gaga

Gaga is not how I feel about Chad rather the name of the refugee camp that I was privileged to visit yesterday. I spent the day trying to capture everything but it was difficult to take it all in. A friend of mine is the country director of the Aid Organization CORD which is how I got to go. She was spending yesterday, March 8, at the camp for International Women’s Day.

The Gaga CORD staff, all Chadians and one refugee, had organized a day of speeches, singing, and small dramatic presentations. Each speaking to the rights of women. Girls are usually forced to marry at the age of 13, no longer being allowed to go to school and never having met the man before. I visited the school rooms that have been built at the camp, they’re simple. A blackboard, sand floor and cement walls.

Later in the afternoon a game of soccer, football around here, between the refugees and the Aid workers had been organized. The refugees won and they celebrated as though they’d won the World Cup. “Gaga foog, Gaga foog” (Gaga up, Gaga up), they chanted. It was amazing to see the sense of community that’s developed in the camp. During the soccer match I had the privilege of being the ref for the teenage girls volleyball game. A volleyball camp was conducted earlier on in the camp where the girls were given the opportunity to play a sport. Not very common!

We also visited the women who have started their own small businesses making bread, spaghetti, perfume, and toques and booties for children. I think these people have come a long way from their desperate situations in Darfur. Fifteen thousand refugees live in Gaga and 9 000 new refugees have poured into Chad in the last few weeks. This crisis has persisted since 2003 and it seems as though there may be no end in sight. Troops are supposedly moving into Sudan but reports from different sources give different information on their status.

As the day ended we drove out to the nearby CORD base to watch the most beautiful sunset. It was a picture perfect African savanna sunset although my picture of it doesn’t do it justice at all. I spent the evening with the Chadian staff and slept in a small concrete hut. I was exhausted though having been in the over 40 degree weathering sun all day and so I had my bucket bath, used the cockroach ridden squatty potty and soon after said good night. What an amazing experience!

I was thankful to not have a nosebleed yesterday as that has been a problem for the last week with the Harmatan winds bringing in more dust, if that’s possible, and the temperature rising. I’ve never had a nosebleed before this past week. Remarkably though it seems the cracks in my feet are starting to heal a bit.

From the African sun,
Vanessa