Life in Chad

I was talking to a friend this week and realized it's hard for people to imagine what day to day life in Chad is actually like. So I went through my pictures and did a little research to get some data to share with you guys.

First off, some numbers about the healthcare situation in Chad, taken from the Human Development Index compiled by the UN (click to see better):

I put together the top 10 countries and the bottom 10 countries. For easier comparison, I highlighted the United States and Chad. (All info can be found at http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi ) 

Some other interesting information gathered from the same index: 

Percentage of the population with some high school: 95% in the US  -- 5,5% in Chad

Percentage of the population with access to electricity: 100 % in the US -- 6,4% in Chad

Chad hasn't moved forward in time, and people still live as they did 2000 years ago. No, that's not a typo, I mean 2 thousand years ago. The men work the fields, the women gather wood to cook, fetch water from a well/river, take care of the children, cook, sell vegetables in the market. The meager 6,4% who have electricity, have their own gas fueled generator (like the hospital). There's absolutely no sanitation or waste disposal systems. What little trash they produce which is not biodegradable, they burn. 

Mode of transport of the RICH -- most people just walk

What the villages look like

A little closer

The houses are single rooms build from mud bricks and straw. The "kitchen" is in the center of the yard, where they build the fire to cook over. You might remember the story of Adamah (beware of the photos!) who had extensive 3rd degree burns over large portions of her body. This happens very frequently and I know of 4 people (2 adults, 2 children) who died due to burns from cooking fires. 

Carrying a ridiculous amount of wood on their heads

Cooking on burning wood

The school

If they want flour, they have to make it themselves, plant and reap the grains, let them dry, and then pound the heck out of them until it becomes flour. (The women do this, the man in the video was just showing off *because I was filming.*

The market in town

The pharmacy (yes, meds straight out in the sun with temperatures of up to 35-40 Celsius)

With the exception of the main highway which connects N'Djamena (the capital) with Moundou (the second largest city) there are no paved roads, and even the conditions of that highway would make you cry if you saw it. 

And lastly, a little view of the hospital where I worked the previous two times: 

The men's ward (there's an equivalent female ward)

The central yard where family and patients hang out

The OR

And below is the hospital I will be working at this time, which is different from the previous 2 times. It's a much bigger hospital with a little bit better infrastructure, even though it is *really* in the boonies instead of the city and it takes 7hrs on a bus plus 1hr in a moto-taxi through dirt roads to get there from the capital.

Traveling across Chad

After my arrival and first night in N'Djamena, I woke up at 5:30am and was out of the house by 6am, to get on the bus that would take me to Moundou and the "Centre Chirurgicale."

The bus ride takes 8hrs, and I admit, I slept through most of it. However, I did wake up enough times to have a glimpse of the countryside. It's monsoon season, so everything is of a bright green, luscious color. The dirt is very red. The sky is very blue. It might seem like a stupid description, but it is very beautiful and hard to describe. No billboards or ads anywhere, just dirt, vegetation, and every once in a while, little huts and villages. Just tiny little huts made of mud-bricks and thatched roofs. I will try to sneak some pictures, but foreigners are not allowed to take pictures in public without a permit from the government... 

I did snap one surreptitious picture out the window at one of the stops... ;) 

Anyway, I arrived at the clinic, took a quick (cold) shower, and jumped straight in. When I got to the wards, Dr. Scott was still busy with surgery, so I joined Bekki (Dr. Scott's wife) and Will (a physiotherapist who is also volunteering for 3 weeks) and did their rounds of physical therapy with the patients. Will doesn't speak French, so I started translating for him and thus interacting with the patients and getting to know more about their situation. Most are here for broken bones due to motorcycle accidents. Some have had open fractures FOR MONTHS before they get here, and at that point, infection has spread to the bone and it's very difficult to do anything... The pain threshhold of these people is incredible!! This one patient, we were trying to mobilize his knee, and I asked if it hurt. He said "yes" in a very calm, steady voice. So we continued to move his leg, focusing on the knee. Not a peep from him. Then I looked at his face, and he was literally rolling his eyes and sweating from the pain. They won't say a thing. They don't cry out and yell at you to stop. They trust that you, "the nasara doctor"* knows better... 

*Of course, I'm not a doctor (yet!), neither is Will or Bekki, but to them, it makes no difference. They trust us just the same... 

(Nasara=white)