Shopping - Part 2

The shops visited in the shopping expeditions of the previous blog do not sell fresh fruit or vegetables. To buy those requires additional stops (and therefore additional encounters with the street-sellers) at fruit and vegetable stalls that are set up on the side of the road.

There is a row of about ten such stalls opposite one of the 'supermarkets' so although it is reasonably convenient it is also an on-going dilemma as to which stall to patronise. They all seem to sell the same selection of fruit and vegetables and all are equally friendly as they try to gain your custom. I usually go to the stall I first went to (because I happened to park right in front of it) in the hope that my loyalty as a customer will be rewarded with good prices.

However, the preferred way of shopping for fruit and vegetables is to have the stall come to you...

This is Nana, who comes to the MAF compound every Monday and Thursday morning. He comes on his bicycle carrying all his wares in a large wooden crate strapped on the back and spreads out his stall on a plastic sheet on the ground. He has been coming faithfully every week for many years and always has a good selection to choose from.

As I am usually at the office when he comes I leave a list and some money with Odile, my house help, (who conveniently also comes every Monday and Thursday) so when I get home from work I find delicious and fresh fruit and vegetables in my fridge. Now that's the kind of shopping I prefer...

Shopping - Part 1

If you know me well, you'll know that shopping is one of my least favourite activities so the only kind of shopping I do in Chad is for food. Unfortunately it is not possible to just go to one shop and get everything you need. A shopping trip for just a few basic food items usually means going to at least three different shops in order to get everything you need.

Almost as soon as you park outside one of the shops you will be approached by at least one, and sometimes more, of the street-sellers who hang around outside the shops that they know are used by the international community in the hope of making a sale. They hold their wares up to your car window and once you get out of the car, despite repeatedly saying 'non merci', they will continue to follow you until you reach the shop and will be waiting for you again when you come out.

Here is a list of some of the things I have been offered by these street sellers:

• Phone credit
• Phone chargers that plug into the cigarette lighter in the car
• USB memory sticks
• Sunglasses
• Belts (allegedly made of leather)
• DVDs (pirated)
• Screwdrivers
• Peanuts
• Towels
• Mosquito nets
• Apples
• Trays (embossed with a map of Chad)

Here is a list of all the things I have bought from these street sellers:

• Phone credit

A trip to Tesco is going to seem quite dull by comparison...

Important Post

In all the African countries I have worked in a postal system is only available to those who can pay for a PO Box, where their mail can be stored whilst it awaits collection. When an organisation wants to send a letter to another organisation the preferred postal method is to have one of their employees hand-deliver it.

This hand-delivery system always seems to involve an A4, hardback notebook where all the important information is recorded such as the date, a brief description of the item being delivered and the name of the organisation it is being delivered to. The person receiving the letter is then required to sign in the book to acknowledge receipt.

I happened to be in the reception area of the MAF office today when such a delivery was made, with a letter from the Civil Aviation Authority. As our permission to fly and all our other activities in Chad are approved by this government body I was immediately alert to the fact that this could be an important communication. My French is not yet good enough that I can 'speed-read' a letter and quickly understand the subject matter so having duly signed for the letter in the delivery man's ledger I took it to my office to read.

The letter was addressed to all the air operators who use the airport and concerned the x-ray machine used to screen passenger baggage at the airport terminal building. There is only one such machine and the letter was informing us that it is 'strictly forbidden to walk, sit or lie on this sensitive equipment'.

I wondered about the process that must have happened to compose, write, print, sign, stamp and circulate this letter. Then I wondered why stopping people walking, sitting or lying on the x-ray machine was not one of the responsibilities of the security staff who screen the baggage. And then I smiled as it is letters like this that are just one of the reasons I love Africa...

Armed Guard

This morning I returned to my office after spending about half an hour talking to our Finance Officer to find four armed soldiers parked in their pick-up truck (complete with its own automatic anti-aircraft machine gun) just outside my window.

It's not uncommon to see the Chadian Army out in force whenever the President is leaving from or arriving at the airport but they have never been quite as close to our hangar as they were today. It's known locally as a 'tapis rouge' (literally 'red carpet') and as well as stopping the traffic between the Presidential Palace and the airport to ensure a quick and safe passage for the President there are usually soldiers stationed at various points close to the runway at the airport. In the last month we have also seen this pick-up but until today it has always been a fairly good distance away from us.

