Day 3

Yesterday we piled onto a UN flight to Abeche, a small town in the east of Chad near the Sudanese border. We arrived in the morning – it’s evening now the following day. In that space of time, I’ve come to think of N’djamena as a luxurious metropolis.

The scene here is even more difficult to describe. We’re on the lip of the Sahara, so everything is dusty and crumbling. The roads are little more than wide tracks of sand, rutted from the passing of the rains. The buildings consist of stick and straw surrounded by compound walls of mud brick, and the chief mode of transport is donkey. (The more high-tech transport is donkey and cart, with the latter consisting of a flat plank with two wheels. How they balance that thing is beyond me.) Emaciated children play among goats in the streets, or peek from behind barbed-wire-capped walls and wave shyly at the vehicle convoys as we pass. (It’s too dangerous to travel on foot, and we are required to have at least two vehicles at a time.) Men with cloth wrapped about their heads and faces stare impassively at us, their robes barely concealing the Kalashnikovs that seem to be part of the local wardrobe.

The civilians aren’t the only ones packing heat. There are soldiers everywhere – Chadians, French, African Union. (The latter are part of the AMIS contingent, the African Union peacekeepers who have been deployed in neighbouring Darfur. As far as I can tell, all they do is lounge under trees and try not to get into ill-tempered altercations with the local Chadian soldiers.) The UNHCR security guy claims that even the women have long-bladed knives strapped to their arms under the sleeves of their burkhas. Hard to believe security guys, though – they’re in the business of trying to scare you into obedience. Oh, and let’s not forget the bugs; they have weapons of their own. Last night a “cantari” found its way into the liner of my sleeping bag. This little menace packs an abdomen full of acid that it lets fly whenever it’s annoyed. Last night it was annoyed with me three times in the space of one minute, which led to me bolting out to the showers to wash the horrible burning stuff off my skin. Good thing I had the presence of mind to do so – apparently these bugs can cause second and third degree burns. As it is I’m sporting some serious rashes.

That’s enough for now. There’s so much more to say, but not enough time to get it down – and certainly not to download it, which is a royal pain (sorry Spanks).