Sunday, 21 February 2010

One of the neat things about living in Chad is that several of the local hotels let non-guests use their pools.  Most charge a fee and most, if you close your eyes, actually look and feel a little bit like outdoor pools at a U.S. hotel.  There is one hotel, however, that does not charge a fee.  It is about 1 hour out of town, along the river.  Yesterday (saturday) we took a little family trip to this hotel and had a great time.  Before we went, we decided to go to something called "Elephant Rock".  It is located by a rock quarry about 1 hour away from the hotel.  Now, as you've probably guessed, it is called Elephant Rock because it looks like an elephant.  I was a little bit skeptical.  But, I can confirm that it does, indeed, look like an elephant.  Pretty cool.  We spent about 90 minutes crawling in, over, and around this very big rock.  We discovered that the rock is home to quite a few bats and one of our group (we went with 2 other families) even found a monkey skull.  Cool.
 
This rock is literally out in the middle of nowhere yet by the time we left, I think there were 20 or 30 Chadians (mostly kids) "helping" us by guarding our cars.  They also talked to the kids a bit and laughed at us whenever we did something that they thought was funny.  (I'm usually not quite sure why they laugh at me since I don't think I'm doing anything funny, yet they do.  It's sorta the same thing when my kids laugh at me, too.)
 
So, to get to the rock we needed to travel the last few miles on dirt roads.  Well, actually they were more sandy road than dirt road.  At first, the going wasn't so bad but eventually two of us needed to put our cars in 4WD.  No problem.  After we finished with the sight seeing tour and had made it back to the paved road we stopped so I could get our Land Cruiser into 2WD.  (We drive a 10 year old LC and anyone who has ever driven one of these older models knows that getting it back into 2WD can be difficult and frustrating.)
 
Now, picutre this....  The paved road started right at a village.  So, we stop a few yards after getting onto the pavement.  As I try to muscle/finesse the car into 2WD we are slowly gathering a crowd of Chadian men.  After about 3 or 4 minutes one of our friends backs his car up along side ours and asks what's the problem.  So, I tell him that I can't get it into 2WD.  About that same time one Chadian reaches into my car and begins to tell me what I'm doing wrong and that if I'd pay him 2,000 Francs and move over, he'd have our car in 2WD in no time. 
 
You really need to get a good mental picture here....  Imagine a Beduin-looking man with his white (I mean, dirty white) turbin and "dress", dirty face and hands, and the blackest teeth I think I've ever seen sticking his head in my window telling me that he can get the car into 2WD.  Now, if your like me you're thinking, "The only thing this guy drives is a camel.  Why in the world would I let a guy who doesn't drive a car get into mine?  to drive it?  to "fix" it?"
 
So, after repeatedly telling him "No thank you" he slams my door (yes, he'd opened the door by now) and storms off.  I then continued with my efforts which proved ever so futile.  Eventually, my friend in the other car asks if he could give it a try.  I said, "Sure, go ahead."  So, now he gets into my car and as I'm standing next to my car the group of Chadians comes back.  Of course, they're lead by my good friend the Chadian Mechanic.
 
Well, Greg (my buddy) can't get it into 2WD either.  Mr. Goodwrench says, "Hey, scoot over, I can get this car into 2WD." Greg says, "Don't ask me, it isn't my car.  Ask him (and he points at me)".  This goes on for a few minutes.  I am, of course, telling my new best friend, "No".  Finally, Greg says, "What do you think, Steve?  Should we let him try?" Before I can get any words out one of my kids says, "Only if Greg stays in the car!" (Found out later that Gracey, who was sitting right behind me, was already visualizing how she was going to choke Mechanic Man if he tried to speed off with the car!)
 
I finally relented, Greg moved over, and the guy gets into my car.  He shuts the door, revs the motor, and then proceeds to make the car "convulse" (that's the only way I can describe it) by performing a combination of simultaneously putting the car in reverse, popping the clutch, and forcing the car from 4WD to 2WD.  This he did 3 or 4 times. 
 
OK, so I'm thinking, "We're doomed." Greg's thinking, "He's gonna ruin the gear box."  And, my kids are thinking, "This guy's gonna steal our car or kills us or both!"
 
At the end of the 4th time the car turned off.  I thought he'd killed the car.  Turned out that Greg reached over and turned the key because he'd was afraid the car was gonna be ruined.
 
Then, Greg and Mechanic Man start to argue a bit more.  During this, he restarts the car and points to the dashboard and says, "See, the 4WD light is no longer on.  The car's in 2WD!".  You know what.... he was right!  He had fixed it.  Unbelieveable. 
 
His next words were, "Give me my 2,000 Francs!"  I gladly paid the man.
 
This story is humorous, true.  But, it's also illustrative of how the Lord takes care of us.  He doesn't lack for anything and He can, when He so desires, even produce an uneducated, simple man who can get a 10 year old Land Cruise into 2WD.  Janice and I have a friend in Fergus Falls (Don Raun) who told us on many occasions that when he and his family were living here whenever they got into problems the Lord always (always without fail) provided something or someone who fixed or helped solve the problem.  The Bible tells us that He knows how many hairs we have on our head and that not one bird falls to the ground with Him knowing about it.  With a Lord like that, I shouldn't be surprised when helpful people "magically" appear out of thin air who can help us.
 
The lesson also is this:  I needn't be so "afraid" to accept help from strangers.  Just because I've never seen them before doesn't mean they can't help.
 
Hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into a typical day in good ol' Chad!

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