zwieback

I’ve been busy! I think its a net positive although it means that I have not had the time or energy to update you all as much as you deserve.

When you last left your heroine, I was getting ready to leave on vacation for Christmas. I spent the first week in N’Djamena visiting my former host family, including my host brother’s adorably chubby 6-month old, catching up with a few friends, reading, and cooking as I had the time and energy. The highlight of my week was definitely acquiring a new skill: slaughtering a chicken. I have included a picture of the chickens last few moments below, but unfortunately my phone died right as I was getting to the blood and guts part. He had a brother who followed quickly after him, but again, no photos.

I can attest to the tastiness of them both.

Yes, I am standing on his wings and his feet (photo and chicken slaughtering instruction credit goes to Bénédicte)

Then, I spent a more restful week staying at a missionary guesthouse in a little village outside of Moundou. My colleague Jackson is living and working in Moundou this year, so I appreciated time to catch up with him and meet his host family. We spent a few afternoons together, but otherwise, I didn’t have too many other people to visit. Instead, I spent my time cooking, baking, and watching movies!

I have been missing the joys of an oven since I moved to Chad, but luckily, the guesthouse had both a gas stove and oven for me to use! I learned how to light the oven (and almost burned my eyebrows off) and realized that you can do a lot with it, even though it basically only has two temperature settings: on and off.

Over a couple of days, I made chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and even tried my hand at my mother’s recipe of zwieback and cinnamon rolls! Without a mixer, I was left with no choice but to knead the dough which left me sweaty but feeling accomplished. Everything turned out great except for perhaps the zwieback. Unfortunately, they were shy risers and when they did puff up like they were supposed to, the tops became unstuck and toppled over onto the pan. I was able to produce one single perfect zwieback, which was a triumph unto itself. You can be sure I took several pictures of that little guy.

Banana bread

Cinnamon rolls

The perfect zwieback

I traveled back to Gore on the January 5th and had a few days to re-organize everything before returning to work on the following Monday. However, when Monday rolled around, I left the office after lunch with a fever. Turns out, I was coming down with malaria.

Now, before you worry too much, know that people in Chad are constantly contracting and treating malaria. It is very routine and I had already brought a round of the treatment with me as a precaution. I can tell you that the first day of symptoms was not fun, but once I started on the medication, I improved rapidly. Even so, I flew back up to the capital to be closer to the MCC office and take it easy for a few days last week.

I am happy to say I have made a full recovery, I am sleeping a lot and drinking lots of water. I have also had some much-appreciated time again with my host family and my friends here in N’Djamena.

Bénédicte is the cousin of my host brother’s wife and she quickly became one of my closest friends.

In fact, I am still in the capital since it would take several days for me to travel back down to Gore and this Saturday, I fly to Kigali, Rwanda for two weeks! Some of you may have already been aware of this trip, but for those of you who aren’t, I will be attending a week-long training for Monitoring and Evaluation held by MCC. Following that, I will spend another week in the city to visit a few other SALTers and enjoy some more vacation. It feels like I just had time off, but this will be my only chance to get out of Chad for a bit. I am so grateful for the opportunity and I will try to keep you all posted as I travel!