10 days in Chad
if it can go wrong, it will go wrong!
The start to our time in Chad has been anything but straight forward. In recent months people coming into the program have been able to obtain an entry permit at the airport that was later turned into a visa, on the Wednesday before our departure we were informed that this procedure is no longer allowed and we would need to get a visa from either Paris or Brussels. As Paris required 3 working days to obtain and we were due to fly out to Chad early Tuesday morning we opted for Brussels and after a few phone calls to the Embassy ( a good chance for Matt to revise his French) we had an appointment to obtain a visa in one day, on Monday. Thankfully everything went smoothly for Matt and he made it back from Brussels with all four visas ready to meet us at Heathrow on Monday evening. For Matt it worked well as he got to avoid travelling to Heathrow with two small children, two car seats, eight pieces of checked luggage and a plethora of hand luggage items and teddies!
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| Chadian Embassy in Brussels |
Arriving on Tuesday evening it felt like we hit the ground running, in fact most of our luggage did hit the ground as the porters at the airport insisted on piling two trolleys high with all our belongings and no amount of telling them we would rather take some ourselves made any difference. Even boxes falling 6ft to the ground every time the trolley hit a bump didn't stop them completing the task they had set themselves! To our surprise the rest of the terminal experience was very first-world - no long queues, clean air conditioned arrivals area and efficient staff made for a pleasant journey to the awaiting MAF team.
Due to time constraints of the visiting training captain, my initial flight checks all had to be completed within a week of arriving so Monday and Tuesday were to be busy days for me, with three flights practicing skills, remembering procedures and getting my head around the Chadian radio, followed by a base check (a flight where all those skills are tested). This turned into two further busy days when it was realised that the pilot who was supposed to do my second flight check a few weeks later wouldn't be able to do it so that also needed to be fitted in. Coupled with a technical problem with the engine, which resulted in a hole appearing in the cowling, this meant it wasn't until Thursday morning that all the flight tests were completed, just in time for the visiting pilot to make his international return flight home.
Meanwhile at home things had also not been straight forward. On the Saturday evening we noticed a little bit of a leak in the bathroom, which quickly became a flood when the leaking pipe snapped in half. While Matt got one of our neighbours to help him locate the cut off valve, Bethan came to help me, slipped on the floor and banged her head resulting in mild concussion, her short term memory was gone and she kept having the same conversation on loop. We also had no water in our bathrooms, but two years of water shortages in Madagascar meant that wasn't really a problem!
By Sunday Bethan seemed much better, she went along to children's work at church and swam with her new friends on the compound. She could recall most of what happened on Saturday apart from the fall itself, but by Monday she was vomiting, lethargic and didn't leave the sofa. We called out the paediatric doctor that evening who was concerned that it could be a consequence of her fall that was making her ill as she had no temperature. By Wednesday evening Bethan had probably watched more TV programmes than she had in the rest of her life put together but she was alert and eating again. The following days both Matt and myself came down with a sickness bug, which whilst unpleasant for us gave us relief that Bethan being so poorly just after her fall was coincidental.
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| One of the highlights so far |
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| Enjoying the pool at the nearby hotel |
