Fun Facts of Life in Chad

One of my coworkers once made a list of "rules" about life in Chad.  Together, they give a pretty good picture of how different life is over here.  Some of the "rules" will surprise you.  Some will amuse you.  Some might even shock you.  But I think that you will, at least, find them interesting. 

In my experience in the Republic of Chad, there are a million different small things that we take for granted in the States. But life in Chad is vastly different from America. Here are some things, “rules” if you will, you should be aware of, should you ever have the chance to travel to Chad.

Rules of the Road:

• Always watch where you're walking, a cow might have gone by before you.
• Never leave home without a flashlight, TP, your passport, water, insect repellent, and a blanket. Snack food and a change of clothes would also be a good idea. You just never know.
• Never hit a pig or a cow. Sheep, goats, and chickens are ok because they squish better.
• If you do hit an animal, don't stop if you can help it. Legally they're not supposed to be on the road and you don't want to end up in the middle of a testy crowd.
• Use your horn liberally while driving.
• You will see all kinds of things - including goats strapped on the backs of bikes, chickens hanging from handlebars, and even the occasional cow in the back end of a pickup truck.
• Never hit mud puddles fast. You never know how deep they will be.
• Proceed carefully when passing another vehicle. You never know what the dust might be obscuring.
• Not all public transportation has good brakes. Sometimes they just shift into first gear and have somebody jump out of the back of the truck and put a block of wood in front of a rear tire.
• Always tell people you want to leave at least an hour before the time you really have to take off.
• Cows on the bridge always have the right of way.
• The longer you ride, the hazier the world gets - at least until you clean your glasses.
• Roadside vegetation is always dirty.
• Never hitch a ride on a beer truck. They stop in every village to make deliveries.
• Always wear a hat (guys) or a headscarf (gals). It keeps your hair cleaner and less tangled.
• If you see fresh, live branches piled on the edge of the road, a truck is broken down ahead.
• When they're wet, mud and sand can be every bit as slippery as ice.
• If you want to find the easiest pace to walk in the sand, follow the bicycle tracks.
• If you sit in the back row of the minivan, expect to be covered (and I mean covered) with dust by the time you reach your destination.

Rules of the Table:

• Always watch for pebbles in your rice. If you don't, you may break a tooth.
• Freeze flour to kill the bugs.
• Remember - the intestines of the chicken are the delicacy. (They really don't taste bad, it's just the idea.)
• Slurp your tea loudly and always add at least 6 cubes of sugar.
• Don't wear rings on your right hand while eating.
• When eating in a house with a dirt floor, it's acceptable to dump the last of your water there.
• It's acceptable to feed your chicken bones to the animals.
• If you plan to eat mangoes, don't forget your dental floss.
• If you plan to eat, don't forget your dental floss.
• The preferred soft drinks are Fanta Orange and Coca-Cola. Sprite is a distant third.
• The most honored person at the table is the first one to eat the meat in the sauce. If it's you, they'll tell you after a while.
• Once you've washed your hands before eating, don't touch anything with your right hand - and it's drip dry.

General Rules:

• Nothing EVER happens quickly in Chad.
• Torn money is worthless (except with lots of hassle).
• To get bugs out of your ears, shine a flashlight in. This will draw the bug out.
• While shopping, keep your hands and your money in your pocket.
• Never pay the first price you're asked.
• Always shake everyone's hand upon entering the store.
• Study the 1001 uses for a 'pagne" (the piece of cloth that Chadian women use as skirts).
• Don't look people in the eyes when you talk to them - especially those in authority. It's disrespectful.
• If a lizard runs toward you, look for a snake behind it.
• Use both hands to give and receive.
• 70 degrees is freezing cold.
• It's possible to entertain kids just by sitting there.
• It's also possible to frighten kids just by sitting there.
• Chadians don't shoo flies away from their faces.
• Always stand or sit in the shade, never in the sun.
• If you hear coughing or clapping, it means there's someone at your front door.
• When you enter a church service or a Bible study, always bow your head and pray first.
• Women and girls - always wear a head covering to church meetings.
• People can carry tremendous weights on their heads.
• Always give gifts in a plastic bag.
• You can tell who has come to your house by the footprints in the sand.
• It is rude to ask someone what his or her name is.
• A gasp is a sign of assent.
• The most honored people get the best chairs.
• You can make your Chadian friends happy by wearing Chadian clothes.
• If you have long hair, don't let your Chadian friends see you with it hanging down in front of your face. (They will think you're a demon.)
• Always offer your guests water.
• Chadians like seeing pictures of your family.
• Scorpion horses (a type of spider) will run right toward you.
• If a friend comes to visit you, walk them part of the way home.
• Don't take pictures of Muslims.
• Don't pat a Chadian on the shoulder.
• The teacher always leaves the room before the students.
• If you lose weight, your Chadian friends will be concerned. It's seen as a sign of illness.
• When you're leaving on a trip, Chadians will never let you carry your bag.
• If a woman paints her nails, she will paint her toenails and the nails on her left hand only. It's considered dirty to eat with nail polish on your right hand.

July Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

For many Chadians, this is an important time of the year, for our rainy season is now in full swing and many people are starting to grow crops. Agriculture in Chad is quite different from other countries where I have lived. Here, people do not have tractors or other large machinery. Gardens are typically plowed with a hand-held plow pulled by a pair of oxen, then they are planted and weeded and harvested by hand. It is hard work, but in the end, the gardens will provide both food and income for the families who own them. These gardens are a frequent reminder of how God uses His Word to plant spiritual seeds in people’s lives, which in time will produce spiritual fruit, which will in turn benefit many others. Thank you for your continued prayers that God will use His Word to produce much fruit in the lives of the Chadian people!

Bible Translation Workshops
In May, my colleague, Susan Hossack, met with the translators of the Sara Madjingaye (pronounced sah-rah mah-jing-guy) Old Testament. Together they checked and edited the book of Ezra and nearly half of the book of Proverbs. Sara is an important local language spoken by around two million Chadians, either as a first or second language, so this Bible translation can potentially reach many people.

This month, another colleague, Joshua Hedges, has come to Chad for an editing session with the translators of the Day (pronounced like die) Old Testament. They are checking the book of Job.

In late August and early September, two more consultants will visit Chad the translations of the Old Testament in the languages of Sara Kaba Dem, Sara Kaba Naa, and Sara Madjingaye. I will be leading portions of all three workshops with the help of the senior consultants.

Please pray for me and the other consultants as we prepare for these workshops, and pray that good progress will be made in each translation. Pray also that the Lord would encourage and strengthen each of the translators as they sacrifice their time and energy to translate His Word.

Sara Kaba Dem Study
I am continuing to study the Sara Kaba Dem language with Ηélène, the Christian woman who has been helping me to learn the language. While our study sessions together have been good and beneficial, sicknesses and family events have often resulted our sessions being cancelled. Pray that we will be able to meet more regularly so that I can continue to make good progress in the language. Pray also that the Lord will use me to be a spiritual encouragement to Ηélène, and that she will depend on the Lord’s strength every day.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

What do you eat in Chad?

I’ve commented briefly on Chadian food in some previous posts, but thought I’d try to give a more complete description.

Boule

The staple Chadian food is known as “boule” (pronounced bool). It is a sort of mush made of ground grain and water, a little like mashed potatoes but with a stiffer consistency rather like playdough. Many other African countries eat it too, though it comes under different names depending on the local languages. In Chad, it can be made from any of a variety of grains, such as manioc, millet, corn, or rice.

Whatever grain it comes from, boule is pretty bland stuff by itself, so it is always served with some kind of side dish with sauce, made of meat and/or vegetables. My personal favorite is rather like beef stew. Another popular one is fish with a tomato-based sauce. One of the most popular is “gumbo” sauce, made from a green plant. My least favorite is called long sauce, a cold, grayish, stringy mixture of fish or meat and sauce. However, most of the dishes served with boule are pretty good.

The traditional way to eat boule is from a communal dish. You break off a chunk with your fingers, dip it in the sauce, and eat it. Does that sound strange to you – different from the way you eat food at your home? Don’t worry, everyone washes their hands carefully beforehand! By the time you are done though, you will want to wash your hands again. Here in Chad, there are many places without running water, but that is not a problem for hand-washing. Someone will bring you soap and a basin, and will pour water over your hands so you can wash them.

Meat

Meat can also be served without boule. The most common meats in southern Chad are beef, goat, chicken, and fish. Others are mutton and guinea fowl (a poultry bird that looks a bit like an ugly chicken but tastes quite different).

