With all the activity that is going on in Africa, Chad is still a relatively safe place to travel (if one would ever want to in the first place). There are many African countries that have rebel activity and attempted coups, and although Chad is not exempt from that, it is currently still stable enough to visit.
On a different note, with the ebola outbreak in some west African countries, some may wonder how this affects those in Chad. We have heard news from other missionary friends that there have been some cases of ebola in Nigeria which borders Chad. There are still no incidences of the disease in Chad, but some Westerners who work close to the Nigerian border, although they are not evacuating, they are taking precautions and developing a contingency plan in the case it does creep a little too close.
chad
Make a hut in 5 steps
Almost all Chadians live in huts: “houses” made of mud-brick. The Dadjo people are included. The huts are about four feet tall and circular, with a thatched roof (roof made of sticks/hay).
- First, the Chadians take mud, and mix it with hay, or straw. This helps it to stay together.
- Then they shape the mud with molds. They want to make the mud into a usable, brick like form.
- After that, the people put the molded mud out in the sun to dry. They usually don’t bake them. The cheapest thing to do is to “sun bake” them.
- When the mud is nice and dry, they start building the hut. They pile the mud bricks to make a circular room with an opening for the door.
- After that, the Chadians put a thatched roofing on top.
Big families can live in these things because the huts serve as more of a shelter. The people almost always sleep outside, where it’s cooler. The yards, where the huts are located, are often surrounded by a wall, also made of stick like fencing. They do this to keep unwanted visitors away. In larger villages, or small towns like Mongo, people use mud brick to make their walls. Please comment!
seasons changing
October marks the end of rainy season in Chad. We have yet to find out how the crops will do as they finish ripening over the next couple of months. As I’ve mentioned months ago, rainy season had a fairly dry start this year, so many people didn’t lay seed down as early as desired. Tomorrow’s temperature in Chad’s capital will be 100F, and for the next couple of months, the temps will start to rise again, but this time, there is high humidity left over from the rains. This makes the last quarter of the year uncomfortably sweaty and sticky. One more reason to look forward to Christmas. That’s about the time when the best weather makes its way over Chad. If anyone is ever looking to visit Chad, between Christmas and Valentine’s Day is the time to go.
TEAM publication
There are several mission organizations that work in Chad, and during our time there, we got to know several people who work with TEAM. We’ve shopped many times at little boutiques that became known as the team shops because they were next door to their compound, and we’ve also stayed at their guest house a couple of times. We recently came across a magazine that TEAM puts out quarterly, and we grabbed onto it as soon as we realized that this edition was exclusively on Chad. There are many interesting articles on the varied ministries they are involved in from digging wells, to Christian radio broadcasting and Bible translation, literacy to ministering to Continue reading
New Website
The Dadjo Ministry now has an official website! Created by Josiah Aviles, the Dadjo Ministry website has more about Art and Denice Aviles and their ministry. Go there for tons of pictures of Chad and the official “Dadjo Ministry News” videos. You can also learn more about the Dadjo people and their history. We’re so happy to finally have our official website up! Please comment to tell us what you think about it and what we should change.
Rainy Season
Better late than never. Rainy season is a very important time of year for everyone in Chad. So many people are sustenance farmers that if the rains don’t come, the people have nothing to eat for the next year. Millet, which is their main staple, is brought in from neighboring countries at very high prices which not many can afford enough of.
But thankfully we received news that August has brought some good rains. It’s over a month late, but it’s better late than never. Another thing to consider with this is if there will be enough rain at the end of the season to ripen the crop for harvest come November-January.
Summer progress
The two man translation team in Chad is taking some time off, their alotted vacation for the year. They work on doing and redoing the drafts of Scripture with Art’s guidance. During their time off, Art has a little breathing room to catch up with them. They tend to give up quality for speed sometimes, which adds more mind puzzles for Art to think through.
Art is also involved with ministering to international students at a nearby university. Who knows, maybe he’ll run across a student from Chad there someday.
literacy
Teaching people how to read doesn’t seem that difficult. Teaching children how to read should be easier with their minds that absorb so much. But how do you think it would be to teach illiterate children how to read a language that they don’t even know? That is what’s happening in many african languages. Children are brought up speaking their tribal language, and then when they become school age, rather than teaching them in their own language, they are sent to school where they are taught their different subjects (in Chad) in French. Continue Reading>>
prayer
As we are excitedly anticipating the arrival of some good friends from Chad this evening, I’m reminded of the importance of prayer. When we were living in Chad, we would always let friends know of our travel plans so that they could pray for our trip. And we likewise did the same for them. Travel was not an easy thing, with rough roads, sometimes breakdowns, and sometimes also Continue Reading>>
boko haram
The terorist group, boko haram, has been in the news recently for the hundreds of girls that they kidnapped in Nigeria. They have attacked several villages killing people. They have crossed borders into both Cameroon and Chad. They are not where we have been in Chad, but we do have friends who work too close to where they have been seen. You can pray for safety for Chad.
Dadjo Blog Archive 