Dana's Update

12/5/07

Hi Laura, Susan, Dave, and Marc,

Yes, we arrived safe and sound in Chad!  No extra charges for our heavier-than-the-planet-jupiter luggage.  Everthing arrived in good shape, even the hot dogs.  We helped Scott and Suz clean and set up the conferen cecenter today, and had enough time for a tour of the local market.  The flies on the meat at the meat market almost convinced me to become a vegetarian.  But when cooked properly, the beef was great!  N'Djamena is a fascinating city.  It's the capital of Chad, yet the roads (by our standards) are horrible--poorly paved if paved at all and full of pot holes that could consume a small elephant.  But no elephants--just goats and dogs around here (did see a couple of camels).  Traffic is crazy, a mixture of cars, horse carts, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, and no traffic laws.  Mud bricks are being made on every other corner, and there are people everywhere. The conference center is quite nice, with comfortable beds and a breeze coming through the screens.  Termperature was about 87 today, not bad at all. And it's a dry heat!, whatever that means!  But the ground is dry as well, so everything is sandy and dusty.  Just seems to be a way of life around here. The conference attendees come in to the center tomorrow and we begin the conference with an evening dinner.  My first talk is Friday morning.  Everyone is well and in good spirits.  Bought you each a gift at market today, and it doesn't even have any swarms of flies on it!  Can't wait to see me now, I'll bet.  Thanks for your prayers.

Dana