4:45 am- We are loaded up in the car Joanna and Darren,
Kaleb, Franco and myself. While Jonathan and Melody are on the Motto. The back
end of the land cruiser is packed full of our luggage and the roof is piled
high with ladders and a scaffolding. Our destination is Kumra 230k southeast of
Béré
which with paved roads and no problems it should only take 4 hours to get there
but this is Africa and we have neither. The first hour of the trip is constant
swerving and hitting pot holes and bouncing everywhere in the car. Before we
even reach the next village Lia our brakes go out. We pull over and while the
men try and repair what they can I take a nap in the back seat J
The brakes aren’t perfect and we need to pump them several
times ahead of time… we keep going. The roads start to have a pattern to then
deep sand, deep hole, lots of mud, deep puddles etc. But no matter what you
just keep going otherwise we’ll get stuck. The roads continued like this until
half way between Lia and Doba where the river from got so high it completely
whipped out the road. The locals had conues ready to take mottos and people
across to the other side but that didn’t really help our car situation. So we
waded through the water to measure the depth to determine if we could make it
across in the car. In the end we went for it. Just keep going. As we make it
successful through the deep water and round the bend we are greeted with another long stretch of water that is deeper
and less promising then the first. After much contemplation and prayer we go
for it. The water was seeping in the bottom of the door and it was almost
covering the hood but we made it through.
I spend most of the trip in miserable pain. I’m dreadfully
car sick and I think I might have a concussion from hitting my head on the roof
repeatedly from the creator size holes in the road. We stop every so often to
buy food and to use the rest room…which is crouching in some ones field.
When we finally make it to Doba I could barley believe my
eyes….paved roads!
Rules of the Tchadian roads: Keep one foot on the gas, one
hand on the horn, continue, continue.
The trip from there was a lot faster and smoother with the
occasional speed bump and toll booth.
We finally make it to our destination at 5:30 pm, a whole 12
hours later. Pastor David the man in charge of showing us where we are sleeping
and building is still not there. We wait there until 8pm when he finally shows
up to tell us about the building projects. We came with the intention of
building three one day churches in three different locations. One of the
locations was completely inaccessible due to the flooding and another had land
donated by the government but because they waited so long to build the
government took the land back. So we were left with one location to build at.
Slight teeny problem the building materials aren’t here. Hmmm. Even though we
were told before we came that everything was ready and materials were at the
locations. Oh the frustration, but im to tired an I just want to stretch out
and sleep after being cramped in a car all day.
The next morning we go to our site that is 15k away from the
village we are staying at in Kumra. The village there has tried to build a
church in the past but it was blown down by the wind not the best. There foundation that they had was still usable but
to big for the One Day structure. We start clearing the area and doing what we
can in order to prepare for the following day…. We are hopefully the building
materials will arrive so that this trip would not have been for nothing. After
we have done all that we can do we spend some time trying to improve the break
further and visit with people from the village. They grasesoly left us use
there shower. It’s a dirt mound with stick walls that don’t even reach my
shoulders so I have to be careful not to stan to straight. I enjoy the view of
the field, trees and sunset as I wash away the gallon of sweat that is
plastered to my body. By 7pm we are heading back to our sleeping quarters. When
we arrive we are greeted with the unfriendly sight of a mound of steel…. Not
what I was hoping for.
Sorting building material; for 3 churches at 10pm in the
dark with nothing but our head lamps while bug make their way into my nose
mouth and eyes is not how I envisioned relaxing before bed. But we all work
together to sort out materials and are relived that we don’t have to get up at
4 am to do it then. And now we have what we need to build a church.
Up again at 5am to pack up the car with the building
materials and all out stuff. I decide to use the bathroom and when I walk
inside and see cockroaches the size of small dinosaurs. I retreat in fear. My
fear of bugs has decreased since living in Tchad but I do not do cockroaches. I
decided I would rather get a UTI then relive myself in front an army of
cockroaches.
When we reach the building site again we start right away
organizing everything. Everyone has a task but me… I’ve never build a one day
church so I have no idea what is going on. They had me a screw gun and show me
what to do. So I go to town drilling anything and everything that needs to be
drilled until that is my new friend Demi a young man that lives in the village
want a turn at drilling too. And soon are task is done. Now we just have to
wait for the men on the latter’s to put up the roof. I sit back with the rest
of the women and watch as the locals work at building alongside the rest of the
group. And I an amazed at how chaos can turn into organized structure so
quickly. We are interrupted by a brief rain storm and everyone scatters.
When the rain stops we are back to work. Demi and I have
teamed up again to secure the lowest part of the roof and even up this high I
am slightly anxious. Heights are not my
thing. Continue, continue. And by 5pm we are finished. There is singing and
drums and prayer and shouts of joy. We sing some songs in English and they
record us on their ancient boom box tape player. And play it back when we’ve
finished.
After everything is put away and we have all showered we are
invited to the pastors house for a meal. Yum!!! I love local food. And I’ve
only eaten gatos (fried dough, pretty much like a doughnut) and bread for the
last 3 days so beans and rice taste like heaven on earth. Some of the people in
the village are so greatful for the church that they give us gifts like
tomatos, corn, eggplant and peanuts. This is how they make their money to what
they survive on so giving it to us is a sign of great respect.
The trip home the next day is long. We are up by 4am and on
the road by 5am. We stop in Doba to get are breaks repaired again so that we
have a safer trip home. The trip
takes just as long to get home and to fight the nausra and car sickness I stick
my head out the window like a dog and just take in the sceneary. It is so
beautiful and are we pass by everyone waves and yells “nasara”.
We make it back home at 5pm just in time to get ready for
the Sabbath and a welcome home dinner from the rest of the group. Perfect ways
to start the Sabbath. Rested, fed and
with friends.
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