Four days in Guereda

Once we had all mostly recovered from the bush taxi ride, Dawn gave us a short tour around the small town/large village that we may one day call home. First order of business: arrange a meeting with the sultan. Yes, I said sultan. The people of Guereda still have sultans as one of their governing heads (there is also the government-appointed prefect), and the sultan of Guereda is a rather respected person in Chad as his tribe is one of the more influential tribes politically. They are also at odds with the tribe of the current president, which has created some interesting problems, but now they are hopeful that the president is on their side. So, we met the Sultan briefly, and arranged a meeting for the next day. Next we moved on to see the hospital. Currently run by the International Medical Corps, it is in much better condition than I imagined, and actually has a decent capacity for treatment. The IMC has committed to staying until the end fo 2007, but after that we don't know, so who knows what will happen to the hospital.
Guereda street scene

As dusk began to fall we realized that Dawn was leading us towards a large house that had an abnormal amount of soldiers milling around outside. We exchanged looks of uncertainty with each other, and then looked quizzically at Dawn. She soon explained, oh, this is the house of the younger brother of the new defense minister (and former rebel group leader). Who would have thought...a sultan and a prominent rebel leader in the same day?! We enjoyed our visit with there and realized that God has clearly given Dawn favor in the eyes of these prominent men in the community.

One of the great things about Guereda is how cool it got at night. We found sleeping outside under the stars quite comfortable, and even chilly, and as it was dry season, mosquito-less! We even became accustomed to going to bed shortly after nightfall and awaking with the breaking of dawn and the crowing of Dawn's rooster in competition with another rooster down the road. Dawn has 2 great trees in her concession, and with the way her walls are built, her yard stays a comfortable temperature for about all but 6-8 hours out of the day. Not bad at all.
Dawn's courtyard: mat where we ate meals and entertained visitors, and the girls' beds

While in Guereda we got to take a tour of the market, meet some of Dawn's friends, watch her engaged in medical ministry, and the guys put a cement floor in her shower room. There's a few pictures included in the slideshow below.