Hotel John

Sunday rest day :) jour de repos (Yes Amsa my French is getting there lol) 

There is nothing planned for us today and our housekeeper who is 10 weeks pregnant needed some rest so we decide to go out for lunch. Our best friend Dr. Atti offered to accompany us to hotel John. This hotel is at about 10 minutes walk from the hospital. I was foolishly looking forward to a hotel that I'm used to. After our strole through the market we arrived at what looked like an abandoned building in urgent need of refurbishment. Walls which I presume were once white have a mud washed look (like all buildings here) dirty stains everywhere and trash at the entrance. (Yes dainty Natalie dies a little everyday here) there is no way I would enter such an establishment if I were in Belgium but it's pretty much the norm here. So I make a joke and enter. The courtyard seems to have been swept clean and there are a few vehicles parked so I assume there are guests. And yes in a room on the bottom floor I see 4 Europeans squatting over laundry basins. I wave at them and they enthusiastically reply with "bonjour"! Dr. Atti knows them and introduces us. All 4 of them are volunteers with an NGO 2 are Spanish and 2 are French. From what I understand is that 2 are engineers and came to work on bettering the water supply network and the 2 others are here to improve women's rights. Interestingly enough Dr. Atti and I were discussing this topic on our way over to the hotel. He was telling me he works for an organisation in his home country of Chad to combat the mistreatment of women. He told how some women are treated with no dignity or respect and face physical abuse on a daily. Some men don't allow their wives to eat proper food they would have to cook the best meals for the husband and could not eat from it. After everyone else has eaten the women could eat the scraps which are left over. If a woman talks to a man in a way he doesn't like the woman is faced with a violent beat down. He said he would report these men to the police in the hope they receive punishment. I have written a thesis about domestic violence in Belgium and the situation there is more clandestine. It is hidden from the public's eye but in Chad it seems like a cultural thing. Thank goodness for men like him who try to change the status quo.

Where was I? Oh yes we exchanged pleasantries with the other Europeans and made arrangements to meet with them one evening.

Looking around the compound it almost seems as if they are the only hotel guests here. Our hunger led us upstairs to the terrace, a large open space with some tables and chairs. The cool breeze up here is a welcomed friend as the temperatures were climbing to 33 degrees already and it was about 13u00.

Our royal highness king Seppe (That's how they nicknamed my colleague :) ) picked out a table for us and we were ready to order as our hunger was tormenting us. Ordering seemed a little complicated. Dr Atti whispered  to us that the head chef is not there today cause she's resting. The chef who's there can't cook very well he said. OOKAAYYYY then lol it took all my maturity not to burst out in laughter. How hilarious....I whispered back so Doc....what do we do now? I kinda liked the whole vibe, it likened to that scene in an action movie where the good guys are in the enemy's lair and they're discussing the strategy. He said well....uhum .....here it comes: we will bring your order to the chef's house and she will prepare it for you there. It's not far he said. Haha this is real service. Can you imagine let's go to chef's house on her free time lol we just kinda looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders and accepted things as they were. It was a pleasant afternoon and we had a lovely conversation while we waited and waited and waited....and waited. After approximately 2hours and 13 minutes and 54 seconds the first plate arrived. Yes! Hungry belly can tell time very accurately haha. Well we don't know exactly how long it was but it was loooong. The food was indeed worth the wait and we enjoyed every bit of it. Huge fried fish (Of which I don't know the origin I'm presuming the local fly infested fish stall at the market) with some spiced veggies over about a kilo of rice. Now my skinny self can eat a lot but this was a meal for 3 days. I just had to ask for a doggy bag!

Paying always poses a problem cause the bank only gave us 10 000 Franc notes (equivalent to 15 euro) and the shop owners never have change. They seem to be short on a lot of things. Earlier when we ordered drinks and Seppe and Karin both wanted a second sprite the lady who we had woken from her nap to serve us a second time (Yes they alwasy take naps during work) said she only had 1 more sprite. We paid about 30 euros for 5 huge meals and drinks included. What a steal! Food is very cheap here but for locals it's still unaffordable sometimes. A midwife here makes about 100 000 Francs a month depending on her years of service and other responsibilities. This is about 150 euro monthly.

 After lunch at about 16u we headed back to the hotel. That was the entertainment for the day. The area is extremely rural and there is not much besides of activities of daily living. It could pose an issue if it wasn't so interesting to interact with the locals and get to know them and their customs.

See you never again John! ;)

Time for our daily "repos". Talk to you later guys!