My office window was open so I politely exchanged greetings with the soldiers and tried to find out how long they might be there but either they didn't understand my French (quite likely) or they didn't know (also quite likely as the exact timing of the President's flights are a closely guarded secret and the tapis rouge can last for several hours). I wasn't sure what to make of it - our Chadian staff were surprised they were so close but none of them seemed inclined to go out and ask them to move away! I'm never sure if having soldiers so close by makes you more or less safe. I guess it depends on the soldiers, whether they have to use their weapons and whether what / who they are shooting at fires back...

Mostly I think they are bored and hot and I think they parked so close to the hangar in order to try and get some shade. We gave them some water and they asked for tea (which we didn't give them) and after about 4 hours the President's plane departed and so did the soldiers.

I would have so liked to get a photograph of them but as taking photos of military personnel is a BIG no-no all around the world that wasn't going to happen. They may have loved the idea of having their picture taken by a white female and it would have relieved their boredom for a few minutes but I wasn't going to take the risk that they might have the opposite reaction...!

Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Chad and the main focus of the celebrations is at the Place de la Nation in the centre of N'Djamena, just in front of the Presidential Palace.

Bryan has been in Chad for the last 5 weeks as our relief pilot (you can read about his time here at his blog: http://bigglesgsy.blogspot.co.uk/) and was leaving today. Knowing that the main routes to the airport would be in chaos I recruited the services of Dieudonne, one of our hangar workers, to help drive Bryan to the airport and I was glad I did.

All was fine until we got to the junction where you can go straight on past the Presidential Palace - there was a single female police woman guarding the route and indicating that we should turn right. We joked that she didn't seem much of a deterrent if you were determined to go straight on but then we remembered that she probably had sufficient back up in the soldiers who guard the palace. Even on a 'normal' day there are at least 30 armed soldiers stationed at regular intervals along the kilometre stretch of road in front of the palace.

Having turned right we drove a bit further on and then spotted the police water cannons and military tanks parked up ahead waiting for the start of the parade. Dieudonne took a swift right-hand turn down a side-street, which was a muddy, single-track road with houses close on either side. We took a series of turns, following close behind a yellow Peugeot taxi who I thought was going to get stuck in the mud at any moment, until we emerged back on the main road close to the airport.

As we said 'Bon Voyage' to Bryan four helicopter gunships and a couple of fighter jets took off from the airport and flew overhead. Dieudonne then took a different route back, which at least involved staying on the more main roads although everyone else in N'Djamena seemed to have had the same idea. We made slow progress, with cars, buses and motorcycles jostling to get just a few feet ahead, and I saw parts of the city I hadn't seen before.

Apparently the celebrations will go on all day and finish with fireworks tonight.

Happy Independence Day!

Water

For the last few weeks there have been problems with the the water supply to the house on the other side of the compound where I am living. Water comes in from the city supply and is stored in an underground tank from where it is pumped up to a large tank on the top of the house. As water is used the pump automatically kicks in and refills the tank and once it is full again the pump shuts down. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the pump was running and running and not shutting off but there was no water in the house. The tank was definitely filling but within a few hours it would be empty again.

Albert, our aircraft engineer, spent a large part of one weekend trying to sort out the problem but we were baffled as to where the water was going. We called in Silas, the plumber who had been involved in building the house a couple of years ago, and he identified a faulty valve that was allowing the water to drain down the pipe and back to the city supply. To replace this valve, that was buried half a meter underground, meant digging a big hole but we were pleased he had found the problem.

All was well for about 10 days (if you don't count the two other leaks that suddenly appeared and required sections of pipe to be replaced) and then this week there was no water in the house again. So Silas returned and, along with up to 3 other workmen, he has spent nearly 3 days investigating the problem - checking the pump, digging more holes, using hoses to re-route the water - and he has now concluded that there is another faulty valve and that there may also be leaking pipes underground. He is coming back today to replace the valve and if that doesn't fix the problem he will need to dig more holes to replace the faulty pipes.

As with plumbers all over the world there has been a lot of standing over holes in the ground, scratching of heads and pontificating as to what the problem could be but as I was talking to them yesterday the incongruity of the situation struck me. Each morning as I leave for the office I see the ladies from the neighbouring houses, like women all over Africa, with large buckets on their heads, on their way back from collecting water. I wondered whether Silas or any of his workmen have running water in their homes and how strange it must be to be working to fix something that you may never experience but somehow we (as ex-pats) feel we cannot live without - running water every time we turn on the tap.