Two weeks ago was hectic! I had originally planned to take a couple of days of annual leave but as Phil's licence had not come through, I needed to postpone it and fly. First up was a flight to Bardai in the far North of Chad, this involves a detour to Faya to be able to refuel and means staying overnight amongst the Tibesti Mountains as there isn't enough time to get there and back in a day.
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Sahara Desert on the way to Faya
 | Rock formations as the desert turns to mountains
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| Sunset in Bardai |
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| Accomodation for the night |
We made an early start on Tuesday morning, partly to mitigate against any delays in Faya (we had been stuck the day before, for two and a half hours, waiting for fuel) and partly because there was an excited just turned 6 year old boy waiting to open some presents. Luke took a tub of cupcakes to school to celebrate with his classmates and other school children and was super excited when they gave him three big balloons! When I got back Matt had set up a treasure hunt for him to be able to find his cards (a tradition acquired from friends in Bath) and then he opened presents and had a call with his grandparents.
On Wednesday I flew across to Am Timan in the South East to return a missionary family to their home after their furlough and some time in the city. The road to Am Timan is currently impassable as the river has flooded out several sections.
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| Road to Am Timan |
Thursday brought another flight and another birthday, this time the flight was up to Iriba in the North East, to bring a family and their belongings, and their dog Tex, back to the city from where they will move back to their passport country. The flight up was under clear blue skies, but several large storms developed on the way back and calls were made to missionaries and NGO's at airstrips en-route to request accommodation in case we had to divert. Thankfully we made it back to N'Djamena ahead of the storm and in time for me to join in with the second birthday treasure hunt (this time created by the children) to celebrate Matt's birthday.
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| Weather building en-route |
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| Busy making cards for Daddy |
On Saturday we then had simultaneous birthday parties, in the morning Matt headed out with some friends to play 5-a-side football against a team of Chadians (they were thrashed 3-6) while Luke had a party with his friends on the compound. Luke and his friends played tug of war, sardines and 'rescue the sea creature' which involved digging creatures out of the sand and carefully getting them back to the sea. Matt and the rest of his team were back in time for cake number one, then some more families joined us for a BBQ, second birthday cake and a quiz. We had a very busy, but very fun day :-)
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| Rescue the sea creature |
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| Quiz |
