9 Days in Cameroon

The River Chari, which runs along the edge of N'Djamena, separates Chad from Cameroon. Cameroon is so close that you can see it from the city and I fly over it during the approach into N'Djamena. It is also where Mercy Ships are docked until May so we felt it would be nice to catch up with friends while they are so close and also take a break from Chad. Northern Cameroon is considered fairly unsafe at the moment and it's a good 28 hour drive to the coast (according to Google Maps) so we opted instead to fly with the regional airline Asky direct to Douala. The start of our trip highlighted many of the quirks of living here starting with the airports insistence that passengers must travel from the terminal to the aircraft by passenger bus:

Clearly a bus is required to get from the escalator to the aircraft!

On arriving in Douala and passing through the routine checks we took an airport taxi into town. Despite asking repeatedly to be taken to where the buses depart for Limbe the taxi driver insisted we would be better travelling by shared car as it would be the same price but better. So 20 minutes later we were waiting at a shared car for the remaining places to be filled in the heat (and high humidity). The car seemed nearly full so we were optimistic that we would soon be on our way but little did we realise how many people can fit in a 6 seater! When the 12th passenger squeezed herself in, we set off on our 1.5 hour drive to Limbe via many check points for fees and paperwork checks along the way.

Every bit of space is used

We spent 7 days in Limbe, staying in a self catering apartment found on Airbnb. On the day after our arrival we explored the town of Limbe. We visited Down Beach, but having not done our research thoroughly enough we discovered it was high tide and there wasn't a lot of beach, and what there was was also full of litter. Having had quite a lazy start to the day it was getting close to lunch time so we abandoned plans of going to the beach and visited the cafe at the wildlife centre to enjoy fresh mango juice.

Bethan wore an ironic t-shirt, Down beach certainly wasn't beautiful, it was just a visual reminder of how much plastic we thrown into the oceans every year.

Our trip to the cafe became rather eventful, while enjoying our juice, watching the gorillas that the cafe overlooks and waiting for our food the waiter ran over and demanded we came inside the kitchen area and hastily locked all the doors and window. Apparently one of the chimpanzees had escaped and was running loose!

Trapped behind bars in the cafe kitchen 

After a while a call came through to say it was all clear and we could go out and enjoy our food. After lunch we went around the centre where the guide informed us that chimpanzee escapes were fairly common! He showed us the Silverback Gorillas, Drill monkeys, Olive Baboons and many other primates that had been rescued from being illegal pets. Bethan enjoyed throwing leaves in for them to eat and one chimpanzee called Chinoise was so excited by Bethan's gift that she did a dance and threw a rock back for Bethan.

We spent the following days exploring the local beaches, enjoyed playing in the sea and building castles with the black volcanic sand. One of the local beaches had as much litter as Down beach so we built a sand sea turtle to highlight the problem!

Mile 8 beach

Sometimes it all gets too much and you need to sleep right where you are

Swimming in Plastic

In home school Matt and Bethan have been learning about volcanoes so we also took the opportunity to climb along the lava flow from Mount Cameroon's 1999 eruption. Unfortunately the clouds stayed resolutely over Mount Cameroon so we only saw the very base of the mountain, and to Bethan's disappointment it didn't erupt while we were there either!

Lava Flow

We were also blessed by the company of a friend from Madagascar who is serving on Africa Mercy and was able to come and spend a couple of days with us in Limbe. Bethan enjoyed jumping in the waves with Rachel and teaching her to play cheat, and we enjoyed catching up on the last 18 months.

On our last day in Limbe we hired a driver to visit the historic site at Bimbia where many Cameroonians were taken aboard ships as slaves. It was a very interesting and poignant visit as our Cameroonian guide explained how the slaves were treated and showed us what the now-ruined buildings were used for and the door of no return. None of the slaves that left Bimbia ever came back to Africa, in fact only 800 of the 2000 aboard each ship even made it to the USA alive.

