Official First Week

It’s officially one week today that we have been in Meskine. It seems amazingly longer than that! Right now I’m sitting at my dining table. All the curtains in the house are closed right now, because although it is only 88 this morning (a new low!), it feels like it’s 100 because of the humidity today. Cameroon is different than where we will be in Chad, because it’s a bit more tropical. The sun was pouring in when we woke up, meaning the alarm that was still to wake us up, was a bit useless. We rushed around the house closing up the curtains to block out the blazing sun, and started a pot of oatmeal. We haven’t yet found a good cold alternative to our normal breakfast choice. I suggested frozen oat pops, but Rob didn’t go for that. My house helper, Madeleine knocked on the front gate around 8:10am. We scurried around the house trying to find our clothes (to them, wearing shorts and a tank top is like walking around in our underwear.). We greeted each other, and she started on all the dishes from yesterday. A big help here, where we basically have to wash all of the dishes three times in order to sterilize them. Today she will also wash our laundry for me an cut up all the veggies for dinner. Usually people have the house helpers cook all their meals, but for now, I love cooking so much, I am just letting her prepare all the food and then I will cook it.

I’m sure it seems very weird to hear about having a helper in the house, but it’s actually very necessary here. The days before I had her, I spent the entire day either cooking, cleaning, sterilizing, disinfecting, etc. This left no time to actually do the work that we are here to do. This way, we are able to study our Arabic books, go to tutoring lessons and meet people in the village with whom we can speak Arabic. We are so thankful to have this help. It is also nice just to have someone around to talk to in the mornings and to teach us a few Fulfulde phrases that we can use with the village children and people we pass on the streets. “Jam Jam” is the new phrase that we learned today. It basically means both “how are you doing?” and “I’m doing fine”. (Similar to the French “ca va?”.).

So now, after giving all the instructions to Madeleine, we are preparing for the 30 minute walk over to the hospital compound. There we will send some email (and post this blog!), and meet Habiba, the Arabic language tutor. Then we will try to bum a ride home from someone so we can eat lunch before the heat of the day. We’re having shredded beef tacos! I made them last night, even the tortillas! Forget store bought, these things were yummy! We also made some great guacamole from the avocado that Jane bought us on Saturday. Well, off to work! Enjoy the AC for us!