This is the time of year that we arrived in Chad for the very first time. It was at the end of 2001, and our colleagues showed us around N’Djamena for that first week before we took off to Cameroon for orientation. I still remember getting off the airplane, and as we stepped down the stairs to the tarmac in the hour before twilight, I was amazed at how the air smelled so strong of sand. It wasn’t even harmattan, yet everything had the smell of sand. This was sub-Sahara Africa after all. Because of how incredibly dry the air and sandy the streets, our feet had become badly cracked before that first week even ended. We had a great first week in Chad and were welcomed by almost everyone we met by a very friendly “Bonne année!” (Happy New Year!)
A year later, we were invited to spend a couple of weeks in a village far from the capital over Christmas and New Year. Our friends told us of a story from a previous year when they had asked the Chief’s permission to set off firecrackers at midnight to celebrate the New Year. They had no idea all the chaos they would cause in doing so. They found out the next morning that most of the villagers had abandoned their homes and ran for the mountains in fear for their lives. Unfortunately, the country had a history of rebel movements and attacks, some violent, so when our friends set off the “fun display”, the local people thought their village was being taken over. You can bet our friends never attempted firecrackers again.