Peace Corps Volunteers - Chad, Africa
Swear In - December 2005

Catherine giving swear in speech in Arabic

Training vs Reality / fm Catherine to MOM

Catherine has been at her site at Pont Carol since Dec 4, 2005. Two weeks and already counting the days. She has little or no phone contact where she is. She was able to text me and said to call - RIGHT NOW! So I tried for about an hour and a half and gave up. She did finally text me and said she was OK and signal was very weak. I later found out she would go to the tallest rock she could find and turn and turn until she could get a bar on her phone. I told her I wanted a picture of that! HA Evidently she can text me, but couldn't receive my text or calls. She did go and visit some PC friends this past weekend Dec 16-17 because her school had already gone on strike and she had no class. Seems they go on strike regularly, I am not sure if they do that when they don't get paid or what. Anyway, she was able to call me from Lere ?? She said all of her intensive training had done very little to prepare for the complete isolation and lack of direction she felt. She was very down, another PC volunteer in Chad had already quit, #2. But by the end of the conversation, very long bye the way of calling card, she and I both felt better. I was able to talk with her several times on Saturday and I feel she will find her niche and be and effective in her village. She was going to go to the capital, N'Djamena for Christmas to meet up with some of the other PC volunteers that are stationed in the North. She says she is cooking for herself, one of the few things to break the monotony of the day and, and doing her own laundry. She mentioned that she has an audience at all times, comprised of the local children. Thoughts of military coup don't seem so bad right now, considering it would maybe involve evacuation of PCV's to anywhere else (some of the volunteers in the East have been moved already). I had to laugh at that one. She doesn't have a gouon?? yet, a person to help her bargain and introduce her to the vendors at the local market. Evidently this is common and much needed for a Nazara, foreigner. She has said that she probably has the nicest house that she has seen, it seems to stay cool in the afternoon, but she hasn't bought much furniture yet. So it will take some time to make it home. So copy your pictures and send to her to decorate with. I have a new address for letters only. :

PCV Catherine Cole
S/C Aaron and Emily Holmes
B.P. 11
Kelo, Tchad
Africa
AIR MAIL / PAR AVION

She will be able to get letters sooner, using this address, but packages need to be sent to her address in N'Djamena still, due to payments required, and customs is dealt with directly by the Peace Corps attache. I will update this site as I receive new information, so stay tuned. - Catherine's mom

And so it must be....

....that I sign off for a while. We swear in as Volunteers tomorrow morning, 9am sharp, Ambassador's residence. We leave Monday morning for site and I'm afraid it will be a loooooong time before I will be able to get to a computer again (like 4-6 months, but maybe I'll get lucky...you never know). BUT, still keep checking in now and then for updates posted by the mom. I shall miss technology.

As for Thanksgiving, it was a smashing success! It was the best group activity we've been able to bring ourselves to do yet. We cooked all morning and into the afternoon with Christmas background music (courtesy of moi) and had a huge feast and celebration to mark our last full day in Darda. The food was plentiful and delicious, and I am not exagerating when I say that the asparagus casserole and pecan pie kicked all the other dish's ASSES. Ask anyone. So it was a nice little group bonding experience to mark the beginning of the end of training. Good day.

As for site and communication stuff: I don't think I have cell reception but I may get it at any time. For now, however, I will have to go 7 miles outside of town or some crap like that to get a bar. We only have mail runs once every 6 weeks (meaning I can neither recieve nor send letters except for once every six weeks, which absolutely sucks). They are, however, trying to change that to make the mail runs once a month, which would actually make a huge difference regarding my sanity, so continue to write so that when I DO finally get all your letters it will be like Christmas all over again! I may try to see if I can rent a P.O. Box in Kelo so that I could receive letters a bit more regularly (which I will post the address here if that should happen), but it would be wise to continue sending letters and especially packages to the N'Djamena address. I will be in Kelo for Christmas and will have cell reception then, so that will be good, but then it's off to site for another 2 months before I'm allowed to travel anywhere again.

By the time of my next posting I should be well engulfed in being an English teacher in Chad and will have been at site for such a long time that I should be able to consider myself a seasoned foreign veteran with many many stories to tell. But until that time I will have PLENTY of letter-writing time, so for those of you who are wondering where the hell your letters are, they're comin'. Keep up the communication and support for me, I'll need it. I'm entering into the abyss....