Our driver then took us to our last destination, the Mission Baptist Guest House in Douala, which was a much more comfortable journey than being squished in the shared car. While in Douala we visited
the maritime museum to learn about shipping in Cameroon and went out for a meal with Rachel. Lastly we had the opportunity to spend a day on the ship, giving Bethan a tour of the hospital and cabins and catching up with our friends from MAF Madagascar who are now serving on board. It was a lovely way to end an enjoyable week.

We were pleasantly surprised by Douala Maritime Museum

Catching up with the van den Bosch Family

Bethan and Luke's first trip to Mercy Ships

Beautifying Our Car

No we haven't painted go faster stripes down the side of our forerunner, added any fluffy dice or upgraded our hubcaps....

One of the wonderful/frustrating/interesting parts about living overseas is getting to know the culture, the rules and the faux pas. One of the rules of the road here (well it definitely was a law but no-one is really sure anymore and it's best not to take a chance) is that it is mandatory to have small warning triangles attached to the bumpers of your car. We have duly obtained said triangles and this weekend we attached them, which was a very exciting task in the eyes of our children who's help turned it in to a whole mornings task!

What amuses me most about these triangles (which are supposed to help prevent accidents) is the marketing on the packets, these triangles will:

• Beautify your car
• Prevent Accidents
• Give the rear of your car a new look (whilst this is true I'm not sure it is a selling point!)
• They are good for your car

In other news we also put up a hammock, this definitely did enhance our garden!

Training and Preparation

Good news! Its taken 4 months but my Chadian Pilot's Licence Validation was finally issued this week! I haven't flown since my test flights when we first arrived in Chad and its been much longer since I was flying regularly so I'm feeling a little rusty. Aviation rules state that I must have completed 3 take-offs and landings in the last 90 days to be allowed to carry passengers, so it was time to get some practice and become current again!

Having not yet flown to the South of Chad, Andrew (MAF Chad's supervisory pilot) and I devised a plan to fly down to Baili to practice some landings and then come back. Next week a medical safari is planned and Baili will be one of the stops so it was a good chance for us to check out the condition of the airstrip before it needs to be used in earnest next week. We will also need extra fuel in a nearby town of Tchaguine so we planned a stop there as well. Tchaguine is home to a long term missionary family who have been serving in the village for 26 years! Knowing how remote Tchaguine is and how little fresh food is available we offered to bring some vegetables down. This offer was gladly accepted and 39kgs of fresh vegetables, salad, meat, new plates and toys for the local children also came on the flight.

Near to Baili, just north of the river is another town called Boudamasa, where another missionary family are looking to open up a new airstrip. A team will travel down this weekend to assess the site but as it was almost en-route, we also took the opportunity to see how the land lies. Apparently we caused quite a stir as the sight of the MAF plane caused people to knock on the door of the missionary family's house to tell them that we were coming!

Planned location of the airstrip - not much to see yet!

Baili is just over an hour from N'Djamena in the Cessna 182. We did a low pass to check the condition of the airstrip before landing and noted a couple of people stood to the side. Locals had obviously been preparing for next weeks visit as the strip was in excellent condition. As we didn't need to drop anything at Baili we kept the engine running, taxied to the end of the runway and turned around to takeoff again. In the time it took from landing to being ready to be airborne again everyone who lived in the surrounding area had decided to come and see what was going on and the runway was filled by a swarm of people coming down to see the aircraft. We had to sit for 10 minutes waiting for them all to make their way down to our end, where a few guys with sticks took it upon themselves to provide crowd control and keep them away from the aircraft.

Waiting to take off at Baili

Next stop was Tchaguine to meet the family there, unload the vegetables and de-fuel 100 litres of Jet A1 into a fuel drum ready for next week. Again the whole village came to see what was going on, but in a more controlled manner! The missionaries there came prepared with a rope that everyone had to hold and stand behind (although the goats weren't so well behaved and did run across the runway as we were approaching).

