GOODBYE CHAD

 In a couple of days I will leave Chad and return to Canada after 4 months here. My time in Chad has been very positive and I feel especially to have developed spiritually by coming to know more of the Father's Love and recognizing more areas where the life of Christ rather than my sinful nature must rule.

I will miss my teammates and especially those I have lived with for four months - Adrian, Judith, Aphia, Katharina and Jill.

Adrian, Katharina, Judith and my shoulder as we pack 5 in a Ruckshaw. Aphia is in the front

Jill (team leader), Adrian, Katharina, Judith, and Aphia

I will miss my pupils whom I have come to love.

This is AD and AB

This is AT

This is M

I will miss the children I meet on the way to the store who want me to chase them and pretend I am catching them.

Children I chase on the way to Ibrahim's shop

I will miss the shop keepers along the way to the market

Aphia and I are visiting AB's shop. He is also one of my students

This shopkeeper always greets us and then sends us away with the blessing "que le Seigneur te benit"

Here is my back to Canada bucket list: 1) A long hot shower. 2) A large glass of cold, real (not powdered) milk. 3) A thick slice of juicy ham. 4) A cold can of Club Soda. 5) A bag of microwave buttered popcorn. 6) A thick slice of old Cheddar cheese. 7) A slice of soft bread with a thick layer of smooth creamy peanut butter. 8) A large plate of Swiss Chalet french fries with thick gravy. I will savor and appreciate all of these items as they remind me of the full satisfaction that only heaven and the presence of our Father in complete righteousness can bring.

Chad I love you but it is time for me to say goodbye. I leave you physically but you will always be on my mind and in my heart and especially in my daily prayers. I love you because of the people I have met - my teammates, my students, the people, the children on the street, and the shop keepers. I love you because of your weather and beautiful rough landscape. Although I have seen little of you I have heard of the beauty of your mountains in the North and the abundant harvests of the South. Your people are mostly happy and friendly and easy to love. Goodbye Chad. My hope for you is not for material riches but for the spiritual riches that can only be found in relationship to Jesus Christ. May God open your eyes and your hearts to the Great Lover of your soul, and may the Lord of the Harvest bless you with more loving, competent, praying Christian workers to show you the way to Jesus. Chad in loving you I have come to love all of Africa. I see your great physical needs, your government corruption, your abundant aid with little apparent effect. But I thank God that some of His people are willing to love and serve you on their knees, with their finances, and with willingness to live with you to serve you and to share with you life changing Good News. My hope is to rejoice with many of you in eternity. Until then Goodbye.

MARKET DAY

Every Monday it is my responsibility to cook the midday meal. This requires a trip to the market (usually with Aphia my cooking partner from Vanuatu) to pick up needed supplies such as tomatoes, lemons (the size of gold balls and not distinguished from limes), cucumbers (round and the size of cantaloupe), bananas, peanut butter paste (choice of brown or white), and perhaps a can of corn or peas.
This is not a tourist market. Abéché is not a tourist city. This is a practical, local, daily market. Most locals do not have refrigeration. We only have hydro in the city a few evenings in the week and anyone who needs regular hydro uses a generator. At the Center we use solar power for our hydro. So this market is a place for locals to shop daily for what they need. No nick-knacks or expensive baubles just the staples of life.

The market looks like a squatters village made up of many shelters of a roof woven from corn or millet stems held up by tree branches. This works well in the dry season when there is no rain. I can`t imagine market day in the rainy season with all the mud and these non-rainproof shelters. The government is in the process of building a brand new large market area made of cement buildings. It is nearly completed.

All you need can be found in the market or in the stores surrounding the market. From the staples like corn or millet flour to specialty items like spiced fried grasshoppers (crunchy and very spicy, the hardest part of eating them is the big bulging eyes looking at you and the thought of eating a grasshopper, I prefer popcorn). From goat or camel meat to live or dead chickens. From cucumbers to apples and carrots and mangoes. Dried and "fresh" fish and other assorted creatures.

Assorted flours and beans

Fried spicy grasshoppers

Fresh meat

Surrounding the market are various kinds of shops and craftsmen. From motorcycle repair shops to leather shops. From carpets to soap to canned goods. From pots and pans to tinkers. From dress makers to tailors to laundrymen. Along the way there are roving shoe/sandal repairmen, sellers of cigarets, plastic bags, trinkets and many other items.

Leather shop

Typical shop for canned goods and other items

Soap, chairs, carpets, cushions

Abéché has no malls but is serviced by many individual shops. There is no spirit of competition but each customer finds his/her preferred shop and uses it on a regular basis. I found the standard of honesty and friendliness. Often more product is added to the purchase in good faith of future purchases.

These watermelon sellers have claimed the corner of our street as their shop

A seller can set up shop most anywhere along the street. Many items are sold from tables set up on a street corner or along the road. A small stand of edible goods or drinks, or hand made items, or baked goods. Everyone works to earn their daily bread and so life goes on in Abéché and in Chad.

Going to the market in Canada is most often a weekly trip to pick up some fresh produce or flowers from the local farmers but in Chad is it regular daily life. Going to market means a leisurely walk with friends, meeting other friends along the way, greeting shopkeepers and security guards, encountering the smells and garbage, and the people we are here to serve. It means making new friendships. I love walking to the market with Aphia and Katharina. God has given them special favor with the people along the street to the market. There is a love there, a respect, as they greet each other and chat together. When I go down this street alone the shop keepers ask me "where is Katharina today, how is Aphia"? Going to market has led to giving out literature and visits to the Center to deepen relationships. I cannot imagine Jesus doing ministry in today's Canada but can imagine him going to the market with his disciples and relating to those he met along the way. Perhaps what we need in our modern world is more of a market day mentality of relating to one another and less of our present shopping mall consumer crazed mentality. Perhaps our advanced society is not so advanced after all!