I want to wish everyone a very early Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love to all, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Peace Out.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And Happy Holidays to all. Although it never got extremely cold or snowy or anything like that around the holiday season in Louisiana, it's at least cool some days and even maybe a bit dreary-feeling. It's not like here: hot, bright, never a cloud in the sky. I'm finding it somewhat difficult to believe it's Thanksgiving today based solely on the weather. I've never had a 90 degree Thanksgiving, not even in Louisiana. But hey, later there's some pool time, so at least I can continue with the tan.

I gave my first test to a classroom of Chadian girls today. It was, mmmmmmm, interesting. Chadian students, it would seem, can't NOT cheat. It's like a genetic thing or something. Despite all my warnings (in French, mind you) and despite all my pleas for honesty and despite my all-out threats on their lives as the hour wore on, yup, they still cheated. I told them right off the bat that if I caught anyone cheating in any way shape or form I would deduct 3 points from their grade and 5 points thereafter for all subsequent infractions. Keep in mind that Chadian schools are based on French schools in all aspects, including grading, so the highest mark a student can receive is a 20. A 10 is a passing grade. Students rarely make 5's and 6's, even with cheating. So as I circled the classroom, eyeing each and every individual student as if I were scanning their bio-readings instead of merely searching for cheaters, I came across my first conquest. I told her to hand me her paper so that I could deduct the appropriate number of points. Somewhat to my surprise, I essentially had to rip the damn paper from her death grip and be the hated nassara English teacher, all while the student is pleading with the utmost sincerety in her voice, "NOOOOOOOOOO Madame!!" What can I say? They gotta learn and examples have to be made. All in all I'd say I made a miserable day for several of them. Oh well, they'll get over it. Besides, the last day of Model School is tomorrow anyway, but jeez test days are going to be S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L.

And I cannot WAIT for it to be over. A typical model school day goes a little something like this: 5am: rise and shine, 530: depart Darda for N'Djamena, 700: arrive at Lycee Feminin, 715-whenever: classes, 1230: head promptly to PC bureau to work on the computers or to the Ambassador's residence or the Marine house to work on tan, 1500: depart N'Djamena, 1700: arrive in Darda, 1900: dinner, 2000: pass out due to exhaustion. It's pathetic, I tell you, but like I said, it's all over tomorrow.

But, how's THIS for FATE: in the grand tradition of Thanksgiving dinners, it is always pertinent to have an asparagus casserole courtesy of the mom for those delectable and tasty delights for Thanksgiving. This year I nearly thought that is was not to be. The mom had sent a Thanksgiving package complete with ingrediants for pecan pie as well as, oh yes, asparagus casserole, but as the days wore on I was certain that the package would not arrive in time. To my total delight, I received the much anticipated package yesterday. The timing could not have been ANY better. So I jumped and yelled for joy at the site of canned asparagus and pecans upon opening the box that had come in the mail. A fellow trainee said it best when she said, "Just the idea that we're talking about having asparagus casserole and pecan pie and knowing that it can now actually happen is amazing!" Therefore, my fellow trainees have proclaimed July 13th (Mom's birthday) as the Mother of Catherine Day, or Phyllis Day. And speaking of FATE, here's another shining example of something that happened yesterday: Also included in the Thanksgiving package (thanks, Mom, it was awesome) were some flour tortillas, Mmmmmm. Now perhaps this may sound odd to some of you out there reading this, but what did we have for dinner last night that we had NEVER had before throughout our entire staging? Rice and beans!! So, I got my flour tortillas, another kid got his taco seasoning, and another girl got her Taco Bell sauce packets that she had packed away and we had a makeshift Mexican feast. Yesterday was a very good day. It's the small things, ya know....

So yes, I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful beginning to the holiday season. I warned everyone here to not hang out with me come later tonight because beginning after dinner it's all Christmas music all the time for the next month!! I may be hated by the time Christmas actually rolls around, but hey, I'll be by myself for most of that time anyways with no one to torture. So eat a lot for me, enjoy the parade, watch some futball, and, most importantly, eat some asparagus casserole and some pecan pie knowing that I will be thankful for being able to do the same.

