After a red-eye 2:25am flight, followed by
another one to N’Djamena, I was pretty tired. But the following day, I got up
at 6am and headed to the bus station to take the 7-hour ride down to Moundou.
I sat beside a young Muslim woman who immediately
offered me a mango. We talked a little and I found that she was studying in the
equivalent of grade 9. She was friendly and sometimes translated the Arabic
movie that was playing loudly on the bus. The bus stopped at Bonghor (the
normal halfway stop) and she invited me to eat with her. I’m always cautious
not to eat/drink too much on this bus trip but I followed her. She paid for 2
dishes- one was cow meat, and the other was cow stomach with bread. We ate and
then it was time to get back on the bus. At the end of the trip we parted ways,
but I was so happy that I had travelled with such a caring and kind companion.
When I arrived at my compound, I received
hugs and smiles from everyone around. It was so nice to be back, and I hadn’t
realized just how happy it made me to see everyone. I shared presents and
stories with them, and enjoyed the small things here like playing with children
and eating mangoes.
With only ten weeks left, I really wanted
to live each day fully so I would not have any regrets. I was excited to spend
a lot of time in the kitchen as well as at school working hard and learning. But
first, there was the problem of me being sick. It started out just feeling like
a cold- runny nose and cough. But by the next morning I was vomiting, had fatigue,
and diarrhea. So I went to the clinic where I found out that I had malaria and
worms. With a few days rest and many pills later, I’m mostly better. I look
forward to the next two months and hope to continue to teach and learn new
things everyday, with my Chadian friends and family.
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