Home sweet home in Chad

Some of you may be interested in learning a bit more about my house. I stay in a compound (see previous blog to learn what that is) with a fluctuating number of people. There is family from different villages and cities that come and go from my home. But I have learned a bit about who lives at my home permanently.

There is Maman (whose husband has passed away). She has 5 children, 3 of them live at home (2 others are studying abroad): Herman (17) , Ornella (10) and Junior (5). Mila is a woman in her thirties who is a cousin and who has lived with the family for many years. Felix (16) is another cousin who lives permanently with the family and studies at Village Altonidji (where Maddie works). There is Salomé whose father was brothers with Maman’s husband. She is 20 years old and has helped me out a lot these past weeks. Finally, there is Cherubin who is studying  medicine. Along with these people there are many neighbours in the compound connected to ours and many many others who are friends and relatives. I must say it is very hard to keep everyone straight. I think I might make a family tree to try to place people (as this seems to help me remember them).

Take a look at the diagram to orient yourself (if you click on the image it will enlarge) Entering the door ie. gate, on your left you will see a porch with a door opening to the living room. It is here where I eat most of my meals and here where there is a TV, so when the electricity works (which is for a few hours every few days) or if use the generator, the television is on and I hang out in the living room and watch TV. It is nice because the stations are in French so I’m able to understand the shows. Attached to the living room are Maman’s room- which also serves as a room to store food, clothes, place mats and many other things, and Ornella’s room.

There is a separate building for the toilet room and shower room. The toilet consists of a hole in the ground, while the shower room consisted until recently of a bucket. But last week, we had a real shower installed which means that when there is water (which happens sometimes) we can shower with cold water coming out of a shower head just like back home. When there is not, I take a bucket shower (with hot water.) I’m not sure which I like better, the use of a showerhead with cold water or a warm water bucket shower.

Next, my room which is attached to the kitchen. The kitchen is more like a pantry where all the cooking utensils are kept as well as some food is stored. There is also a gas stove, but I have not really seen it used. Coal is the main stove here and it is used outside. Sometimes however, when they want a very hot fire, they use long branches of wood (kir, in Ngambai) which burn nice and hot but produce a lot more smoke.

My room, is small but cosy. I have a single bed with a mosquito net, there is a desk and a chair for me to work at, and a shelving unit for my clothes and things. I also have the luxury of a fan which helps to cool down the room a bit (at least when the electricity works), and I have a water.

Then the next building is a ‘girls room’ and a ‘boys room’. Which means that if there are younger guests staying over they are likely to stay in the room of their sex. Mila and Salome are permanently in one room, and Félix and Herman are in the other. There is also a storage room attached to the boys room where many things are stored, from peanuts to chairs to dried foods.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and were able to get a bit of a better sense of where I live everyday!

 The pictures are of our ‘kitchen’ with Salomé, and of our clothes line and over hang.