Love to all,
Happy Thanksgiving.

And Then There Were 19....

....soon-to-be Peace Corps Chad Volunteers. One of our fellow trainees has decided to opt out of Peace Corps Chad for personal reasons. We will miss him, BUT I now think I know where I will be living: Pont Carol, Chad, Africa. Pont Carol is about 50k east of Pala, and not too far west of Kelo, so it's not far from where I was supposed to have lived to begin with (but don't try to find it on a map, because it's not there, but it's just north of some national forest on the main road from Kelo to Pala). On our way out to site visit we passed through Pont Carol (on the way to Pala) to dispose of the parting trainee. I was able to meet his family (unbenownst at the time that they would wind up being my family) and saw his house (which is now my house, I guess), so that was good. The family seems like a pretty progressive family. The mother is a respected woman of the community and the father does a lot of work with HIV/AIDS education, which could be good for me in the way of finding a secondary project. The house that I presume I will be living in was, I thought, one of the nicer houses (remember we're talking Chadian housing standards, so by no means a penthouse, but nice, nonetheless). It's brand new and was built for a Volunteer to live there. It might even have lights eventually, which will be nice. The only bummers: well water access (meaning it's not the clearet water you can find), and there isn't cell phone coverage in Pont Carol just yet. I've heard that coverage is supposed to come sometime eventually, but there's no set timetable so no one really knows. I don't really have any details about the school or which grades I will be teaching, but I do know that the "classrooms" aren't in buildings. They are outside under hangars, that is, thatched roofs only held up by poles, no walls or doors, which may be nice during the hot season (I'd prefer to not be trapped inside a sweltering building in 130 degree temperatures). So all in all, it sounds like not a bad deal. The village is a great deal smaller than Pala, but I am still considerably close to both Pala and Kelo (where I will be spending Christmas), and those two sites both have nice big markets. So that's that.

As for me, this is the last week of model school. It's been going pretty well and I would actually consider myself a relative natural at teaching English. My classes are about 80-90 students strong and I can actually keep them quiet and interested for classes that are 2 hours long. By Chadian educational standards, that's damn good.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and naturally I have to teach, but we've been invited to spend a small part of the afternoon with a woman who is second only to the American Ambassador in Chad for a pot luck meal. Not quite Mom's home-cooking, but I'll take what I can get. We have to leave her residence by 5pm, though, because it gets dark around 6 and they don't want us on the roads back to Darda for obvious reasons. She has a pool, however, so maybe I can continue with getting my base tan...in NOVEMBER. On Saturday our group has decided to attempt to cook up our own Thanksgiving dinner, African style. What's on the menu, you ask? Maybe wild quail (but if it involves killing and plucking them ourselves, there's no way...we are, after all, American, heh), shish kabobs, some kind of potato something or other, I'm praying for asparagus casserole (depending on whether or not the package my mom sent with the goods and the recipe to make it arrive in time), maybe some bad versions of some homemade pies made by people (us) who have never made anything from scratch, karkanji (which is a sort of punch/juice made from the flower petals of hibiscus...it's a nice deep red in color and does not look good on light-colored clothing), and for cranberry sauce we've conned the 'chef' of the kitchen at Darda to make us a guava compote tart-thingy (it's really good), and then probably skittles and m&m's for dessert. Should be interesting, to say the least. I'll let you all know how the first experiences with camp-style cooking for a full Thanksgiving dinner on a Saturday turns out.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving is the day that we leave Darda (sniff sniff) and move to N'Djamena for a week before swear-in. We are supposed to receive our settling-in allowances so that we can essentially hang out for a week and do the "shopping" for things that we will need for site. I am going to attempt to buy: a bed. A REAL bed, as big a bed as I can get with a COTON mattress and a real BEDFRAME. I'm somewhat excited about this and being able to sleep well for once, yes!! As it is now, I may as well be sleeping on the ground. Otherwise I will buy a genoun, which is a wire basket used to hold the charcoal for cooking, and some wash-basin sized buckets for laundry and washing and all that stuff. I should try to find a table and at least one chair, but I may wait until after I move in and just go to Kelo to get stuff like that. I already have tons of stuff that we will have to pile up on the cars for the move from N'Djamena to Pont Carol. Throw a bed and other things in the mix (times the other 18 people's stuff) and it makes for a large and heavy load.

