Notes from Chad #4 - Washing and Other Things

Mary-Ann is in charge of our washing. Every morning there is a big pile of clothes in the corner. At the beginning of the week she collected 500f ($1.00) from each of us. This is the going rate for one day of washing. The lady that is doing our laundry complained that this was not enough. Sara simply explained that she could wash our cloth for 500f and be through by noon or she could go and work all day in the rice fields for 300f. We have not had a problem since. Although, Mary-Ann tells me they have a system worked out. The lady washes and rings then hangs the clothes on the fence. Then Mary-Ann comes along and rings more of the water out.

We had chili and fried apple pies last night. The pies are an ode to Rhonda’s Kentucky heritage. There are no apples here in Tchad. I explained to Solomon, through Sara, that they could be made with any fruit. I will leave the left over apples that we had dried and brought with us here so they can have them later. Solomon is making lunch today with the donated squash that we had left over, potatoes, rice and eggplant. I'll need to go check on him soon to make sure there is enough food for our group. He says that he has never cooked for so many. This morning I fixed biscuits, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs. There is a possibility that we may go to Cameroon on Monday. Job, the conference guy in NDJ, is working on it now. We gave him our passports on Sunday. He took then back to NDJ. He says he has a friend in the Cameroon embassy that might be able to work it out for us. Solomon just came over to James and Sara's where I am to ask how to fix the eggplant. I have no idea what he said, but I think we agreed to fix 5 of them however he usually does it. I am sure that he has cooked a lot more eggplant than I ever have.

I went with the groups doing rounds (Ken, Cindi, Micky, and Sara). There are about 15 patients in the maternity ward. Between each patient Ken washes his hands in a little basin while someone else pours water over his hands. The boy that had a section of his small intestines removed sat up for the first time today. Micky helped him up and he walked to the yard to lie on a grass mat. After the surgery they did not give him any pain medication. This little guy had a 9 inch incision down his belly with no pain medicine, not even Tylenol. Micky gave him a back massage while he was sitting up on his mat. Sara called me over while she changed the dressing on an 8 year old boy that had an operation a month ago. It was something about a bone infection. He comes every day to have it changed. When she was through she drew a horse head on both of his hands. He was happy for this.

Last night we sang happy birthday to Rhonda, my wife. She’s back in Florida. The sun is shining brightly and it is warn. A chicken is squawking loudly outside. I believe it is his last moments of life.

Bye for now.
DJ and the Béré bunch