We don’t eat pork or ham, although some people do raise pigs. You see, here in Chad, there is often no refridgeration available, and no meat processing factories, and pig meat is particularly susceptible to certain serious diseases if it is not very carefully handled. So we play it safe and avoid it. I have found this particular detail about Chadian life very interesting. I’d always wondered why the Old Testament Law forbade the Israelites from eating pigs. Probably one reason was simply for good health, since there weren’t fridges or factories back then either!

Other Dishes

Although boule is the most popular food in Chad, it is not the only food eaten here. Rice is also common. So is couscous, which is a kind of grain that is popular in Africa but not as popular in America. Pasta is also readily available, though it is usually reserved for special occasions.

Potatoes are available in Chad but are quite expensive. They are almost a delicacy, actually.

Fruits and Snacks

Fruits are available in Chad when they are in season. Mangoes get ripe at the end of dry season, and there are few things as delicious as a fresh, ripe mango! Bananas are common; the ones we get here are small, barely half the size of the bananas you will usually get in America, but very sweet and good.

Peanuts are popular and are grown right here in Chad and are popular snacks. They will be nicely roasted, and sometimes they will be sugared to make a sweet snack. Before I moved here, I thought I didn’t like peanuts, but I’ve discovered that I really do like Chadian peanuts! They have a richer flavor here, perhaps because they are fresher since they are not imported. Thankfully, since peanuts are popular, peanut butter isn’t hard to come by, though it is different from the factory-made stuff you usually buy in the States. It is home-made, natural peanut butter with no sugar added. We like it. J

Bouille (pronounced bwee) is something between a drink and a food. It is made with white peanut butter (i.e. made from raw peanuts) and rice and sugar … and I forget what other ingredients. It’s usually pretty tasty. Anyway, it is sort of like a rather thin porridge, just thin enough to drink. It is served hot, usually in bowls or large mugs.

Drinks

Hot tea is by far the most popular drink. It isn’t much different from American tea, except that Chadians tend to make theirs stronger and much sweeter than most Americans prefer. Often it is served in small glasses rather than mugs, which works fine except that the hot tea makes the glass hot to hold. My veteran coworkers are used to it, but I’m still training my fingers to tolerate holding hot glass!

Sometimes instead of hot tea, hot milk with sugar might be offered. With the shortage of refridgeration in Chad, fresh milk is not practical, so we use powdered milk. However, it is fortified whole milk and is pretty good stuff.

Soft drinks (soda or pop or whatever you want to call it) are popular. Coke is the top favorite, followed by Fanta and some other fruit-flavored sodas, with Sprite a distant third.

Water is of course essential, especially in this hot climate, and it is good Chadian manners to serve water to any guest that comes by. However, clean drinking water is often not available here, and unpleasant and even serious diseases can lurk in unfiltered water, so my coworkers and I carry our own bottles around wherever we go. Anyway, our friends don’t want us to get sick, so if they do offer us water, it is purchased bottled water that is perfectly safe.

What we eat at home

By now, some people may wonder what I eat at home. We are able to get or make quite a few of our favorite food items or dishes that would be familiar to my American and Australian readers, such as hamburgers, fries, and pizza, though all of those must be made from scratch. We have salad every day if we can, though all the vegetables must be put through a more stringent cleansing process to make it safe to eat. Sometimes we have chicken, but not too often since it is a lot of trouble to make it. You see, in Chad, if you want to buy chicken, you will get a live, clucking, fully feathered bird!

What we don’t eat

In closing, I guess I will also mention some of the things we can’t get here. I don’t like to dwell on that too much because it isn’t worth complaining or worrying about, but perhaps some of you would be interested to know. I’ll just make a list of some things that come to mind. Some of these things can’t be found here in Sarh but can be found in the capital city or the large town of Moundou, some hours’ drive away. Other things can’t be found anywhere in Chad that we know of. Here they are:

• Chocolate bars
• Ice cream
• Breakfast cereal, except for Corn Flakes
• Pre-prepared foods such as frozen vegetables and microwave dinners
• Cheese (except for a kind of canned cheese which is useful for making mac’n’cheese)
• Butter
• Sliced bread (we can get bread but only in long, thin loaves shaped a bit like French bread)
• Yogurt
• Potato chips, except for Pringles
• Turkey