We swear in at the US Ambassador's residence on Friday, December 2. I was chosen by our group to give a speech in Chadian Arabic (HA HA) during the ceremony, and another trainee was chosen to give a speech in French. We're all trying to coordinate outfits for the ceremony so that we can show some solidarity amongst the group (other groups have also done this in the past), so I think I will have a complete made, which is just and African-y outfit of a skirt and a top. Whatever, new clothes. Sometime around December 4th is when we leave for the real deal and begin our sejour as Volunteers.

Today marks 2 months in-country. It has FLOWN by. But from here it only gets more intense. I will be on my own for the first time since arriving in Chad. It's exciting, to say the least. I must peace out now, but I miss you all.

A la prochaine fois....

And then there were some pictures....

Somewhat Surprisingly....

...I haven't been scared at all (yet) since being in Chad. You'd maybe think that having Al-freaking Jazeera gendarmes pumping the muzzles of their AK-47's through the opening of the windows in the cars we travel in at our faces two times a day would scare us a little. Oddly, I've thus far felt totally safe. That isn't to say that I have not been acutely aware of what's been going on for the past few weeks in Chad (see the article Mom transcribed below in the previous post). It occurred to me that Peace Corps Chad is one posting of the PC that is probably on the brink, of what...who knows, no one is exactly sure. But as other PC country Volunteers go about their daily lives living in the nostalgia and exoticism of a foreign and underdeveloped nation, knowing full and well they have nothing drastic to worry about and that their two years of service will more than likely be completed with no disruptions, those of us in Chad are living on the edge of our seats knowing that at any moment we could be pulled out.

Our cars are stopped daily at multiple gendarme checkpoints. Sometimes we are forced to get out of the cars and flash our diplomatic passports or our US Embassy badges (God Bless those things, sheesh). The gendarmes are, to say the least, scary men with big guns and turbins. We are at a heightened state of alert here in good ole Chad, and apparently today they are testing the EAP (Emergency Action Plan), which is what would be activated in a time of civil unrest in order to efficiently culminate all Volunteers and staff in-country to several specific locations around the country, from which point we will be evacuated or sit tight, depending on the severity of the situation. Political instability in Chad is no joke, and this I am seeing first hand.

As my mom reported, the town where the 4 people were shot and killed is a town that we go through twice daily, and a town where there are a couple checkpoints. We saw them digging the graves for those 4 who were killed on Monday afternoon on our way back to Darda from N'Djamena, no lie, on the side of the road.

Although there is all this, rumors floating around, speculations flying as to how severe something that would happen could become (we've heard that nothing will happen ever so stop worrying about it, to, it will be the worst thing to ever happen in Chad, so be prepared) I have not been in fear for my safety. This could change at site, when I'm alone (I still don't know where that will be...) and I have to rely on taxi-brousses for transportation here and there and I do not have the luxary of traveling in cars with diplomatic plates and Chadian drivers who work for the US Government, but alas, we shall see. Presidential elections will supposedly be in January, and there's trouble with that, too. But despite all this, know that yes, I am safe, I feel safe, and my intuition is open and sky-high regarding sketchy situations in which I wouldn't want to find myself. It's extremely interesting here right now, in this l ittle corner of the underdeveloped world. Stay tuned....

(Reuters published a good article that kind of lays out what is going on with all the instability issues. Find it HERE. There is another article that you can read HERE.)

Some trouble in Chad

CNN.com reported 11/14/05
Insurgents Attack Chad Military Camps

(Catherine is traveling through this area twice a day to reach the capital for Model School training)

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) -- Dozens of suspected rebels attacked two military camps in Chad early Monday, triggering clashes with security forces in which at least four insurgents were killed, according to an official statement.

Four members of the security forces were wounded and at least 15 assailants were captured during the pre-dawn raids, according to the statement released by government spokesman Mourmadji Moussa Doumgor.

The government now has the situation under control, according to the statement.

