Chad Chat from Louise

Well it is time to give you all a wee bit of an update on how things are going here in Chad. It's one month in and I am feeling a bit more settled. It has been a tough time with the new job in a very new environment and in a different language and I have missed you all very much but I do feel that I am starting to find my feet.

Home
I have just had my first full week at my main base. I am living in a town called Am-Layouna which is 15 minute drive from the Gaga refugee camp. I live on the CORD compound in a small toukoul (pictured above) on the ‘expat’ section of the base and the rest of the staff are in a separate section. I have my own kitchen, toilet and ‘bathroom’ and a lovely lady who comes and does my cooking! This is always fun as she mainly speaks Arabic with a bit of French and so our communications have led to some very interesting meals!!

The staff are great. Hassan Baba has been heading up the team for the past few months and has done a great job. I feel he is a real blessing, he has a really good relationship with the refugees and has an excellent oversight of the education system, my job will be a whole lot easier because of him.

Gaga Camp
The camp currently has about 18,000 people in it. It is an open camp which means more refugees are being taken in. It has a capacity of about 30,000. Due to the Sudanese president kicking out a lot of the NGOs in Darfur there are reports of thousands of refugees making their way across into Chad so we could be filling up fairly quickly.

The camp has 6 primary schools and 14 pre-schools, although we will need to add to these as the numbers rise. The primary schools are very basic with students sitting on mats on the floor and the teachers have just a blackboard and a chair. No interactive whiteboards here! The pre-schools are either temporary shelters or ‘hangers’ which are round, open-sided constructions that provide shelter from the sun.

My role is to basically oversee the running of these schools and manage the Am-Layouna base. I also oversee the education at another camp, Farchana. This is a couple of hours drive away and has a separate team living near it. I have not had a chance to get there much but hope in the next couple of weeks to visit and see what is happening.

Network for Africa
This last week we had a team from Network for Africa come and give some training to a group of refugees, mainly teachers and community services staff, on trauma counselling. The sessions were really good and I think the participants gained a lot from it, the team hope to return for follow up sessions over the next 2 years. I also enjoyed having them here – it was great having some English people about!!

French
So how is my language learning going? Hmmmm...! Currently I am trying to do self-study with the help of my ipod, my English/French dictionary and listening very hard in meetings! I hope at some stage to get some lessons but CORD have got me a translator, Jules, who is brilliant and very good at ensuring I try to speak/understand and not just rely on him. It is frustrating having to rely on him, especially as obviously he can’t always be about, so I really want to quickly improve my level of communication.

Plans for the Next Month…
Over the coming month I hope to be gaining a fuller understanding of the job. We have a lot of construction required both in the camp and at the base so we will be moving forward with this. I also need to be spending time in Farchana and I want to visit two other camps that are run by CORD to get some ideas from the program manager there.

Prayer Points
There is so much need here both for the local population and for the refugees. With the ICC indictment of the Sudanese president the situation in Darfur will get worse before it gets better and so many more will be travelling across to Chad.

• Pray that peace will come quickly to the area and these people can start to rebuild their lives.
• Pray for good relations between the local Chadians and the refugees as the natural resources are stretched by the increased population.
• Pray that God will break in and in the midst of all this and people will learn of the love and peace that is found in knowing him and Jesus (Ps 23:4-5).

For me…

• Continued settling and gaining a full understanding of the job required.
• Language learning… say no more!!
• That I would not feel too lonely here and would make good friends with others here and push into God.

Thanks For all the love and support, for the emails and texts you have sent and for your prayers... I am so grateful for all of you.

Love Louise x

Posted by: Louise Lloyd-Jarvis on Monday Mar 23rd, 2009

Comments

Sarah Ford writes:

It's so exciting hearing what ur up to!! Amazing stuff Louise, i'm praying for u xxx

...left on Saturday Mar 28th, 2009

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