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The first of a series of impressions and observations recorded by David Detert on his first trip to Chad earlier this year.
As we traveled in the countryside, we saw many small buildings, both round and rectangular, with straw thatch roofs, scattered along the road. Built of red, fired mud bricks, they were often clustered inside the wall of a compound, which contained several of these structures.
The land near Beladaja was flat, but with many trees and scrubby bushes, and some open fields where millet had been planted and harvested. The millet is pounded into flour by women using tall poles and the concave top of a tree stump. This is mixed with water, cooked over the fire, and served in rounded gourds to produce a hemispherical mass of gray, putty-like food called boule (French for "ball"). You reach your hand into the boule, pull out a chunk, dip it in the sauce surrounding some cooked chicken, and eat it with your fingers (no utensils or napkins).
In appreciation of our coming, the senior pastor and his people prepared boule and chicken for us to eat with them. Afterwards, they gave us a sack of small potatoes and two live chickens to take back to Village Altonodji.
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