Yeah! From Steve himself!

From Thursday (12/4/2008) to Wednesday (12/10/2008) we went to Doh where some friends live. You won't find it on any map of Chad becuase it is a very small village along the Chari River south and east of N'Djaména. To get there we drove for about 3 hours on a nicely paved road, then for another 3 hours on a decent dirt road. All told, the car ride was about 6 hours long and not unpleasant at all. The kids were great and the Chadian rest stops are out of this world!

Once the dirt road ends, we had to pile out of our car and into a motor boat for a 20 minute boat ride to the other side of the river. Then, after traversing the river, we took a 40 minute ox cart ride to their village. What an adventure! (and that was only the first day!!!) For the next 6 days our days were filled with meeting the people of the village (the men and women did this separately for that is the culture of the muslim inhabitants), playing games, killing lizards with sling-shots, walks to the river, and just hanging out. Our nights were filled with cool evenings, bon fires, movies, and games. Most of the kids slept outside on cots covered with mosquito netting. Believe it or not it got so cold at night we actually put blankets on! Yes, down into the 70's. Yikes!!!

I found the men to be extremely warm and welcoming. Everywhere we went we were given hot sweet tea or hot sweet milk and food, lots of food. I'm sure we ate better than most of these people normally eat. We had meat at every meal. Sometimes, we'd eat 2 or 3 times per day at these little informal social gatherings. We even spent some time with the village chief who wanted to meet me. At one point he even appologized for his country's lack of nice things. I replied that it was ok since I found the people to be the best feature of the country.

I was laughed at quite a bit because I don't speak their language (Fufulbe) so every conversation was "funny" as the men would busily discuss something about me or my family amongst themselves and my friend Dan and then he'd tell me what was said, etc. I was pretty popular because we have so many kids. They were impressed by that for sure but what was most impressive to them was the fact that all 10 kids came from just one wife. They couldn't believe that!!! I even had an offer from one man for Gracey. Apparently at 13 years old, white, and with red hair she was/is irresistable. I said she's not available.

During one of our visists Dan showed the men a 1 dollar bill. He explained who George Washington was and why he is on the bill. After that, I told Dan to tell the men that after his 2nd term in office George essentially turned down an offer for a 3rd term (which amounted to becoming King) because he just wanted to go home and live a peaceful life. They couldn't believe it. In their culture, power and prestige are very important and one way to get both is to be a leader, a chief. They couldn't figure out why anyone wouldn't want that.

While we were there I even managed to give all the kids a motorcycle ride on Dan's Yamaha. And, both Alex and Payton learned how to ride one solo. Each learned quickly (in a bout 10 minutes) and said they had a great time doing it. Payton remarked, "Man, there's a lot you've got to remember." We are so thankful for our time there. Life there is really so much different than here in N'Djaména. Even here we have many conveniences of "home" whereas there there aren't many: no electricity, no car, intermittent cell phone, no other english speakers, etc. It surely gave us a new appreciation of our situation here and how we are living in relative ease and comfort. It was very humbling, for sure. Other than this report nothing much is going on around here. Everyone is healthy and the work here keeps on moving along. I am extremely busy as there aren't enough hours in the day to do what I need to do but my attitude is, "I get done what I get done". In other words, I set no goals for each day and just take each one as it comes at me and our family.

Thanks for the prayers and the support.

sf