On the way back we practised an instrument approach at N'Djamena as one of the biggest challenges of flying in Chad is low visibility due to dust. It was great to be up in the air again and it was good to combine the training with a delivery of fuel and food.

Crowd control at Tchaguine

Finally get to fly a MAF plane again!

Spot the plane!

Christmas in Chad

Christmas in Chad makes Christmas in Madagascar look very commercialised! There is none of the pre-Christmas hype you get in the UK, not even an aisle or two of Christmas decorations in the supermarkets like Madagascar. One of the supermarkets had some sporadic Christmas music being played and another stocked a few rolls of wrapping paper and a solitary hook of tinsel. If we didn't need to go hunting for the wrapping paper we probably wouldn't have even noticed these small signs of the commercial side of Christmas.

Within the walls of our compound however things looked a bit more festive! Matt got to work over the weekend before Christmas to build a tree from our shipping pallet. The great advantage of our pine tree was that it really is no-drop so no matter how many times Luke pulled the baubles down there wasn't a pile of needles to be found (there were however piles of sand everywhere as a dust storm came through during Christmas Eve).

Helping Daddy

Presents are just whats needed to reach the baubles!

                       

On the 23^rd we had our staff Christmas party, which was held on our compound this year. The staff and their families (60 people altogether) came along to play games and eat together. Three of the national staff cooked up an amazing array of Chadian food, our Dutch colleagues introduced everyone to a variant of football that involved trying to knock over other players' water bottles whilst protecting your own bottle. We used an idea from a Christmas party in Madagascar and sent everyone on a photo challenge around the compound. There were gifts for the children, lots of laughter and a chance to meet the spouses and children of our colleagues.

'Dutch Football'

Colourful array of Chadian food

Receiving of gifts

MAF Chad staff and families

In the weeks leading up to Christmas the children in our church had been rehearsing for a Christmas play with readings and songs with actions. Bethan was really excited about the performance and we all had the songs stuck in our heads for days as she practiced at home. The children gave a great performance during the Sunday service on Christmas Eve, then we sang carols and came back home to make Christingles with Bethan and her friends.

Luke enjoyed blowing the Christingle out 

Christmas day was very relaxed! We enjoyed sharing presents with the children, having time to play games and explore new toys. We read a lot to Bethan and listened to her practising reading short stories. As a team we had a shared Christmas lunch and therefore each family had to prepare a part of the roast meal (it turns out you can get sprouts in Chad – but only from a tin!). It was really nice to be able to spend time eating together as a big family. On Boxing day, Bethan got Matt to show her how to use her new tool kit and Luke enjoyed playing with their new wooden airport. The office was closed all week so we had time to relax and rest, which was much needed after a busy few months.

Compound Christmas lunch

A real tool box for Bethan and toddler safe one for Luke

Testing out the saw

Happily playing together

WHAT IS CHAD LIKE?

When we told people we were moving to Chad, most people either looked at us blankly (do you mean Chard?) or with a look of “why would you want to do that?” Most people clearly didn't know much about the country other than its history of civil war and that it would be fairly hot. It didn't help that we didn't know much about it either and had doubts of our own at times about whether we should have accepted this assignment of 4 years in one of MAF's hardship programs. How will we cope with the heat? Will our children be safe? Does it matter that we can't speak Arabic and our French is still quite limited! It is fair to say our expectations as we arrived in N'Djamena for the first time weren't very high.

The good thing about low expectations are that they aren't difficult to exceed and since we arrived in the modern, efficient airport, we have continued to be surprised by how easy it has been to live here. Yes, we are probably still in the honeymoon period where everything is new and exciting but at the moment we are really enjoying it. We have running water, electricity and air conditioning, our temporary house is spacious and comfortable and most importantly, the people we have met here are really friendly and have helped us to find our way around and get to grips with life in Chad.

