We have no refrigerator so someone goes to the market everyday.

The last meal I prepared, rice with a white sauce and vegetables

We have a type of refrigerator called a Dowaane, which is a large clay porous jar that sweats out water and allows the breeze to cool down the water inside the jar much like body sweat cools down the body.

Dowaane is on left, jar for drinking water on right

On the other days of the week I am correcting homework and reviewing English lessons, reading, writing and doing some Bible study. On Tuesday morning at 6:30 am I have an Arabic lesson. Most of Saturday is used up preparing 8 English lessons for the following week and getting to bed early for walking to 8 am church the next day.

Cooler of Ice on left, purified water on right

The water in Abeche is drinkable but we also have purified water. Every day or two someone will go to the ice man and buy a cooler of ice. Two things I really miss are cold drinks and cold milk. We only have powdered milk. As we add water to the ice we can have some ice water to drink. I am drinking both city and purified water with no ill effects.

After classes, Tuesday through Friday, which end at 7:30, we usually gather in the kitchen for a light supper of lunch leftovers, cucumber, eggs, cheese or someone may make something such as an Avocado/Tomato spread. We have also been having watermelon on a regular basis because it is in season and very cheap. We eat well but have almost no junk food so I have trimmed down to 160 pounds.

After supper I am off to my room to check emails and say "good night" to Gloria. Then some evening devotions and in bed around 9.

Thank you for spending the week with me. Drop in anytime.

ABÉCHÉ LEARNING CENTER

 A JOY FILLED AND GRATEFULNESS FILLED THANKSGIVING TO ALL

The literacy level in Chad for French or Arabic is estimated to be anywhere from 35% (Mundi index 2014) to 54% (Operation World 2010) and considered to be one of the lowest in the world. Primary school attendance is about 50% and drops to 22% for high school (Unicef 2008-2012). At the Learning Center (Centre de Connaissance d`Abéché) we offer basic English classes and basic computer classes. Students join the classes to improve their work opportunities or with the hope of further education in an English context. Our desire is to empower these students with English but also to build relationships that may lead to spiritual discussions. Christian literature is also available at the center in French, English and Arabic should they want to read more about Christianity. There is also a library on site which anyone can join with books available in Arabic, French and English.

Sign at our front door

Let me give you a mental tour of the Center.

Sketch of Learning Center layout (not to scale)

The Center is enclosed in a bricked compound about 141 feet wide facing the street and about 216 feet deep. We are on a major paved street with a gate for cars and a door for entry into the compound. As you walk in the door there is a courtyard for parking vehicles and the library ahead with the generator in the left corner. A conference room is attached to the library as well as a small courtyard. To the right of the gate are the living quarters for the Chadian librarian and his family, who also carries out other duties for the Center. Beside the library building the classrooms and school office can be found and past the classrooms the living quarters for the teachers, the kitchen, and washrooms. Beyond the classroom building and beside the living quarters there is a small garden area.

Classrooms and office (taken from the garden area and facing the front gate and librarian`s residence)

Right side of living area (first door is my room) On other side of the small courtyard is the kitchen and other rooms and beyond the trees ahead are the bathrooms

On Thursday we spent the morning cleaning our classrooms in preparation for classes on Tuesday. It was hard work but a joy to work with others and to see the final results.

Dusting, sweeping and washing all four classrooms. In the background is the garden area and living quarters building

Saturday, we had registration for classes. Each of the 9 English level classes is limited to 15 students and the computer class is limited to 10 students. We had a total of 64 registrations.

Everyone was given a number and registered in order

Please pray for the teachers, Judith, Adrian, James and myself, and for the students and especially that this will be the beginning of a journey to spiritual life for some of these new students.