No Foolin'

It may be "April Fool's Day," but it's no joke that over 2 weeks have passed since our last post!

Much has happened since mid-March so we will do our best to fill you in on the highlights.

On March 13th we boarded SIMAir's four-seater plane.  Two stops and nine hours later we landed on the dirt airstrip at AmTiman, Chad.

At first glance the scenery was nearly identical to Niger's desert landscape.

But as we greeted the TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) families who were awaiting our arrival, we began to notice slight differences.  Dianna quickly learned that women cover themselves differently and adapted her shawl to serve as a head/neck/shoulder covering.  On the short drive from the airstrip to the D family's home, we noticed that although most homes were built out of mud bricks similar to those in Niger, the buildings were round instead of square and there was not a smooth layer of mud covering the bricks.

Other differences:

Horses were fairly common

Camels were abundant

Women rode donkeys (side-saddled)

We were warmly welcomed into daily life of the TEAM families and greatly appreciated their taking great care of us during our stay.  Together we:

enjoyed St. Patty's Day treats,

baked in the brick oven,

shared evening meal (a weekly event after Friday group prayer),

visited a nearby village.

Gracie enjoyed exploring her new surroundings 

and playing with the other children while Dean and Dianna toured several important places in Am Timan.

Hospital

Christian school

Well drilling site

On our return trip, we started out by road on March 19th.  Two of the families living in Am Timan take quarterly trips to the capital, N'Djamena, in order to stock up on supplies (gas for stove, some food items) as well as for respite.

The journey was long, 16 hours (12 driving).  Usually the trip takes 10-12 hours, but one of the trucks had mechanical issues (roof rack unstable) that needed to be fixed en route.

The scenery made the long trip worth it.  We particularly enjoyed seeing the “mountains.”

There are many more details to share but are not able to post.  We look forward to sharing more with each of you (hopefully in person) in the future.

We thank you for your prayers leading up to and during this excursion.

Shortly after returning from Chad, we attended a conference in Maradi, a larger town in Niger that’s about 4 hours drive from Galmi.  Several other families (including the Carrigans) joined us, and we had a great time together.  Seasoned workers with SIM and the EERN church in Niger shared valuable information with us.  Topics ranged from maintaining spiritual health to language learning tips to SIM-church relations to sustainable agricultural techniques.  We returned to Galmi on Friday, March 30th, just in time for Saturday’s ice cream social!

So as you can tell, life is by no means uneventful for us here in the desert!  In fact, we just walked outside and saw CLOUDs in the sky, an uncommon sight this time of the year.  Always something new, exciting and unexpected!

We ain't foolin' --

DD&G