First road trip to the middle of Chad

 On the Road Again - September 1, 2012

Well really its my first road trip since arrving in Chad. I'm a happy camper!

Its the rainy season. Lots of water around and so green. Its a happy time of year for the animals with lots to eat and drink.

In a few months this view will change from grass to sand. You'll still see the hearty shrubs and small trees, but no grass.

 Lunch at a big pile of rocks. This was a mini mountain.

Continuing on, we headed into a fairly strong thunder storm.

Strong enough we had to pull over for ten minutes to let it pass.

The storm has passed and new ponds have appeared.

Looks like somebody stacked these rocks. Oh ya, God did!

Sky islands, like we have in Arizona. This is the beginning of the mountainous Guera region.

They call it Pelican Rock; because they nest on top.

 Its a motorcycle/truck. Front half is the motorcycle.

The classic mode of transportation; horse drawn cart.

The moms get to drive the economy transportation. Donkeys. Great for carrying water, fire wood and trips to the market.

Dusty roads even in rainy season.

The cattle use the road too.

Hey Joe, where do you think we'll eat tonight?, I don't know, I don't care, as long as we are not the main course.

How everybody used to cross the river; until this year.

How they cross it now. Part of the continued road construction from the West to the East.

The Queen of the mountain. She is laying down on her back; head to the right.

 

This is an 18 wheeler, with a few after load additions. They are fixing another flat tire. Broken trucks, cars, wagons, carts, bicycles are quite the norm here. Donkeys and horses, don't seen to break down.

This is the SIL center in Mongo, well a small part of it. The water reservoir has been repaired and we re-installed it. Getting the plumbing reworked and the 12 volt solar pump working, took a couple of days and several trips to the local hardware store.

The solar charge controllers, inverter and circuit breakers. Anyone know why the inverter would randomly kick off line? I could not figure it out.

A friend I had made while in N'Djamena who lives in Mongo. Daniel is a welder who has done some on-site fabrication for me at the SIL center.

My United Nations World Food Program flight back to N'Djamena got canceled. So I took the 6 AM bush bus back instead. No chickens or goats were allowed inside. But five passengers for four seats was normal. We took a short lunch break half way back to N'Djamena. About 15 mins into it the bus started. Several of us looked over in time to see it starting to pull away. One of the Chadians said we better run. So I took off, caught up with it, got to the door way, grabbed the hand rail and heaved myself in. I turned around to the guy behind me reached out my hand to grabe his while yelling at the driver to stop. The runner lunged towards me, but missed and did a face plant into the dirt. Now the half full bus was yelling at the driver, who was totally ignoring us. But stopped in about 50 meters. He was just repositioning the bus, but didn't bother to tell anyone.

 

An exciting ending to an adventurous week. All in all it was great time. Plumbing, electrical and vehicle repairs completed. A few items not completed due to unavailable parts. But with my list in hand I know there will always be a next time. Until there isn't...Thanks for praying for me.