Well, I'm back, and it was an amazing trip! God really
showed his blessings! I was feeling a bit sick before the
trip, but as soon as I got on the truck I was completely
healthy! Praise God for that!
It was about a 14 hour trip there, but we had stops. Nothing in
Africa is ever in a hurry. Nothing. So when we stopped, we
stopped. We stretched our legs a bit. And
then we talked to the local church. And we had some tea.
And we talked. And talked. And talked. And just when we
thought we'd never leave, everyone moved at once, and we
were off. We knew better than to push, because it only
makes it slower.
The roads were pretty good, all the way to Sahr. Our final
destination was a town a bit northwest of Sahr. Sahr is
right in the heart of the Muslim area. We saw many MANY
Chadians that looked like they were a bit of Arab descent,
riding around on horses with long robes and turbans, with
swords at their side or bows and arrows. Very surreal and
menancing.
It wasn't bad driving once you got off the road...but the
actual road was horrific. The road was paved once, many
many years ago, and a bad job at that. So it was more
potholes than road. Literally. Smooth dirt with foot high
islands of pavement. But the dirt road was on the side, so
that was ok. But by the time we got there, it was dark. And
driving at night is VERY dangerous in Chad. VERY DANGEROUS.
Not all of the cars, trucks, motos, or ox drawn carts have
headlights...the goat and cattle herds like to sleep on the
road at night...it's very dangerous. But we had no choice.
Because of the darkness, Christoph had a hard time missing
the potholes.
When we got there, we had to sit around and talk. About
10pm they finally started to plan where we were going to
show the films. After that we had supper.
Supper was Boul with fish. Because we were along the river,
we had fish at every meal, except one. I got real used to
fish, and I learned to eat the whole thing. WHOLE
thing...eyes to tail. Lets just say that some parts taste
better than others. It makes sense why in America we leave
certain parts out. And you wouldn't believe how much meat
there is on the head. I got good at eating heads, because
being the honored foreigners, they gave us the best parts.
I started to really appreciate eating in the dark. There is
something to be said for not being able to see what you are
eating.
The first night, we showed the Jesus film across the river. Now
they wanted us to take the truck across the river.
Thankfully we didn't. If we had tried to cross the river we
would have been swimming. But we couldn't even get to the
river anyway. We got about a hundred yards away until we
started to sink to the axles in sand.
We carried all the gear to the river, climbed in the dugout
canoes, and we were off. I didn't get any video, because I
was scared that my camera would get wet. We all got across
safely, and then showed the film that night.
We continued to just show the film every night and rest during
the day. There were beautiful rock mountains, so I'd climb
up there and do devotions in the mornings...so beautiful.
But after 4 days, I was starting to get tired of resting.
To an American, we wasted a lot of time during the day. But
in Chad, it was not a waste...we were resting! And that is
not a waste of time...it is something that needs to be
done.
The heat in Africa is much more dangerous than Asia. It's a
very dry heat, so you don't feel like you are sweating. And
the wind feels cool, but the cool feeling is your sweat
evaporating. So it is very easy to get dehydrated.
Overall, it was a very good trip! God really blessed
it...thanks to your prayers!
I put up some pictures
from the trip - enjoy!
Thanks again for praying!
--Josh
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