Chad, Africa

Blogs

Chad blogs from TravelBlog.org.

Encyclopedic Information

Chad country profile from the BBC.
Chad information from Yahoo! encyclopedia.
WolframAlpha data about Chad.

Government

Embassy of Chad in the U.S. French and English. "There are two seasons in Chad: rainy season and dry season, the names being obvious as to what the seasons mean. Summer in the northern hemisphere is the big rainy season in Chad; winter is the small rainy season. Spring is the very hot season, autumn the short one. Lots of rain means cool weather; no rain makes it up to 104 degrees Farenheit even in the shade.
The beauty of this part of Chad (from Lake Chad northward) is the desert landscape. As you head further north into the Sahara, trees become more and more rare. I find it beautiful to see a tree growing in the middle of nowhere, because it has a taproot to some small amount of moisture underground. Trees are very important here, for their shade helps people escape the hot sun. The mountains are another beauty of Chad, some rising up very suddenly in the midst of a flat landscape, sometimes at nearly 45 degree angles-like a rocky skyscraper in the Sahara.

Chadians are very friendly people, known for their bravery and courage. Many Chadians are Animist, but some are Muslim and others are Christian. Animists worship the gods of the river, sky, moon, sun, mountains, and offer animal sacrifices when one of the spirits gets angry and causes disease or calamity to appease them.

I will try to describe a typical day in the life of a Chadian child. As the sun comes up, around 6 AM, mama gets up to sweep the concession and start the fire to cook breakfast. She takes millet paste from last night�s meal, and mixes it with milk to make a breakfast cereal. Everyone starts to stir from their huts at the smell of the smoke from the fire.

The children eat hurriedly to get to school on time. They will walk to the school and back; no buses or transportation here. The school is a one or two-room rectangular building made of clay walls and a tin roof. Children of all ages are grouped together; the one teacher uses the schoolhouse method to teach the kids: as he teaches one group, the other group is working on an assignment. During recess, the kids play together and socialize.

When the kids get home from school, they help their parents with the younger children, the cooking and the housework. They rarely have any school homework, they are so busy helping maman (Arabic=ammi) and papa (Arabic=abbi). When the sun sets around 6 PM, they are eating millet paste and sauce, usually �in the dark� although their eyes are adjusted to the light of the moon and stars. One or two hours after the sun has set, they have probably gone to bed.

In describing a typical day in the life of a child in Chad, of course I am leaving out the things that make life exciting and pleasant. During the rainy season there are no classes during times when the children are helping their parents sow the millet seed and reap the harvest. Once in a while there are village dances, celebrations, hunts. Women in the neighborhood sometimes argue out loud right in the street, with everyone else listening in. Young people fall in love, children are born, older people die. I will leave it up to you to decide whether or not life here is the same or different from life where you live..."