One group of assailants attacked the military training camp of Koundoul, 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of the capital, N'djamena, in an effort to seize arms and ammunition. At least two insurgents were killed and four others captured during clashes with security forces.

A separate group attacked a National Guards' camp near the airport, also in an attempt to capture weapons with the help of some members of the force. At least two other assailants were killed and 11 others detained during the ensuing clashes with the elite Special Forces, according to the statement.

Investigations have begun to establish whether Monday's attacks are linked to a brewing rebellion, according to the statement.

Ok, Finally....

....a little computer time. How's it going everybody?? Allow me to take this moment to thank the following: JACKIE, I recieved the 3rd package of Times and US Weeklies today and I can only say that I'm the most popular girl in all of Chad because I was the first to know that Nick and Jessica had split (and that Stephen from Laguna Beach is dating Trashy Trischelle??), so thanks for those, I absolutely love them (oh, but wait, now it's Harper's instead of US Weekly...no matter, thanks!). The regularity is great, if you know what I mean, heh heh. Emily Cotter, got your card today, thank you!! CRAIG, mmmmmm yeah, you know already. MOM, Got another package yet again today and apparently there will be 2 tomorrow!!! Thank you for all the picture cards and the updates. I reeeeeally like reading about everything that's going on at home with everything (even if Mr. Shadow does suck). Just so you all know, there are letters in the mail and the Chrsitmas gift search has begun, although you may not get anything until next March, but whatever. So keep those letters comin'. They're much appreciated, I swear.

We are in N'Djamena for Model School for the next 3 weeks, so I may be able to get on a computer every now and then, which will be nice for updates. I'm teaching at an all girls high school. It's...interesting, yet TIRING. We're still staying in darda, but have to commute an hour each way back and forth to the capitalevery morning and afternoon (meaning that I have to get up at 5 to get there to start school at 7 to teach til 12:30 to come to the bureau and leave again at 3 to head back to Darda to eat, shower, prepare lesson plans, and pass out only to dot he whole thing over again the next day). But it's good experience, I guess. I totally feel for teachers now, especially those poor French women who came to teach me French in elementary school. I can now say that I relate oh so well.

As for everything else, and there is a lot to report and not nearly enough time to do it: No one in our group has ET'd yet (early terminated), but some of us are banking on a few who are starting to show signs of weakness. Damn, that just sounds awful, doesn't it? We swear in and officially become Volunteers on December 2, so that's cool. After that we will be permanently installed at our sites. As my mom reported (by the way, thanks for doing all that, Mammy), I don't have a site. Well I did, but then I was pulled out before I ever moved in, so naturally I'm the only one in our group who's semi-homeless come December, but PC staff people are out there this week trying to find me another site to replace Pala, which would've been a very cool place to live, but alas, didn't work out (to make a very long story very short: the family that I was to live with didn't want to host a volunteer, c'est tout). Soooo when I do get another site I'll be sure to let everyone know ASAP. I haven't been sick again except for minor colds, so that's good news, and we're getting ever closer to the end of training, which is even better news. So for all of you out there who are wondering what you can send me once I get to site, I have set up a small list of items that are chep/light and may be mailed easily in boxes or padded envelopes should you so choose to do so:

FOOD STUFF - Tony's, garlic powder, Nutella, Skittles (all kinds of candy welcome), crushed red pepper, cracked black pepper, other spices and spice packets, ground ginger, easy mac or ramen, instant drink mixes, dried fruits, BEEF JERKEY, and anything else instant!

OTHER STUFF - Hand sanitizer (like Purell), incenses or candles, friendship bracelet string (I have allt he boys in our group making them, so my supply is being depleted, HA!), pictures from home of anything/anyone/everything/everyone, deodorant (like Old Spice Active Fresh Scent ((it's the only kind that works and it smells like Craig!) )), new music and movies, good books (classic heavy readers welcomed), american money (heh), good pens (gel and ball point - they're hard to come by here), moisturizing lotions, and fragrant soaps (bar and liquid).

Just remeber, Christmas is coming up soon!! OK, there are now others waiting for the computer so I must run. But I love you all and miss you and wish I could hear SOMETHING from you all (e-mail, too, I'll get it eventually). But take care and know that I'm doing well!!

Peace out.