It is hard not to compare it to living in Madagascar as there are many similarities. Speaking French, hot weather, colonial buildings, mosquitoes, banana trees, rubbish tips by the side of the road all remind me of Mada. Power cuts (although we have a generator here), being part of a close-knit team, being part of a minority of expats, employing house help and providing hospitality for visitors to the program are all things that are very familiar to us.

Road blocked by Cows - reminding us of Madagascar and Devon!!

In Madagascar we were on a large gated compound with local and expat families of many different nationalities as well as a large factory, which employed many people. Each house had its own large garden and it was completely private. Here, MAF owns a compound which has 4 houses as well as a guest house and a large communal area in the middle for the children to run and play in as well as a 4m x 2m swimming pool. Having spoken to people who had lived on compounds such as this, it seemed that you either love it or hate it. We saw the compound as a massive advantage of this program but until we arrived we didn't know for sure that we would enjoy compound living. We needn't have worried because it has been great. We are enjoying being able to socialise outside and it is well shaded so you don't get the searing heat that hits you when you leave the gate. Bethan has made friends quickly and is hardly ever bored. Luke quickly learned to stand at the door pointing to be let outside and loves it just as much.

Having fun outside

Driving around the city takes some getting used to as there aren't really any rules (except don't stop outside the presidents palace) and there are motorbikes everywhere so you need to expect the unexpected. Traffic flows much better than Tana as there are wider tarmaced roads, less potholes and hardly any cattle pulling carts to contend with. Like in Tana, drivers entering the roundabout have right of way so this causes them to clog up easily and then needs the police to intervene. Traffic is a lot faster here so roundabouts can be a bit scary and need lots of concentration. We've been using a MAF vehicle until now but today we agreed to buy a 4x4 from a family who are leaving Chad and Becki has bought a motorbike to get to work.

One very expensive Scrabble set - price tag £100

According to one article I read before we came, Chad is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Some of the costs are subsidised for us by MAF, for example electricity and internet but we really notice it in the supermarkets. Imported food is about twice the price as it was in Madagascar, for example 5 apples cost nearly £3 and a small jar of pesto costs around £4. We had to laugh when we saw this box of scrabble for 75,000 CFA, which works out as £100! Modern Market and Bonne Marche are no Tesco or even Shoprite (Madagascar) in size but with fruit and veg from the market there is enough food available that we can make 10 different meals (that we've tried so far) that we like.

There's a great little cafe shop which sells good ice cream and pastries and hotels nearby with swimming pools that we can use. There are also weekly events going on (coffee morning at our compound, ladies Bible study, kids football, volleyball and church) so there are lots of opportunities for us all to socialise.

We know that lots of people in England are praying for us and have been thinking of us over the last month, which we really appreciate. After a tricky first week, it has settled down and we are enjoying life here very much.

Becki's motorbike, it came wrapped up like a Christmas present! 

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!

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. 

One of the highlights so far

Through those difficult days we were thankful that we had friends living around us that supported us as much as they could, bringing us meals, helping with Luke and helping us to get around town. You could say we landed in Chad with a bump but things are much easier now and we're enjoying it.

Enjoying the pool at the nearby hotel

How precious is your bath water?

After you've had a bath, do you just pull the plug?
Do you stop and think what a waste it seems and then pull the plug?
Or do you save it just in case?

Since the start of April dry season has begun in Madagascar, which means there won't be any rain on the high plateau (where Tana is situated) until November. Last year we experienced the wettest rainy season for 50+ years and so there was enough water in the local reservoirs to last until August before they started to impose water cuts. This year it was a much drier rainy season, and the water cuts had already started in January for a few hours each day. Since the rains stopped they have became daily, sometimes the water is off from 8am-12pm, sometimes 6am-6pm, the worst so far 5am Monday until 4.30pm Wednesday.... so we have started saving Bethan's bath water!

We make sure we top up the water filter when there is running water, as well as keeping a storage box of tap water for washing up and cleaning floors, but flushing the loo would quickly use this up, so the bath water has become a valuable commodity in our house!!