Evacuation

Well, our adventures for the past little while all began on an unsuspicious Saturday morning. We were just minding our business, getting ready for a shopping trip with a few friends to the local markets for some bargain shopping and haggling en Francais, when all of a sudden, about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to be picked up, Devin gets a call, and he has to go in to work for a radio check. Oh well. That shoots that activity. But, it was usually a short thing, so we thought maybe I could just either wait for him, or just go because there were some other girls coming with us who are fantastic with kids (and Josh and Claire LOVE them!), so it wouldn’t be so bad. So, we piled into the van to go, and Devin told them he had to go into work, and one of our friends said she wasn’t going to be able to go because she had to get some welcome kits ready because they were evacuating the US embassy in Chad…and everyone was scheduled to be there around 11am!!! I decided that helping make welcome kits for families would be a lot more fun and worth my time than doing more shopping, so I offered to stay behind and help, too. So, the kids and I, and another family, helped get some things ready for our ‘refugee’ friends! J We were actually pretty excited, because some friends of ours (whom Devin trained with) are in Chad, and so we would probably see them! And they were looking for someone who spoke SPANISH of all things, to help welcome a lady who spoke almost no English! Yea!!! I’m useful!!! So, after the flurry of excitement getting things ready to welcome them, I dropped the kids off at home with a great babysitter, and we went over to the local hotel to welcome all these poor people. They evacuated the families of the employees of the embassy, so we welcomed a lot of women and confused children. It was crazy. I’ve heard two different versions of what happened in Chad—one: The uncle/cousin of the president of Chad came up to the president and said, “Hey, let’s share power!” And when the president said that he thought that was not such a fun idea, the uncle/cousin raised up rebels and attacked the palace and let out all the prisoners from the prisons and looted all the houses and bombed things and killed a lot of people. The other version I heard (which I think is actually the true one…but still not sure) was that a rebel from the last uprising became the minister of defense of the current president of Chad…and for some reason, the president started to suspect the defense guy of being rebellious again, so he (the president) tried to poison the defense guy! Well, the defense guy didn’t really appreciate that very much, so he ran away back to the rebels, only this time he was well armed—because being the defense minister, he now knew all the presidents top secret info, and knew how to get through all the chinks and loopholes!! Yikes!! So, the rebels raised themselves up and attacked the palace and let out all the prisoners from the prisons and looted all the houses and bombed things and killed a lot of people. Either way, they did a LOT of damage. So, when this all started, they began evacuating people and sending them here. No one knows exactly why they sent them here—probably because this is one of the safest countries in Africa, and it just happens to be next door to them. By the time they decided to evacuate everyone else that they’d left behind, they had to be a bit more sneaky about it (covert would be the word) and they had a time of getting them out!!! Whew!! But, they are all here…I think even the ambassador is here finally (which will make his wife and baby happy, I’m sure!!)—but most if not all of them have lost pretty much everything they own. Their homes have been looted—and here in Africa, if there is an open house, there will be nothing, and I mean NOTHING left in it!!—some of the homes have been smashed in, even! The embassy has holes in it…who knows what will happen now. No one is quite sure as to what they’ll be doing now. There are rumors that they’ll be sent back to reclaim and rebuild, but we don’t think they’ll send everyone back. Where will they live? So, everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what they’ll do! :/ Incidentally, the friends that I mentioned earlier are staying here with us! It’s so nice to have the extra room all furnished and ready at a moments’ notice. So, they have a nice cozy house, with a housekeeper to wash the only two pairs of pants and shirts they have left in the world, and someone to make food for them—and I have a purpose! J it’s always nice to be needed. We’re having a playgroup tomorrow here at our house, and we’ll probably have all the kids that were evacuated over here, so we might have quite the group here in the morning…and since I’m the hostess of the playgroup event, I’m in charge of providing snacks!! Oh boy. So, I think we’re going to have popcorn, blueberry muffins, and homemade ice cream! Ha! (This was mostly Josh’s idea…) Thankfully, it’s pretty much ALWAYS a nice beautiful day outside, so they’ll all eat outside. We were going to have watermelon, too, but when I went to the store, they were all out. That happens. You never really know what you’ll find when you go to the store. They didn’t have any carrots, either. BUT, across the street from the grocery ‘store’ I looked up in the sky and thought I saw flocks and flocks of these huge black birds…but, no, they weren’t birds at all—they were HUGE African BATS!!!!!! These things were monstrous!!! I remember seeing bats in St. George, and even in Idaho sometimes…but those things were these little teeny tiny scrawny things…like a mouse! So, an Idaho/Utah bat is to a mouse, as an African bat is to a CAT!!!! I couldn’t believe it! I just stood there gaping like an idiot!

Anyway, things are starting to calm down a bit more here. We are really starting to enjoy it. I’ve gotten over many of my initial fears of being here, and am feeling much less paralyzed! Ha!! I actually walked to the embassy the other day!! It’s a really nice walk. I think I should do it more often. I think that the evacuation of Chad, and hearing all the stories of what it’s like up there, has made me feel much more comfortable here. And maybe, just maybe, someday we’ll get our shipment and have our things again! :P

Here are a few pictures...one of a happy Andrew...and I'll try to post a video of us after a funny shopping trip last friday when we went to a 'museum' (which was really really tiny and the kids kept trying to shove over the wooden statues!)